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Souness and Keane react to Newcastle’s Sean Longstaff red card

Jordan Harris

Sun 27 October 2019 16:45, UK

Graeme Souness has told of Newcastle United’s draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers (broadcast on 28/10; 16:03) that Sean Longstaff was unlucky to be sent off during the second-half, but Roy Keane suggested that the decision was right. 

Newcastle moved a point clear of the bottom three in the Premier League with the 1-1 draw. The Magpies had taken the lead through Jamaal Lascelles. But the second-half saw Wolves bag an equaliser through Jonny.

And Steve Bruce’s men had to play the final eight minutes without Longstaff. The youngster was shown a red card after sliding in on Ruben Neves.

It was clearly not a nasty challenge from Longstaff. But his leg did catch the Portuguese after seemingly bouncing up after he had initially hit the turf.

And Souness expressed some sympathy for the Newcastle midfielder, before Keane insisted that the official made the right call by dismissing the 21-year-old.

“I think he’s a wee bit unlucky here. He goes to ground early. He doesn’t get a lot of the ball which might be a bit of a problem. Leaves his foot there to dangle,” .

“No, not really,” Keane said, when asked whether he could have any complaints. “And you can always tell by a player’s reaction. The kid himself knows. If you see when the card comes out, there’s no real complaints. He’s slightly unlucky, but he’s not really in control.”

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It will be a relief to Longstaff that Newcastle saw the game out. It would have been incredibly tough on the youngster had Wolves subsequently found a winner.

There were few doubts about the referee’s decision. But it was a clumsy challenge from a young player who is still yet to make 20 Premier League appearances. It was not malicious, and Longstaff looks to be the kind of character who will be desperate to make amends at the next opportunity.