Saturday 27 December 2014 10:47, UK
Alan Pardew was left to lament Newcastle's early wastefulness as they fell to a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United on Boxing Day.
Daryl Janmaat and Ayoze Perez both had decent chances for the visitors in the first half, but failed to capitalise and were made to pay as Wayne Rooney scored twice from midfield before setting up Robin van Persie.
The Magpies did find the net on 87 minutes when Papiss Cisse scored from the spot following Phil Jones' foul on Jack Colback, but Pardew was also cross that Newcastle were not given a first-half penalty when Juan Mata appeared to clip Yoan Gouffran's heels.
"The referee has got a bad call very wrong," he said.
"I think that was a penalty. I think Mata's run across the back of a player who is going to head the ball across goal. That's a goalscoring opportunity. It was clumsy and that was a penalty."
Pardew, who has overseen four straight defeats, admitted Newcastle were not good enough to stop United's attacking quartet of Rooney, Van Persie, Mata and Falcao.
"We need to defend better than we did today. Today we were a little bit loose," he said.
