Dave Jones felt that City deserved a "stonewall penalty" when Steven Taylor handled Michael Chopra's goalbound second-half shot.

Manager Jones said: "I'm not saying that it was deliberate, but the lad slid in and prevented a goal with his arm. That's a clear penalty.

"Match officials shouldn't miss that sort of thing at this level. Maybe in such a high-profile match as this, people should look at the officials and see if they're up for it. We talk about standards in the game but match officials are professionals as well - and their standards must be up to scratch."

Dave added: "We got into some good positions, but our quality let us down. Newcastle have some good players, and they knew what they were doing. We got into those positions because we dominated the game and had to try and break down 10 men. Outside of their goal, David Marshall had nothing to do apart from pluck crosses out of the air.

"And believe me Newcastle do have some good players. Maybe the 'experts' who wrote them off after they were relegated got it wrong. They have players who are Premier League quality.

"I've no complaints about losing the game, but we did deserve something from it. Alan Smith didn't move 10 yards away from Jay Bothroyd.

"But if we play like we did today against the majority of teams at this level, we'll win more than we lose."