NEWCASTLE United's coaching team are "adamant" they should have had a first half penalty against Brighton - with boss Eddie Howe admitting the early incident was a key moment as the Magpies went on to fall to their first home defeat of the season.

Newcastle burst out of the blocks and pinned Brighton back early on and felt they should have had a penalty after just eight minutes for a Joel Veltman handball in the box.

Referee Peter Bankes waved away the claims and Brighton survived a VAR check. Howe hadn't seen the incident back by the time he spoke to the media after the game but members of his support staff had and were insistent Newcastle should have been awarded a penalty.

The frustration for Howe is that the incident came at a time when the Magpies were dominant. Had they got in front during that spell, Howe is certain they'd have kicked on and won.

"I haven't seen it back," said Howe, when quizzed on the penalty incident.

"A couple of our coaches have and they're adamant it was a penalty.

"If I look at it back and have the same view as the coaches it will be a huge frustration because we were totally dominant at that point.

"When you have that start in a game you want a goal for your endeavours. That was all that was missing in the first 35 minutes.

"If we were 2-0 up we'd have thought it was one of our best performances in a long time. Goals change perceptions of performances and I have to keep some kind of perspective on that."

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Brighton hadn't touched the ball in Newcastle's penalty area until Danny Wellbeck's opener on 35 minutes, which proved to be the winning goal.

The Magpies had 21 shots but couldn't make their dominance count.

Howe said: “I'm really frustrated because I thought our general performance today for 65 minutes was really good. I think that's the best we've looked, the most dominant we've been in a game and lo and behold, we have plenty of chances, don't take them and concede a poor goal from our perspective from Brighton's first real meaningful attack.

“Of course, we only have ourselves to blame for that. We need to look at that and analyse that, but the majority of the performance, especially in the early stages of the game, was very, very strong."