Marco Silva bemoans decision to allow Newcastle goals to stand in Fulham’s FA Cup defeat
Fulham head coach Marco Silva felt that neither of Newcastle’s goals should have been allowed to stand in Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup fourth round defeat.
Newcastle’s opener towards the end of the first half saw the ball strike Bruno Guimaraes on the arm before Sean Longstaff turned home, and Silva believed the corner from which Dan Burn scored in the second half should have been given as a goal-kick by referee Jarred Gillett.
Current FA laws state that goals should only be disallowed if the ball accidentally strikes the arm of the player who scores, not if the handball occurs in the build-up to a goal.
“They scored with a handball and that is not something I can control,” said Silva. “For me, it is handball. The decision from the referee was not in that direction.
“Clearly we have to do much better in both situations. When you are punished by these mistakes it’s our fault.”
Silva’s frustration was only added to by his side’s inability to take their chances in a game in which they had 14 shots but only found the target twice.
The Whites conceded in each half, with Kenny Tete and Bobby De Cordova-Reid getting in each other’s way to allow Longstaff to score before Sven Botman was allowed a free header in the lead up to Burn’s goal.
The defeat means they bowed out of the FA Cup just four days after their EFL Cup adventure came to an end against Liverpool just one match short of a trip to Wembley.
“The stats show that we were the dominant team on the pitch,” said Silva.
“We started on the front foot and were the team that were always closer to creating chances and scoring goals.
“Football is not just about that. We have to be ruthless to put the ball in the net.
“We probably deserved much more than we got. But the reality is that we lost, and we are not in the next round because of the mistakes that we made.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
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