Fabricio Coloccini tries to choke a player in Newcastle pre-season friendly

Fabricio Coloccini (R) and Rui Caetano

In a pre-season ‘friendly’, Newcastle United went into the half-time against Pacos de Ferreira in Portugal without their captain Fabricio Coloccini who was sent off after he grabbed the scorer of the opening goal, Rui Caetano by the neck.

Both of them were squaring up and exchanging blows, with Coloccini eventually losing his cool and trying to choke Caetano.

Alan Pardew was furious with referee Jorge Sousa and he made it clear: “We are disappointed with the referee. He lost control of that game. When you let tackles go you are asking for trouble. It frustrates the players. In the end we had a scene which has cost us our captain.”

“That was the big disappointment of the night because the performance was different class.”

“We deserved to win that game. I thought we looked stronger than them.”

Pacos de Ferreira scored in the 15th minute with a goal from Caetano. However, Newcastle recovered well as Shola Ameobi‘s goal earned them a 1-1 draw.

Pardew said: “We were on our game. It got nasty, and the ref has played a big part in it.

“There’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to deal with what’s in front of us.

“We weren’t going to lie down.”

Being a pre-season match, Coloccini will be hoping to be spared any sort of punishment.