EUROPA League spot chasing Liverpool grabbed a 98th-minute winner against Newcastle this week, leaving their many haters complaining about how long the match had gone on for.

Don’t jump on that bandwagon. It was actually refreshing to see the referee, Andre Marriner, understand that the board that goes up at the end of a match is a “minimum” time guide and not a rule. I think most refs only start their watches when they see it and then blow up to the second. Saves them the bother.

Despite being capable of winning at Anfield these days, Newcastle, for all their ugly wealth, had resorted to the apparent strategy of “game management” – or to use the technical term: time-wasting.

The trouble for them was that they lacked any creativity in their laborious attempts to eat up the seconds. The endless cramp breaks were hard to believe, while the goalkeeper took his goal kicks like he was being sponsored.

According to the forms, Old Jim at the Old Red Lion will donate 10p to a human rights charity fighting the death penalty in far-flung countries for every second it takes to launch the ball.

Marriner, of course, twigged what was going on and even though the board said only five minutes, he knew, we knew, it should’ve said 10. Newcastle needed a much more artful approach.

When Arsenal need to reach the finish line, they send on Eddie Nketiah, who recently signed a new contract that will guarantee £25million will enter his bank account over the next few years. If that sounds a lot for the young man, his talented blasts over the bar in the final moments are well worth the money.

Time slips away as the ball is retrieved and the referee is none the wiser that a whole minute has been thieved. The perfect crime. That’s what Newcastle should’ve done, but – no – they went for the obvious and opted for preposterous injuries. No wonder they were caught out.

• CHANCES are if you’re reading this, then you pore over a fantasy football league team each week, worrying about captains, substitutions and transfers. It brings out a strange form of overthinking as regular players think they have the craft and wisdom to finish top of their friends’ league.

And yet it’s hardly rocket science. All anybody needs to do in that game is to install Captain Haaland and his machine like approach to scoring goals will propel you to the top. There’s no need to tinker or to try and be clever. The mask has slipped. Boring as it may be, one click and you’ll be a champ.