Carver defends defensive substitutions

John Carver has defended his decision to replace Paul Dummett with Remy Cabella during Newcastle United’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.

Newcastle United boss John Carver maintains he made the right decision in making defensive-minded substitutions in the latter stages of his side’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

After Frazier Campbell cancelled out Papiss Cisse’s opener at Selhurst Park, Carver brought midfielder Mehdi Abeid and defender Paul Dummett on.

They replaced attacking players Remy Cabella and Cisse as Carver looked to secure at least a point for Newcastle – something they did after Tim Krul made an excellent save to deny Brede Hangeland with two minutes remaining.

And the boss felt he was justified in making the changes, explaining: “I brought Dummett on because Yannick Bolasie is a talented footballer, I worked with him every day at Plymouth Argyle and he’s a talent.

“He’s got a bright future ahead of him and you saw from almost his first touch – he shifts the ball quickly and puts a quality ball in the box and they score from it.

“I was concerned he would do that again and we would lose the game so I had to do something. Sometimes you have to take off one of your flair players to see out a game.

“That’s why I brought Dummett on and I thought that nullified Bolasie.”

Carver – facing former Newcastle boss Alan Pardew for the first time since his St James’ Park exit – also felt the state of the Selhurst Park pitch hampered his side.

“When the lads came in after the warm-up, they were complaining about the state of the pitch,” he explained.

“I know they’ve just re-laid it but it was quite lively so I knew we weren’t going to be able to get it down and play our passing game.

“I thought we dealt with the physicality of the opposition and other than [Brede] Hangeland – when Tim Krul made an outstanding save – we didn’t really have any problems so I think a fair result is a 1-1 draw.”