Newcastle United head coach John Carver has admitted that Papiss Cisse can have little complaint over his seven-match ban for spitting at Jonny Evans.
The Football Association handed down the hefty suspension to the Senegalese international earlier this week for his part in the incident, while Manchester United defender Evans will now miss the next six games.
Carver says that his player had no choice but to hold his hands up and accept the punishment, which he described as "unacceptable".
"The fact that Papiss owned up to it straight away, I wasn't going to sit here and defend him," the 50-year-old is quoted as saying by talkSPORT. "I sat with him and I said, 'Listen, I can't defend you on this, you've done wrong and have to accept whatever punishment you get'.
"There's no place in the game for it. When you've played the game, it's one of the lowest forms of anything you can do on the pitch. A lot of players would have acted differently. He was provoked, and retaliating in the same manner is just as bad."
Newcastle are back in action on Sunday when they take on Everton at Goodison Park.
Daniel Lewis
