Benitez says bottle-throwing Newcastle fan made a mistake

Rafael Benitez said the Newcastle fan who threw a bottle at Crystal Palace defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka “made a mistake”.

Newcastle battled hard and rode their luck for a goalless Premier League draw at Selhurst Park, with their fans aiming bad-tempered chants at owner
Mike Ashley – attending his first Newcastle game since May 2017.

Newcastle manager Benitez preferred to hail his team’s majority of well-behaved supporters, thanking them again for supporting him personally.

“We had almost 3,000 fans here and one made a mistake – but the rest were fantastic,” said Benitez.

“If we want to be stronger we need the fans behind us. Our fans away have been outstanding, no doubt about that.

“Even if we make mistakes, even if we miss chances, even if I make the wrong calls, they have to support the players because it’s the best way for us to stay in the Premier League. And the fans were excellent again today.”

Asked if he had had chance to speak to Ashley after Saturday’s stalemate, Benitez replied: “Not really. If the owner wants to support the team that’s fine.

“But if the owner could be on the pitch and score a couple of goals it would be better!”

Palace boss Roy Hodgson lamented his side wasting several gilt-edged chances to spurn victory, with Mamadou Sakho notably heading wide of an open goal.

Talisman forward Wilfried Zaha appeared subdued throughout, having suffered a minor back strain in the warm-up.

Hodgson conceded Zaha had been “quieter” than in recent weeks, but suggested that could just as easily have been down to the reaction to his midweek comments that it may take a broken leg for officials to clamp down on perceived rough treatment from opponents.

On Zaha’s injury scare, Hodgson said: “I think he’s feeling something at the top of his back. It can often be a muscle thing, but he was passed fit.

“He certainly had no desire not to play the game. He got through the 90 minutes, and I’m hoping it won’t be anything to cause him a problem going
forward in the week.”

And on Zaha’s incendiary comments on treatment from opponents, Hodgson continued: “I think these things do affect people, he’s a sensitive person.

“I don’t think he expected his comments to be treated the way they were.
“It was a lament, and perhaps a justifiable lament.

“I don’t think he was expecting a week of polemics with the world and his sister coming to with either opposing or supporting views.

“We expect him every time to whizz past two or three players every time he gets the ball, well he was slightly quiet today.

“I think he would have preferred a quiet week about football not about some interview he’d given.

“And maybe that back spasm or problem that occurred in the warm-up, that could have affected him too.”