Newcastle United v Brighton & Hove Albion - Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round
Anthony Gordon will miss the Carabao Cup final (Photo: Getty)
Newcastle United have not appealed Anthony Gordon’s red card, meaning the England star will miss the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.
Gordon was sent off late on in Newcastle’s FA Cup defeat to Brighton last Sunday for pushing defender Jan Paul van Hecke in the head.
Referee Anthony Taylor had little choice but to show a straight red card and as a result the winger was slapped with a three-game ban that rules him out of Premier League clashes against West Ham and Brentford and most importantly the Carabao Cup final on March 16.
As ever, the Magpies had the option to appeal the sending off which could have reduced the suspension and allowed Gordon to play at Wembley.
Newcastle manager Howe suggested they would do just that following the Brighton defeat but during the week it was reported that Newcastle had opted against it.
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Howe confirmed this decision during his pre-match press conference ahead of the match at West Ham on Monday night.
The 47-year-old said: ‘We discussed it as a club, with the respected people that we need to discuss it with, the lawyers. We just felt that there probably wasn’t sufficient grounds.
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Gordon appeared to push Jan Paul van Hecke in the head (Photo: Getty)
‘There was no intention from Anthony. Without going into too much detail on the actual event itself, I think the player [Van Hecke] sort of bends down, and it makes the push look worse.
‘There’s no intention from him to hurt anybody. But you have to look at it and go, “does this have a chance of being successful?”.
‘If there’s no chance of being successful, what’s the point of appealing. Anthony understands.’
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Referee Anthony Taylor had little choice but to show Gordon a red card (Photo: Getty)
Newcastle have done well this season and – though underdogs against Liverpool – are full of hope that they can win their first major trophy for 70 years.
Their job has become much harder however as Howe will also be without Sven Botman and Lewis Hall after the left-back suffered a season-ending injury, but Alexander Isak is fit to play.
Gordon is enjoying another great campaign at St. James’ Park, recording nine goals and six assists across all competitions with Newcastle in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
Newcastle United v Brighton & Hove Albion - Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round
Eddie Howe has lost a number of key players ahead of the Carabao Cup final (Photo: Getty)
‘I think for Anthony of course he was hugely disappointed on Sunday,’ Howe added.
‘I think there’s that realisation once – because your emotions are in the game that you’re playing & it can’t be for the future – the game ends, you sort of realise what’s happened and the repercussions of that incident.
‘So I’m sure Sunday night at home, or on Monday, he would have been feeling all the potential negative emotions of that. But I think he’s very quickly come back to us, trained really well, you wouldn’t know there’s a disappointment there.
‘Huge respect to him for that, and he’s trying to help his teammates because now he knows his job is to train really well, be there as a support for his teammates and try and push us on to achieve something great in his absence.’
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