Frank Lampard bemoans referee decision in Everton’s defeat to Newcastle United

Frank Lampard believes Everton should have been awarded a first half penalty in their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United. Eddie Howe’s side narrowly won the game as Miguel Almiron’s brilliant 31st-minute strike separated the two sides at St James’ Park.

However, Lampard bemoaned the decision not to penalise Dan Burn for a shove on Anthony Gordon inside of the area just before half-time. The Chelsea legend said: “My fear with that is everybody is looking at Anthony (Gordon) and rejecting any penalty straight away.

“If it’s a foul or a nudge in the back or a touch on the foot, for me that’s a penalty. I think VAR’s there to re-look. Clear and obvious, It’s a grey area we don’t need. It’s a penalty or it’s not and I felt it was a foul personally.”

The visitors edged the opening half-hour before Almiron opened the scoring. After the break, Lampard’s side applied plenty of pressure without really testing Nick Pope in the Magpies goal.

Lampard said: “The performance was OK, I thought it was a tightly contested game in general play. We weren’t clinical enough as we should have been considering how much we played through them.

“Against a good team, it was a close match in general play possession-wise. Disappointing that we didn’t have that more effect in the box as we could have drawn or won the game.

“The goal is sloppy from our point of view. It’s a transitional goal where we allow space on the edge of the box. It’s a quality goal but maybe there’s a decision that should have gone in our favour.