Newcastle United right back DeAndre Yedlin has claimed that he slipped when giving away the decisive penalty against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The United States of America international took the legs out from under Eagles attacker Wilfried Zaha, allowing Luka Milivojevic to convert the resultant spot-kick and give the visitors a 1-0 win at St James’ Park.
Yedlin gave his verdict on the incident that saw Palace awarded a penalty and revealed his frustration in the process.
He said: “I just tried to get back and I slipped,” he told the Shields Gazette. “I caught him. It wasn’t the result we wanted.
“It’s frustrating, but it seems to always go that way – so close, but yet so far. The team has good character, and I’ve no doubt that we’ll bounce back from this.”
OPINION
Ultimately you have to take the player’s word in situations like this, but it certainly didn’t look like Yedlin slipped. Watching the incident, it appeared that Zaha was just too quick for the American and that his cut back inside took him by surprise. The Newcastle man didn’t have time to get his feet out of the way and he caught Zaha as the Palace man moved to come inside. It seemed like a classic example of the attacker being quicker, physically and mentally, than the defender, earning his team a penalty as a result. However, Yedlin seems to think that he slipped. Perhaps he did. He would obviously know what happened better than anyone else, but this does have the air of someone making excuses for a mistake that cost Newcastle the game on Saturday. Still, hopefully he learns from this and is a bit more cautious when something like this happens next time.
