GRAEME Souness may have been satisfied with a 2-0 victory in his first game in charge as Newcastle United boss, but the Scot could not hide his disappointment in the manner of Nicky Butt's dismissal in last night's bruising UEFA Cup clash at St James' Park.

The former Manchester United midfielder was dismissed by Portuguese referee Antonio Costa for raising his arms to Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin's skipper Abas Suan, who was also sent off, in the 60th minute.

The 29-year-old had only been on the field for two minutes after replacing Kieron Dyer, who had pulled up with a hamstring injury.

"Nicky Butt should not have got sent off for that, not at his age with his experience," said Souness.

"It is not the cleverest thing he has done in his career, but he's raised his hands and you can not do that.

"I have certainly been there a few times myself as a player but sometimes frustration does take over. He will obviously be disappointed too.

"It was a scrappy affair. They had a game plan to come here to frustrate us and break the game up at every opportunity.

"We should have risen above that but we didn't. I would have like to have seen some yellow cards earlier than they appeared.''

Overall the United boss was pleased with his side's performance but could not hide the frustration of falling to Sakhnin's spoiling tactics.

He said: "We got off to a good start and scored a goal early on. We really should have built on that.

"I'm not too disappointed with 2-0. If they want to win the game they will have to chase the game when we go out there.

"We've learned a lesson tonight. We had to rise above what was going on and try to play football but we've fallen for the three card trick.

"They've achieved exactly what they set out to do and break the game up and get us involved in the non-footballing things.

"It was a difficult game to assess anyone tonight because it never got flowing.

"It was broken up with ridiculous and reckless challenges.

"Had the referee booked a few early on the game might have flowed. Some players will have learned a valuable lesson tonight because that will happen in Europe.

"I'm not too disappointed we've got a two-goal lead but it will be a very different game in Israel and I don't expect them to play like that which will only suit us."

Souness was also generous in his assessment of Patrick Kluivert's two-goal all-star display.

He added: "What has Patrick done tonight what we already didn't know? When everything is right Patrick Kluivert is a top player one of the best strikers in the world and in glimpses he showed that."

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