Southampton defender Jose Fonte denied intentionally handling the ball in the closing moments of the Saints' 2-1 Premier League victory at Newcastle.
The hosts were aggrieved not to be awarded a stoppage-time penalty when substitute Emmanuel Riviere's shot appeared to hit Fonte's arm, but the Portugal international insisted there was nothing deliberate in his actions.
"To be honest with you, it was so quick and so close, I just took the ball and had no reaction," Fonte told Sky Sports. "I don't know. I'll have to see it [in a replay], but there was no intentional handball."
Fonte also insisted Southampton are not yet dreaming of Champions League football despite doing their top-four chances no harm with Saturday's victory.
Netherlands international Eljero Elia scored twice to fire the Saints back into third place as Ronald Koeman's side picked up their third consecutive win in all competitions and stretched their unbeaten run to eight matches.
Elia, on loan from Werder Bremen, scored his first goal for the south-coast club with 14 minutes gone and then, after Yoan Gouffran had cancelled out his strike with a fortuitous 29th-minute equaliser, restored the visitors' lead 17 minutes into the second half.
The result moved Southampton back above Manchester United into third, but Saints skipper Fonte and his teammates are taking each game as it comes.
"I think it's fair to say we missed two of the best midfielders in the league [in Morgan Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama]. The guys that came in did an amazing job as well," he said.
"We came to a tough ground, we took the win, so we take it game by game and we move on to the next one.
"We only think of the next game. We don't think about at the end what position we're going to be -- we think about the next game and try to win the next game."
Koeman was understandably delighted with a victory which kept his side firmly in the hunt for a top-four finish.
He said: "If I had been asked the question in pre-season would we be third in the table after 22 games, maybe I would have laughed.
"But not now because we have a really good team and we have really good spirit and really good organisation, and I'm not surprised that we are now third in the league because we haven't stolen any points and what we have got, we have deserved.
"I am very happy and very proud of everybody. It was a long week, a difficult week, three away games, but OK, if you win games, that gives players the confidence and the spirit that you need to win against Newcastle at home.
"Everybody was proud after the win last week against Manchester United because that's history, that's a great place to win. But as a manager I think the win today is still better because it was the third game this week and we have some injuries."
Information from Press Association was used in this report.