Sir Alex Ferguson hit out at refereeing standards after Manchester United dropped two points at home to Newcastle United to lose more ground in the title race. To be more specific, the assistant referee John Flynn was the subject of his ire for awarding a penalty against Rio Ferdinand, which allowed Newcastle their equaliser, but he also blamed the match referee, Mike Jones, for allowing his original verdict to be overturned.

"The penalty decision was an absolute travesty," Ferguson said. "The referee saw the incident and gave a corner, and he was in a far better position to judge than the assistant because he was only about eight yards away. I don't think anyone in the ground apart from the assistant thought it was a penalty, but he then let the linesman overrule him. The problem is that assistant referees are not full‑time, even if referees are. I could not understand the decision at all."

Even Newcastle's manager, Alan Pardew, accepted his side had been lucky with the penalty, though he thought they deserved a point for their overall performance. Ferdinand certainly seemed to play the ball before the man, not that that is the rule of thumb it used to be, but more importantly knocked the ball beyond Hatem Ben Arfa's reach before the Newcastle player went to ground. Ferdinand later tweeted: "Yeah... p***** off with the result today ... nutting my steering wheel was contemplated on my way home from the game earlier ... wtf".

"I can understand Sir Alex being disappointed with the decision but we deserved a break and on this occasion we got one," Pardew said. "It was a great run from Hatem, and it was one of those situations where you either get the decision or you don't. You could tell from the players' reactions that there was a good case for a penalty."

Ferguson was more than disappointed. "Everyone, including the referee, was astounded when the linesman put his flag up," the Manchester United manager said. "He was put in a terrible position. Why can't the referee overrule it when he is only eight yards away? It is not for me to decide whether the assistant referee gets another game again but it was an absolutely shocking decision.

"It costs you, a decision like that. Two years ago, when the linesman gave the offside goal against Chelsea, it cost us the league, so hopefully we're not saying that at the end of May. I don't think we played badly at all today – if we carry on playing like that I'll be happy – but we slaughtered Newcastle and not to get the three points was a travesty."