A big chance to move into the top half and make it three wins on the bounce was spurned at St James’ Park as our Tuesday night clash with Spurs ended 2-2.
After taking the lead twice in a mad second half, first through a brilliant Bruno Guimaraes strike and again via an Anthony Gordon penalty, a Cristian Romero brace and a 95th-minute equaliser saw us throw away points at the death once again on Tyneside.
Newcastle have now dropped 11 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, with a painful end to a game we really should have won made even worse when you consider our dominant first half and the soft nature of Romero’s scrappy second, which Aaron Ramsdale will not want to see again,
The result sees us move up ti 13th, leapfrogging only Bournemouth after their loss tonight, but risks us losing further ground on the likes of Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa, who all have winnable games over the next 48 hours.
Howe made two changes from Saturday, seeing Bruno Guimaraes get a rare rest and Anthony Elanga drop out to make way for the return of Sandro Tonali and Jacob Murphy.
Newcastle XI: Ramsdale – Livramento, Thiaw, Burn, Hall – Miley, Joelinton, Tonali – Murphy, Woltemade, Barnes
Subs: Ruddy, Schar, Guimaraes, Gordon, Elanga, Willock, A.Murphy, Ramsey, Neave
Spurs XI: Vicario – Porro, Romero, Danso, Udogie -Bentancur, Sarr, Bergvall – Kudus, Johnson, Kolo-Muani
The first half was dominant in nearly every metric but the scoreline, as we barely let Spurs out their own half for the first 30 minutes, saw a Hall masterclass at left-back, won so many duels and went closest through Joelinton’s low shot off the post.
Hall and Miley had efforts saved, Woltemade headed over and we were constantly forcing them back, but did have two scares from nowhere as Hall stopped what would’ve been a Kudus tap in and Bergvall flicked over.
One criticism was our set piece delivery, which was consistently poor, with Tonali failing to beat the first man a few too many times and Hall not doing much better in what was otherwise a superb first half display from our marauding wing back.
Heading into the second 45, Howe made one change as Bruno came on for Tonali, with the Brazilian moving to that holding role as we attacked the Gallowgate end.
We came close again through Barnes and efforts from Woltemade and Tino that were stopped on the line, then changes came just after the hour mark as Gordon and Elanga replaced Barnes and Murphy.
After that, the chaos commenced in a crazy final 30 minutes, starting with a moment of magic from Bruno to curl into the far corner, sending us 1-0 up and St James’ wild; but not for long as a Kudus cross and clever Romero header drew Spurs level within 10 minutes of our opener.
A soft foul on Burn won us a penalty thanks to VAR intervention which Gordon converted emphatically, making so many on Tyneside believe THAT was the goal to secure the win. However, we sat deep too soon, saw so many sloppy giveaways from Burn and Joelinton, and then paid the price deep into nine minutes of stoppage time as Romero scored again…somehow.
It was an impressive overhead kick in some ways, but how Ramsdale doesn’t react quick enough to stop what was a weak shot (albeit through a few bodies) is beyond me, ensuring two points dropped as we failed to control or see out a chaotic second half that we took the lead in twice.
The standout performer was Hall, who did tire towards the end but offered so much own our left, winning battle against Kudus early on, getting out of tight spaces with ease and playing some lovely balls down the line, but it was a Jekyll and Hyde display from others, with Joelinton a prime suspect, as his strong first half showing turned into a second half stinker.
Next up, we welcome welcome second bottom Burnley to St James’ Park on Saturday before away games at Bayer Leverkusen and Sunderland next week.
Keep the faith!
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