EDDIE Howe described as “instinct” Steve Cook’s bizarre handball which saw him sent off at Norwich and added: “I'm not going to stand there and berate him.”

The central defender was given his marching orders by referee Paul Tierney after 31 minutes at Carrow Road.

Cook flung himself in the way of Ondrej Duda's goal-bound effort inside the area – Teemu Pukki stepped up to slot home the resulting spot-kick to win the game for the Canaries.

Asked about Cook’s red card, Howe said: “It's decided the game, it's one of those things that happens, I actually thought it was Aaron (Ramsdale) who saved it initially.

“I didn't know that Steve had handled the ball. Pure instinct from him, without seeing it again, I can only assume he's chucked his arm at the ball in a moment.

“Of course, if he thought about it, he'd have let it go by him and we’d have kept 11 men on the pitch

“It happened and I thought we recovered well from that moment but it ultimately did cost us.”

Quizzed on whether Cook said anything after the incident, Howe replied: “What can you say? It was just instinct and it happened.

“I'm not going to stand there and berate him. It's happened and I think you have to and support him and go the other way.

“Especially in this moment, for us I think that group staying together rather than getting a feeling of blame, I don’t think that’s going to help us in any way.”

Norwich had a man sent off when Ben Godfrey lunged in on Callum Wilson 14 minutes from time – referee Tierney upgrading to a red card after consulting the pitch side monitor during a VAR check.

“The referee is under big pressure from both sides, from both sets of supporters – all the players involved in a tight area,” said Howe.

“He’s has to keep a cool head and just try to read what he’s seen on the screen. It looks like he’s probably made the right decision with VAR intervening.

“We hoped that would be the difference for us and enable us to get the goal that we needed.”