Newcastle United will wonder whether the Norwegian linesman who flagged Moussa Sissoko offside as he squared for Papiss Cissé to tap the ball into an empty net has wrecked their chances of Europa League glory.
Alan Pardew's team – for whom later Cissé had a second "goal" contentiously ruled out, for another, tighter, borderline offside when he was arguably level – face an extremely tricky second leg in Kharkiv next week against an accomplished Metalist.
Allied, admittedly, to a few spurned chances, most notably when Cissé directed a free header straight at the goalkeeper from four yards in stoppage time, that shocking first-half decision threatens to make it an uphill task at one of Eastern Europe's more hostile venues.
"We should have won," said Pardew. "Both Papiss's goals were goals. It's tough to take. We're very disappointed with those two decisions." He was, however, encouraged by Metalist's failure to score an away goal, thereby ensuring that a score draw can take Newcastle through. "The tie's very tight," added Pardew, who believes his players can prevail on the break next Thursday. "Metalist are a tough nut to crack but I don't believe they have the advantage."
Approaching the end of their three-month winter break, "Mentalist" – as Newcastle's manager sometimes calls them – had spent the past week in England and certainly appeared fully acclimatised as their nine South American outfielders treated St James' Park to plenty of speedy, smooth, ground-level passing.
Undeterred, Pardew's players gradually got the measure of a visiting side increasingly worried by the pace of the impressive Sissoko and improved steadily after a slow start. By the end of the first half Oleksandr Goryainov had made some decent saves, although Gabriel Obertan should probably have scored rather than shot wide after surging on to a chance conjured by Sissoko.
When the ever-dangerous, superbly subtle Marlos burst clear down the right the 500 Metalist fans prepared to celebrate, only for Xavier and Sosa to waste an inviting opening by colliding in the box. Very shortly afterwards Newcastle should have been ahead when Cissé's first "goal" was inexplicably chalked off. By now tempers were rising and Tioté collected his latest booking for slamming into Marlos. Yohan Cabaye, too, has a bit of an edge and became embroiled in a running feud with Cristaldo. As the pair challenged for a header, the referee spotted Cabaye sneakily whacking his adversary in the throat and duly booked him.
With Goryainov's outstretched foot denying Cissé and Cabaye's passing confusing the initially dominant Edmar while damaging Metalist's defence, Newcastle were ascendant but needed to be mindful of clever Ukrainian counterattacks, especially those constructed by Marlos.
Lunging in at the sporadically menacing Cristaldo, Tioté lived dangerously but, happily for Pardew, the referee turned a blind eye. Newcastle's manager was less pleased by both Goryainov's habit of repelling virtually everything that came his way, and particularly when Cissé again "scored" before falling foul of the linesman's flag.
Not that Pardew was surrendering. "Tonight's disappointment puts fire in our bellies for next week," he said.
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