The ‘bad’ Newcastle United v Liverpool incident that left Allan Saint-Maximin ‘sad’

Newcastle United star Allan Saint-Maximin revealed his sadness at seeing Nick Pope receive a red card that rules him out of next Sunday’s Carabao Cup final with Manchester United.

Pope was shown a straight red card by referee Anthony Taylor in the 22nd minute of the Magpies’ 2-0 defeat to Liverpool yesterday. The 30-year-old misjudged the flight of Alisson’s long ball to Mohammed Salah and was penalised for a handball.

The England goalkeeper has featured in all but one of United’s fixtures this season, and recently went 10 games without conceding.

“It’s a very bad day,” Saint-Maximin said. “I feel sad for Nick Pope because he tried to help the team. It’s a bad red card for the team because he won’t be able to play the [Carabao] Cup final. He helped us to be in that situation, so we need to support him and get behind him as a team.

Newcastle trailed 2-0 when Pope was red carded following goals from Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.

Saint-Maximin was awarded the man of the match award for his efforts in trying to get the 10 man Magpies back in the game at St James’ Park.

“I think we played very well,” the Frenchman added. “We had the first chance with Miggy [Almiron] and after that they scored straight away.

“It was painful, but we just kept going to try to create more chances. Even with 10 men, we kept playing very well. We still had many chances, so I think it’s very positive to see how we can play with 10 men.

“Even though Liverpool aren’t in the top positions at the moment, they’re still a great team. They showed that today. I think we need to be focused for the cup game, but I’m very disappointed about this game. It’s always important to win before an important game.

“The real positive is that even with 10 men – they’re still playing in the Champions League – we played very well and created so many chances to come back. We can be very proud of that, because I know many teams in that situation wouldn’t create the chances we created.”