Keith Hackett blasts Chris Kavanagh after Djed Spence incident in Newcastle vs Tottenham – ‘Really poor’
Tottenham had their Carabao Cup dream ended by Newcastle United in a 2-0 defeat on Wednesday night.
The North Londoners continued their woeful recent record at St James’ Park, as they slipped to a fourth straight defeat on Tyneside in all competitions.
Lucas Bergvall was the shining light for Tottenham in the defeat, but his creativity was ultimately unable to haul his time back into the tie after goals from Fabian Schar and Nick Woltemade gave the hosts a commanding lead.
Thomas Frank’s side will feel hard done by after a key decision went against them during the game, and it has now become clear that their protests may have been justified.
Tottenham right to be frustrated by Newcastle’s first goal
Micky van de Ven profited from Tottenham’s set pieces in their win at Everton last weekend, but this time, dead-ball situations were the Lilywhites’ undoing.
They failed to properly organise themselves from Sandro Tonali’s 24th-minute corner, and they were made to pay as Schar planted a header into the bottom corner of Antonin Kinsky’s net.
Nevertheless, there were plenty of protests from the visitors after Djed Spence wasn’t allowed to get back into position by referee Chris Kavanagh, who had delayed the taking of the corner to let the defender put his boot back on.
Ex-PGMOL chief Keith Hackett – speaking exclusively to Tottenham News – believes that Kavanagh lost concentration while the set piece was being set up, and was wrong to allow the ball to be delivered so quickly.
“This really is poor officiating from Kavanagh,” Hackett said.
“He has allowed the stoppage in the game to allow Spence to tie his lace. Good practice is then to restart the game once Spence is in position. I feel that this might be a loss of concentration by Kavanagh to allow this to happen.”
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Spurs should have defended the set piece better
Frank has had Tottenham extremely well-organised so far this season, but they let themselves down with their lapse in concentration on this occasion.
They failed to adequately cover Spence’s role in the centre of the box while the full-back was stood out adjusting his boot near the corner flag, and they ultimately paid the price for that as the ball came in.
Granted, they were without arguably their strongest header of the ball in Van de Ven, but it was still defending that left a lot to be desired for a Premier League side.
Their frustration at the referee is definitely justified, but the Lilywhites should be looking a little closer to home when it comes to laying the blame.
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