Referee Anthony Taylor told he made a major mistake during Newcastle United vs Brighton

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Newcastle United’s season threatened to take a turn for the worse on Sunday.

Indeed, it seems a long time ago now that Newcastle United were flying high and storming through teams during a club-record-equalling run of victories.

Newcastle lost 2-1 to Brighton to exit the FA Cup at the fifth round stage but, sadly, not even that tells the whole story.

Lewis Hall missed the game through injury. Alexander Isak came off. Perhaps biggest of all, Anthony Gordon was sent off for Newcastle and will subsequently miss the Carabao Cup final.

All in all, it was a dreadful day at the office. Lost in all the drama is that Newcastle threw a home game away when they were closing in on the business end of this competition. A lazy, lacklustre display which – frankly – is seemingly starting to become the norm.

Still, that’s not to say Brighton didn’t enjoy their own luck. Granted, they did have a man sent off themselves but referee Anthony Taylor was criticised following another flashpoint.

Anthony Taylor criticised for Newcastle vs Brighton drama in the FA Cup

Carlos Baleba was perhaps fortunate to have avoided a red card, too.

The midfielder went in strong on Joelinton towards the end of the first-half and duly received a booking but avoided a second despite appearing to cynically tug the back of Tino Livramento’s shirt when the defender was looking to counter.

Taylor’s decision not to show a second yellow was questioned on social media by journalist Andrew Musgrove and surely even the most ardent Brighton fans would admit he was lucky there.

Baleba was then taken off for Diego Gomez, which perhaps showed Seagulls manager Fabian Hurzeler knew exactly that.

Brighton got lucky but Newcastle United sent brutal reminder

Roy Keane can hardly be described as the biggest Newcastle supporter in the world but even he was left furious by their display against Brighton.

Keane criticised the likes of Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson for failing to make an impact when coming off the bench.

If even he is saying that, it’s surely not a good sign. Newcastle just lack any kind of energy at the moment and it’s incredibly difficult to see how that changes.

Brighton may have been somewhat lucky with the Baleba incident but, on the balance of play, they deserved to go through.