'It's never a penalty'-Frank frustrated by awarding of penalty in Newcastle draw

Tottenham boss Thomas Frank lamented the decision to award Newcastle United a penalty during the 2-2 draw at St James' Park.

The two sides shared the spoils following an entertaining end to the clash, which saw all four goals scored inside the final 20 minutes.

Tottenham twice came from behind thanks to a Cristian Romero brace, with the Spurs skipper's second goal snatching a last-gasp point courtesy of an acrobatic effort.

However, that came after Newcastle regained the lead via a controversial Anthony Gordon penalty, following a VAR review that deemed Rodrigo Bentancur to have tugged Dan Burn's shirt in the box.

It was a decision that left Frank far from happy, though he praised his side's determination to earn a point.

"It's an absolute mistake by VAR," he said. "It's never a penalty. 

"We want the ref [to make] calls on the pitch; to support that, it can only be a clear and obvious mistake. In my opinion, there are 10 of those a game.

"It says a lot about the mentality of the team. It's been a tough week, coming here after four games in 10 days against a good Newcastle team.

"We suffered in the first 25 minutes. The way the team handled two setbacks showed a lot about the character of the team, which I love."

Tottenham did, however, halt a run of three straight defeats in all competitions.

Kevin Danso also hailed the character demonstrated by Spurs, while paying tribute to "world-class" defensive partner Romero following his double.

Indeed, Romero scored his first Premier League goals since August 2024 against Everton, and first away from home since September 2023 at Burnley, the first of which was with what was Spurs' first shot on target in this match.

In his 199th appearance in Europe's big-five leagues, the Argentine also scored more than once in a game for the first time.

"It was a tough match, it's always difficult to come to St James' Park, and it's always tough away from home," Danso said. "We showed the mentality that we had been working on throughout the season.

"We're just going to keep pushing on. We just have to keep that mentality."

On Romero, Danso added: "He always leads by example. [He] scored two very important goals; the second one was a very nice goal. He showed again today what a world-class defender he is."