Not the happiest of returns for Dubravka

WHEN an old mate pays a house visit it is normally good manners to treat him with warmth and hospitality.

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However, Bruno and Anthony Gordon took liberties with Martin Dubravka and sent him packing as a loser.

Bruno made a fool of Dubravka’s positioning on a left wing corner on the half hour mark curling a wicked ball directly into Burnley's net at the back post.

Then, on the stroke of halftime when United were awarded the first of two handball penalties detected by VAR, Gordon gave Dubravka the eyes in sending him the wrong way to lash home the spot kick.

By now Burnley were a man down as well as two goals down due to Lucas Pires' sending off and they looked doomed.

However, it was just as well that Bruno and Gordon had been brutal to an old pal because United were anything but kind to themselves after the interval.

Indeed they lost the second 45 minutes 1-0 after conceding yet another late, late goal on their own midden.

Luckily this time Zian Flemming's 94th-minute penalty was not a killer though it was a deflater.

United had dropped 11 points from winning positions this season, which is criminal, and fleetingly every Geordie heart skipped a beat.

Yet it never ought to have been remotely worrying with Newcastle dominating the half without ever looking like adding the third which is Burnley's norm on the road.

They had conceded 21 goals in seven away matches - exactly three an outing - and at halftime that was surely going to be repeated if not bettered.