• Premier League

Pardew accepts Coloccini dismissal

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was not willing to criticise referee Anthony Taylor after his side's 1-1 draw at Liverpool.

United were denied all three points when Luis Suarez's well-taken goal cancelled out an equally impressive one from Yohan Cabaye. They had to see things out with 10 men too after captain Fabricio Coloccini was sent off for lunging in on the impressive Suarez - even if he did not make much contact.

Pardew questioned Taylor about the decision on the field afterwards but was happy to accept it, especially after a week which has seen officials feature heavily in the news.

"I thought he (Taylor) maybe got caught up in the emotion and I wanted to ask him before he'd had a chance to see replays,'' Pardew told Sky Sports. "He said he thought it was serious foul play. The morale of referees must be really low at the moment, because of constant criticism and the issues around them.

"We accept his decision and I thought he had a good day. I don't think there was any intent but we accept it.''

Despite Liverpool hogging possession and creating the majority of the goalscoring chances, Newcastle only ever really looked troubled when Suarez was on the ball.

"I felt we lacked concentration at 1-0. We were looking comfortable and I fancied we might have got a second,'' Pardew added. "The goal changed the proceedings of the second half. Suarez is a great player and kept causing us problems. If we could have wrapped him up, we could have won.''

Liverpool`s equaliser means they are now five unbeaten in the league, although they have just two wins to their name this season. Manager Brendan Rodgers, though, could not find fault with his players.

"I thought we were outstanding with intensity and possession,'' he said. "We went to sleep just before half-time for their goal, but for every other moment I thought we were brilliant. We couldn`t put the chances away we had.

"At half-time I told them to stay calm. Sometimes when you dominate like we did and concede just before half-time, it can be very easy to play desperation football. It was important to keep playing how we were.''

Fortunately for Rodgers, he had Suarez to call on, with the Uruguay international pulling Jose Enrique's ball out of the sky and rounding Tim Krul to score.

"That was brilliant,'' Rodgers added. "He (Suarez) has been fantastic. It was a great ball and his first touch... it was an incredible piece of skill. I think most people in football know he's a real threat in and around the box. He's world class.''

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