Eddie Howe has explained the decision not to appeal Anthony Gordon’s red card before the Carabao Cup final, while praising the winger’s reaction to his Wembley disappointment in the days after his Brighton dismissal.
Gordon was shown a straight red card after lashing out at Seagulls’ defender Jan Paul van Hecke last weekend, sending two straight arms into his face while attempting to give the defender an off the ball shove. The Newcastle attacker could have no complaints after the rash decision and was penalised with a three-game ban, subsequently ruling him out of the Carabao Cup final next weekend.
Howe last week admitted Newcastle would inspect the footage before deciding whether to appeal the decision, before ultimately opting not to risk a further ban for a battle they felt wasn’t winnable. “You have to look at it and go ‘does this have a chance of being successful?’ – if there’s no chance of being successful, what’s the point of appealing, so Anthony understands,” the Toon boss said this week.
However, Howe admits Gordon has been the model of professionalism after the incident, returning to training with the same attitude and application as ever. “I think for Anthony of course he was hugely disappointed on Sunday,” Howe told reporters on Friday morning.
“I think there’s that realisation once – because your emotions are in the game that you’re playing & it can’t be for the future – the game ends, you sort of realise what’s happened and the repercussions of that incident.
“So I’m sure Sunday night at home, or on Monday, he would have been feeling all the potential negative emotions of that. But I think he’s very quickly come back to us, trained really well, you wouldn’t know there’s a disappointment there.
“Huge respect to him for that, and he’s trying to help his teammates because now he knows his job is to train really well, be there as a support for his teammates and try and push us on to achieve something great in his absence.”
Gordon’s absence in the coming coincides with Sven Botman and Lewis Hall being struck down with knee and ankle injuries, respectively. As such, it has been a bruising few days on Tyneside – one that Howe admits has ‘not been his best’.
But the message to his current crop is clear: there are places up for grabs and this is your chance to shine. Gordon’s likely replacement on Newcastle’s left, Harvey Barnes, certainly falls into the category of fringe stars who need to grasp this opportunity.
“We’re going to miss the players that we’re going to lose and that’s a big disappointment – but it’s always someone else’s opportunity and we have to look at it that way,” Howe added. “Those players I know will be supporting us and and hopefully we can do really well.”
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