Toon Crier: Day After Wigan Edition

For many reasons, I think Sunday's was a match many who support Newcastle would like to forget. Aside from the loss to lowly Wigan, there was the horrific injury to Massadio Haidara, the uncalled handball that led to the game winning goal, and the continued struggles away from St. James' Park. On to the links...

Lee Ryder provides his match report. He calls the match, and its officiating, "absurdity".

Ryder also reports, via Twitter, that Wigan and Callum McManaman will be sending apologies to Newcastle and Haidara.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Martinez: "Callum and Wigan will contact the player and wish him a speedy recovery" <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23nufc">#nufc</a></p>&mdash; Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) <a href="https://twitter.com/lee_ryder/status/313358457296285696">March 17, 2013</a></blockquote>

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The Independent provides their match report.

Pie Eaters Footie says in their match report that McManaman will probably face a ban for his tackle.

And indeed,the FA is set to give him a ban.

Match facts from The Guardian.

The early diagnosis is knee ligament damage for Haidara.

Goal scorer Davide Santon says Newcastle will be playing hard to try and earn wins for the injured Haidara.

Mathieu Debuchy was also injured this match, aggravating his hamstring. Alan Pardew says Debuchy will head to France for international duty and treatment.

No Yohan Cabaye for Newcastle may mean that he won't be playing for France next week.

Should Wigan go down, The Mag won't be shedding any tears.

As reported earlier, Hatem Ben Arfa has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

Two Newcastle players out on loan have won silverware. Conor Newton and Paul Dummet won the Scottish League Cup final with St. Mirren.

Elsewhere in the Premiership yesterday,

Sunderland 1-1 Norwich City. One could have a good argument about which match was more controversial: Newcastle's or Sunderland's. Norwich's keeper was sent off for handling the ball outside the box, though the ball may have only been chested down. Sunderland were awarded a penalty when Norwich was called for a handball, and once again it appeared as if the ball may have only hit the chest. In the second half, the Canaries should have been awarded a penalty for a handball in the box, but the officials ruled it happened on the edge of the area.

Frank Lampard scored his 200th goal for Chelsea in their 2-0 win over West Ham United.

Fulham earned a 1-0 win over Tottenham. It was Fulham's first win at White Hart Lane in a decade.

Here's the table as it stands now. Despite the loss, Newcastle did not fall any places, remaining in 13th with 33 points. There are still six points clear of the relegation zone and four teams (West Ham, Sunderland, Southampton, and Aston Villa are between them and the drop.

Newcastle's next opponent in the Europa League, Benfica, cruised to a 4-0 win over Guimaraes in Portugese Liga action on Sunday