Andy Townsend: Anthony Gordon was looking for a penalty in Everton loss to Newcastle
Andy Townsend believes Anthony Gordon was looking for a penalty for Everton in the Toffees’ 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United.
The 21-year-old went down in the 43rd minute after a challenge from Dan Burn but was not awarded a penalty by referee Tony Harrington.
Newcastle’s players were less than impressed and Townsend felt they were accusing the Everton man of “cheating” in order to win a soft penalty.
Talking on Amazon Prime’s coverage of the game (20:14, 19 October), Townsend said: “He’s just got to calm down, Anthony Gordon. He doesn’t like the insinuation of Newcastle players accusing him of cheating and diving.
“This is where he just has to keep his cool. It didn’t look like there was a tremendous amount of contact. He’s always looking for that and it was after he hit the floor that one or two got involved.”
There was contact
It’s an incident where there was minimal contact from Burn which Gordon has looked to take advantage of. It certainly wasn’t a blatant dive by the 21-year-old but was unlikely to get the Toffees a penalty.
Everton can’t be relying on soft decisions being awarded in their favour for them to muster any sort of attacking threat. The performance at St James’ Park was toothless and insipid at times. It’s all well and good being defensively stable, but when that isn’t working, it can be a really tough watch.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin was ineffectual, Gordon was stifled by the Magpies’ defence, and Demarai Gray had a couple of positive moments. It’s simply not enough for Frank Lampard’s men. Newcastle are an excellent side nowadays and there is that Caveat, but it was still all too easy for Howe’s men.
With Crystal Palace, Fulham, Bournemouth and Leicester to come it’s a crucial period to determine whether the Toffees could have another relegation battle on their hands.