Alan Pardew: "You have got to make a challenge. It was a proper, honest challenge - I have seen it two or three times and there's nothing wrong with it.
"He goes for the ball, he wins the ball clean. He is aggressive in the challenge, he takes a little bit of the player after he has won the ball.
"Of course Andy Carroll's move has cast a shadow. Yes.
"That was part of what I said at half-time: 'If you are going to feel sorry for yourself, if you are going to think, okay, it's been a tough week, lost at Fulham, lost a really good young player and take that out into that kind of arena, then you are going to be embarrassed', and they were embarrassed.
"They were a disgrace in some things that we did. The second half, though, more than made up for it.
"It's one of the most remarkable games I have ever been involved in in my life - and I am talking about Sunday mornings as well, 7-7s, I have had, everything."