Newcastle, Oct. 18 (IANS): A new management following a takeover by a Saudi-led consortium did not make much difference for Newcastle United FC as they went down 3-2 to Tottenham Hotspur in a Premier League encounter on Sunday that was suspended for 40 minutes after a medical emergency involving a fan in the stands.
A fan had collapsed in the East Stand with a suspected heart attack and the officials decided to stop the match till the person was given emergency treatment in the stands and then moved to the hospital.
"An emergency in the East Stand", an announcement was made on the PA system and a couple of Spurs players immediately called for the medics, the stretcher etc to be taken to the East stand.
The Newcastle fan was stabilised and taken to hospital.
"The supporter who was in need of urgent medical assistance has been stabilised and is on their way (sic) to hospital. Our thoughts are with them," Newcastle United FC informed via a tweet.
On the field, things remained the same for Newcastle as they went ahead to take lead in the home encounter at St James' Park via Callum Wilson in the second minute. But the Spurs came back strongly and surged to a 3-1 lead before half-time. Tanguy Ndombele (17th min), Harry Kane (22nd) minute andSouth Korean Heung Min Son (45+3) scored for Tottenham as they took a big lead after the match was resumed with the fan shifted to the hospital.
Newcastle had chances to get back into the game, as Allan Saint-Maximin lashed a shot wide. But in the second half, it was a waltz for Spurs as Newcastle never looked like getting anything from this.
Tottenham's Eric Dier scored an own goal in the last minute of the match as Newcastle created a lot of pressure despite being reduced to 10 men.
Substitute Jonjo Shelvey was shown two yellow cards as Newcastle took out their frustration on the Spurs players. Dier's late own goal set up a bit of a nervous finish, but the Spurs held on for a win.
"First and foremost, we want to send our best wishes to the guy in the stands. It wasn't good to see but we hear he might be st'ble now so we're thankful to the emergency teams and the fans who did the CPR. We knew they had the defibs on the bench so Eric [Dier] ran over to alert them. We hope he's okay and we wish him all the best," tottenham's Harry Kane said after the match.