Souness was highly critical of Barry Knight, the referee, who Souness claimed had incorrectly awarded a foul against Jean-Alain Boumsong for a challenge on Marcus Bent. Mikel Arteta's resulting free-kick was headed in by David Weir to opening the scoring.

"We feel hard done by again because of Mr Knight," Souness said in a television interview after the match. "He's given a free-kick to Everton that wasn't and it changed the game."

Knight also dismissed Shola Ameobi for slapping Tim Cahill on the back of the head, the fourth Magpies player sent off by the same official after Stephen Taylor, Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer were all shown the red card against Aston Villa earlier in the season. Souness also criticised Knight for his performance in that match, when he gave a contentious penalty against Newcastle.

"The referee was apologising to some of our lads before the game for the penalty he gave in that Aston Villa match. It was outside the box and he said that," Souness claimed.

Souness is charged with a breach of FA rule E3 for "a failure to act in the best interests of the game and/or having brought the game into disrepute". He has until June 6 to respond to the charge.

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