The Magpies played the last quarter of the game a man light following substitute Isaac Hayden’s dismissal, but – with virtually the last kick – Kenedy missed the opportunity to turn one point into three by firing straight at ‘keeper Neil Etheridge from the penalty spot.
Prior to Hayden’s red card, Newcastle had offered little in the final third, with Neil Warnock’s newly-promoted side growing in confidence. But, despite their numerical disadvantage, the Magpies started to knock on the door late on, and a flailing arm from Cardiff’s Sean Morrison allowed their Brazilian wide-man to take aim from 12 yards.
Despite Kenedy’s miss – and United’s subsequent failure to maintain their Indian sign over the Bluebirds – Dummett refused to get too downbeat as he spoke to nufc.co.uk after the final whistle.
“A point away from home in a difficult game, with ten men, is a point gained, but it’s disappointing because we could have had all three in the 95th minute,” he said. “These things happen in football – players miss penalties, players miss chances, and today it was us.
“Anyone watching would have seen how physical the game was. They got promoted that way, and they’ll do the same in the Premier League this season. That’ll be their way of trying to stay up – making it difficult for teams to come here and making it a physical battle, especially for teams who want to come here and play football. It’s worked for them today and it worked for them last season, and it’s going to be tough for anyone.
“It was one of those where we could have had a goal, and they could have had a goal. In the end, the biggest chance of them all is the penalty, and we didn’t score it. But, I thought we defended well during the game, and we’ve kept a clean sheet. We came for three points and we didn’t get them, but in the circumstances – having ten men – we’ll take the point. We have to take the positives, keep on working hard on the training ground and try to pick up more points in the future against other teams.”
United continue their Premier League campaign a week on Sunday, with Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea – one of just a handful of sides, so far, to win both of their opening games – the visitors to St. James’ Park.
Similarly daunting fixtures – away to Manchester City, and at home to Arsenal – lie on the horizon for Newcastle, but Dummett has called for the Magpies to maintain their self-belief heading into a testing period – and is hopeful they can draw inspiration from their showing against the Blues on the final day of the previous campaign.
“We’ll take it one game at a time. We beat Chelsea 3-0 on the last day of last season, so we know we can do it,” he said. “We have to be confident going into the game and try and replicate what we did against them last time. We know it’ll be tough – they’re one of the best teams in the league – but we did it last season, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.
“We played very well against Tottenham and could have had a draw – or even a win – with the chances we had. Today, we’ve had to battle hard. With the style of play, it was a different type of game. We’ll have a few days’ rest, train hard, prepare for Chelsea and hopefully we can do what we did against them last time.”
