Fabian Wilnis believes two debatable refereeing decisions cost Ipswich Town their 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United.

The wing-back claimed Alan Shearer was offside when he latched on to Alain Goma's through ball to cancel out Marcus Stewart's early strike.

Then, in the second half, the striker went down under a challenge by Mark Venus and referee Alan Wiley showed no hesitation in pointing to the spot. The decision left Town boss George Burley fuming.

Wilnis said: "In my eyes, Shearer was offside when the ball was played over the top for the first goal.

"And I certainly have my doubts about the penalty because the referee was a long, long way behind play.

"I think he might have been a little overwhelmed by the crowd. The fact everyone shouted out when Shearer went down had a big influence.

"It was such a pity we let them back in the game because we looked fairly comfortable after scoring our early goal

"But at least we didn't let ourselves down by playing badly. I think a draw would have been a fair result."

Magpies striker Shearer said: "It was a clean penalty. I don't know how anyone can dispute that because he took my standing leg away.

"There was never going to be more than one goal between the teams, because it was that tight, but I felt we deserved the points.

"Ipswich are a good side and anyone who thinks they're easy to beat are wrong.

"We knew it was a particularly important match for Bobby Robson and Keiron Dyer, because of their links with both clubs, and we were determined not to let them down."

Town skipper Matt Holland, called up by the Republic of Ireland for their friendly with Finland later this month, felt his side lost the match in the second half.

He said: "It was never going to be easy to come to Newcastle and play our normal passing game."

"Now we've got to show our strength of character by bouncing back against Charlton next week."

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