Newcastle to weigh up red card appeal with Anthony Gordon set to miss cup final

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe will consider an appeal against the red card that is set to cost Anthony Gordon a Carabao Cup final appearance.

England international Gordon was dismissed for violent conduct seven minutes from the end of normal time in Sunday’s 2-1 FA Cup fifth-round defeat by Brighton after catching Jan Paul van Hecke in the face as the pair tussled for the ball.

He now faces a three-match ban which will rule him out of the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool on March 16.

Asked if he reserved the right to appeal referee Anthony Taylor’s decision, Howe, who saw keeper Nick Pope miss the final of the same competition in 2023 because of a red card, said: “Of course. If we analyse the incident and feel there’s grounds for that, we will do without hesitation.”

Gordon’s red card, to the player’s astonishment, came after he thrust his hand into Van Hecke’s face as he attempted to surge past the Brighton defender.

Asked for his opinion of the incident, Howe said: “I’d need to see it, I can’t sit here and give an honest opinion to that until I’ve done the work that you’ve done and looked at it. But knowing the player, I know there’s no malice intended there.

“He plays hard – I want him to play hard, I want him to be competitive, but I don’t see an issue there at this moment.

“I think it would be very out of context with how he is generally, maybe a bit of frustration in the game that things weren’t going our way, but I’d say that’s not a common sight for me when Anthony plays.”

Newcastle looked to be on their way when Alexander Isak converted a 22nd-minute penalty awarded for Yankuba Minteh’s foul on Tino Livramento, although Minteh, who left St James’ Park for the south coast last summer, made amends with an equaliser a minute before the break.

In an eventful second half, Gordon’s dismissal was followed in stoppage time by that of Brighton defender Tariq Lamptey after he collected his second yellow card of the game.

Fabian Schar thought he had won it for the Magpies when he struck from the resulting free-kick, only for a VAR check to rule he was offside, but it was Brighton substitute Danny Welbeck who eventually settled the tie six minutes from the end of extra time.

Hurzeler said: “Not only the character, also the performance was quite impressive. Of course we had some setbacks during the game, but we reacted always in a very special way.

“We stayed very calm, we found a good balance between defensive stability and controlling the game in possession.

“Then we had, of course, some phases of the game where we had to suffer, but in the end, we did it in quite an impressive way. We always stayed together, we always found the right solution on the behaviour of Newcastle and therefore I’m really pleased with the character, but also the performance.”