Jonjo Shelvey has broken his silence on the Henri Lansbury incident, insisting the Nottingham Forest man “made a meal” of the clash that saw him controversially shown the red card at the City Ground.
“Last week, I felt that I didn’t deserve to be sent off to be honest with you,” he told NUFC TV.
“I thought the boy made a meal of it, but it is what it is. Obviously, I still felt like I’d let the team down because we ended up losing the game. I felt that I needed to go out there and owe one to the team and owe one to the fans, and I think that I’ve done that, and repaid them.”
United will be hoping to maintain their good form at Wigan on Wednesday, but Shelvey says Newcastle must “work hard”.
“If we turn up expecting to win because we’re Newcastle United, it isn’t going to happen. We have to put as much effort into every game as we did today,” he said.
“We thoroughly deserved to win. We dominated the game throughout. It was important just to get back to winning ways – and obviously we’re happy to have done that – but obviously the job is not done yet. We need to go and carry it on into Wednesday.
“To win 4-0, you have to do things right. We’ve been working all week, we’ve had a game-plan from the get go, and we’ve stuck to it. We’ve listened to the gaffer, and it’s paid off in the end.”