Former top referee rules on controversial Tottenham v Newcastle United incident

Dermot Gallagher reviews controversial decisions in the Premier League after each round of games, on behalf of Sky Sports.

The former top referee has now given his call on this incident in the Tottenham v Newcastle United match.

Dermot Gallagher looking at what happened during a key moment in this match in North London.

United eventually scoring twice in the second half to deservedly take all three points.

So what about this ‘controversial’ incident…

Dermot Gallagher talking to Sky Sports about this Tottenham v Newcastle United controversial incident:

INCIDENT:

Should Spurs have been awarded a penalty when Malick Thiaw challenged Omar Marmoush in the box?

DERMOT GALLAGHER:

“What they’ve done this season is totally consistent. It’s minimal contact. Is it a foul? A clear foul? I think not. Referee says no and VAR has been told not to intervene unless it’s clearly wrong. Leave it as it is.”

FORMER PLAYER JAY BOTHROYD:

“That’s the wrong decision. It should be given as a penalty. That’s cute play from the forward, it’s no the defender’s fault. The striker comes round and gets the toe on it. There was the Jarrad Branthwaite incident last week – which was offside, but it was a penalty. This one should be as well. I wouldn’t say that’s minimal contact. He’s kicked his foot.”

FORMER PLAYER TIM SHERWOOD:

“The threshold is massively higher. It should be given. There’s certainly contact in there. Thiaw hasn’t seen him coming. Marmoush has done enough to get his toe on it. He’s praying for contact. Has Thiaw made contact with the ball? No. Has he made contact with the player? Yes. Has he denied a goalscoring opportunity? 100 per cent. Penalty. It would have been a different game. Then we’d be talking about De Zerbi in a different way.”

You have to laugh.

On Saturday for the Tottenham v Newcastle United match, in the Sky Sports studio you had the Mackem presenter David Jones joined by former Tottenham players Ryan Mason and Jamie Redknapp to give a totally unbiased discussion of the United match.

Now we have former Tottenham player and manager Tim Sherwood giving his unbiased opinion…

Sherwood is surely one of the very worst (against stiff opposition!) pundits that Sky Sports offer up and you just know for a fact that if this had been Newcastle United not getting a penalty against his team Tottenham, he would 100% be saying it was a correct decision.

In truth it was a decision that could have gone either way and for once it was Newcastle United that got the benefit of the doubt, unlike the penalties against Liverpool and West Brom!

Tottenham 0 Newcastle 2 – Saturday 29 August 2026 5.30pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Elanga 62, Wissa 72

Spurs:

Possession was Newcastle 43% Spurs 57%

Total shots were Newcastle 11 Spurs 17

Shots on target were Newcastle 2 Spurs 6

Corners were Newcastle 7 Spurs 9

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 21 Spurs 32

Newcastle United team v Tottenham:

Hornicek, Dedic, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Lewis Miley, Gonzalez (Steur 71), Elanga (Murphy 82), Barnes (Toure 93), Willock (Woltemade 71), Wissa (Ramsey 82)

Unused subs:

Jaouen, Schar, Bamba, Shahar

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