Premier League referee Mike Jones was not handed a game to officiate this weekend following his controversial display at St James Park on Sunday. Jones came under scrutiny fromboth Newcastle coach Alan Pardew and Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini for his performance in City’s 2-0 win.
Pardew said he couldn’tunderstand Jones decision not to award a goal after Check Tiote’s first-half strike flew into the top corner. Even though several Newcastle players were offside, “it’ssuch a clean hit, it’s going in the top corner,” Pardew said. “He’s got that wrong and unfortunately that was a massive call. In these type of games they have got to go your way. It was probablyeasier for him to give the goal and I can’t understand why he hasn’t.”
City coach Pellegrini was equally unhappy with Jones’ decision not to send-off Mapou Yanga-Mbiwafor his crude second-half challenge on playmaker Samir Nasri, who ended up with knee ligament damage that will sideline him for eight weeks. Jones issued a yellow card to Yanga-Mbiwa,but Pellegrini insisted, “The kick he made to Nasri was absolutely a red card directly.”