Newcastle were on the receiving end of several shocking calls from referee Chris Kavanagh and his assistants, with VAR not in operation in the FA Cup.
Tammy Abraham's opener for Villa should have been chalked off for offside and Newcastle then had three penalty shouts turned down. Lucas Digne was also lucky to get away with just a yellow card after a late and high challenge on Jacob Murphy.
But the worst decision of the lot came when Kavanagh awarded Newcastle a free-kick instead of a penalty for Digne's handball, despite the fact the Villa defender was clearly inside the box.
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After the game, pundit Wayne Rooney said: "That decision is one of the worst decisions I have ever seen in football because at no stage was Digne out of the penalty box. He is three or four yards inside.
"The linesman is just in front of it and you can clearly see how much he is in the penalty box.
"The referee looked like he blew and looked like he was listening to someone in his ear, so I'm assuming the linesman gave the decision, and it's an absolute shocker."
When it was put to Howe that the referee and his assistant had no excuses for not seeing Digne was inside the box, he said: "Are you trying to get me in trouble? Of course, I felt the same at that moment but once the decision has been made and there is no coming back, there is nothing you can do and you have to recover quite quickly.
"There seemed be the decisions throughout the first half where i was debating the referee's decision and that's not me. I don't do that, but I had to say something because there were so many going against us."
He added: "It was certainly a tough first half for us. Obviously we have the benefit of replays on the bench and you could see what was right and wrong. We felt really aggrieved in that first period that every decision seemed to be going against us. But the officials don't make any decisions on purpose. It's what they think at the time. But without VAR I thought there was a lot of errors today."
Howe says he's "torn" on VAR.
"I think the game is better without it in terms of excitement and as a spectacle for the supporters and for us living the moment live," said Newcastle's boss.
"But it does give accurate results and makes the game more concise in terms of decision making.
"Those moments you have to respect, they're worth their wait in gold, especially for us today when we're on the wrong side of it. I'm still very much torn on it.
"I'm always torn on VAR because i love the raw emotion when a goal goes in and you don't see a flag or hear a whistle and you know the goal is going to stand and nobody can take it away from you.
"That joy you get in that moment, I love. But on the other side of that, I was wishing there was VAR for the goal they scored against us and probably throughout the entire game."