Referee Viktor Kassai awarded the 23-year-old an unjust penalty as he tripped over his own foot on the field - Sterling has faced a backlash of fans and media saying he should have been honest with the referee and not accepted the penalty.
Higginbotham backed Sterling as he spoke to 'Sky Sports', remarking: "In the heat of the moment you think very differently than what you may do when you take a step away from it.
"I have not had a situation like that but I have been on the pitch and done things where after the game I have gone 'what are you thinking?'.
"It is in the heat of the moment, should he have any criticism going his way? I don't believe he should.
"A lot of people have come and said he should go up to the referee and say that it is not a penalty but the referee may not change his mind and it is a decision that the referee has made.
Sterling did apologise after the game to the referee and Shakhtar.
"In those situations, you have referees who are there to referee the game. He has not dived, that is quite obvious when you see the replay, and has not gone looking for a penalty.
"He has stubbed his foot and fallen over. Unfortunately, anything that revolves around Raheem Sterling, we have spoken about it before, seems to come up quite negatively.
"We seem to look on the negative things because it gives people an opportunity to jump on his back again which I think is completely wrong.
"I am not trying to flip it over but if a defender fouls an opposition player in the box, and the referee doesn't give a penalty, that the defender should go up to the referee and say 'that should be a penalty'?" Higginbotham said.
"That is not going to happen. But why is there a difference between the two?
"We are all very quick to judge but we are not in the heat of the battle, on the pitch at that time.
"You need to take a step back, it is what it is. Sterling will have his point of reference on how he should have gone about things."