Russell Martin disagrees with Eddie Howe on controversial Newcastle United v Southampton moment

Schar was sent-off for violent conduct after an incident between himself and Ben Brereton-Diaz shortly before the half-hour mark. After being barged from behind off the ball by the Chilean, Schar reacted by squaring up to his opposite number before Pawson dismissed him for an alleged headbutt.

To that point, Eddie Howe’s side were evenly-matched by the visitors and instead of subduing the crowd, St James’ Park exploded after that with Southampton up against a feverish 12th man. They would go onto concede what turned out to be the winner from Joelinton less than 15 minutes later and were unable to get themselves back into the game.

Schar’s red card was the controversial moment of the game and one that has divided social media. Martin, however, believes Pawson made the correct call, describing it as a ‘moment of madness’ by Schar.

Martin said: “I just got asked there if Ben made a meal of it and all that stuff. He stands still and the guy leads with his head. You give someone an opportunity to make the most of it. I guarantee their players would have done the same.

“It's a moment of madness from their player. And it's the reason we have VAR, I'm pretty sure, is to overturn decisions if they're wrong. They've seen it back on numerous occasions in slow motion and that stuff. So it has to be a red card, I guess.”

Howe, meanwhile, believed that it was ‘really harsh’ on Schar to be shown a red card for the incident: “I think it’s really harsh on Fabby,” Howe said post-match. “But I think we all know that you can’t give the referee the possibility to even give the red card so that’s something we learn from.”

The win means Newcastle United have now won three matches in a row on the opening day of the season and will head to Bournemouth next weekend with confidence they can make it back-to-back victories. Schar, meanwhile, is likely to miss that match and then games against Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur with a three-match suspension hanging over him.