TOTTENHAM were blasted for a “schoolboyish” shoe incident during their Carabao Cup defeat to Newcastle.
Spurs were sent packing from the competition as they lost 2-0 at St James’ Park on Wednesday.
Fabian Schar opened the scoring for Toon in the 24th minute.
And Newcastle doubled their advantage shortly after half-time through Nick Woltemade.
The giant German scored once again from a set piece.
But the goal came amid controversy as Spurs felt the Newcastle corner should have been halted.
As the ref gave the decision to the hosts, Tottenham defender Djed Spence dropped to the ground.
The full-back’s boot had come off amid a challenge which resulted in the corner.
And he quickly scrambled to tie his laces back up.
Pedro Porro could be seen signalling to the ref that Spence was out of action.
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While teammate Richarlison also implored Newcastle to not take the corner.
However, Toon sensed blood and took their set-piece quickly, resulting in Woltemade’s goal.
Speaking after the game, pundits Les Ferdinand and Andy Cole rounded on Tottenham for their lack of nous, blasting Thomas Frank’s side for their “schoolboyish” error.
Ferdinand said: “I think if you’re a player, you can see Pedro Porro has his hand in the air to try and get the referee’s attention.
“Go and stand on the ball. Stop the corner being taken and walk back from it slowly. The ref will tell you to move, you walk away slowly.
“You can’t do that and expect the ref to stop and say ‘oh he’s putting his boot back on’.”
Fellow pundit Cole added: “If the ref then doesn’t do that, defend the corner.
“It’s as simple as that. A man down, you’ve got to do the right thing.
“It’s a bit school-boyish. The referee’s not going to say, ‘OK put your boot back on, then we can go from there’. Get on with it.”