Saturday’s match ended Newcastle 2 Everton 3.
Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the game.
Plenty to talk about after this Everton one…
A match that saw Newcastle United work so hard to twice get back into the game, only to instantly concede again both times.
On this occasion it is ‘Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey…’:
POSITIVES
The Tinker Man
Eddie Howe is often criticised for not changing things when it isn’t happening. Yesterday showed the manager’s willingness to move players around and make substitutions.
When Nick Woltemade looked lost in that deeper role, he was deployed up top, Anthony Gordon moving to the left where Joelinton had looked out of sorts.
After the change, we were the better side.
Lewis Hall my MOTM, Tonali covering every blade of grass and big Joe with a crafty assist for Murphy.
Jacob Ramsey
A great goal from Ramsey to get us level.
I thought the former Villa player did well yesterday, until a case of vomiting before the second half began led to his departure.
That’s two goals in his last four starts and he also set up Lewis Hall for his goal at Man City.
It was a real shame the lad went off feeling unwell, something that was maybe brewing from the outset, which if true makes that first half performance stand out even further.
Without those mistakes….
I’ll get to the negative aspects concerning these later, but without those two errors, I think we’d have won.
Everton had a game plan and deployed it to great effect, but Newcastle United showed patience and guile to get back into the game, not once, but twice.
We also dominated possession and in my book were unfortunate not to get something, Tonali’s thunderbolt turned onto the crossbar by the Everton keeper in the dying embers.
NEGATIVES
Critical Errors
We all know what occurred. Game changing errors.
Nick Pope spilled Dwight McNeil’s nothing of a shot, allowing Beto to put the Toffees back in front after Jacob Ramsey had levelled for United. A real howler from our Number 1.
Then immediately after Jacob Murphy had got us level again, this time at 2-2, Anthony Gordon dilly-dallied and lost the ball, allowing the impressive Ndiaye to thread the ball to Dewsbury-Hall, whose cross was somehow bundled over the line by Thierno Barry; Lewis Hall doing his best to avoid the impending disaster, but to no avail.
Fickle Fans
Everyone is entitle to an opinion but I’m growing a bit weary of some of it.
I sit in Level 7. Gordon berated as a Scouse [choose expletive of your choice] by some and booed by them as he left the park.
Just before Tonali’s thunderbolt, an idiot leaving the stadium loudly and obnoxiously calling for Howe’s head, telling him to do one, but using more colourful language than I’m describing.
Then, a case of boos from some inside St James’ Park as the final whistle sounded.
Like I say, opinions are what we all have and are fully entitled to, but some of the bile being spewed right now just isn’t on.
FA Cup Fifth Round next Saturday, a trip to Las Ramblas (or the Passeig de Gracia for the more culturally refined) shortly afterwards. Some folk need to give their heads a shake.
And, how about this for an original thought. If you’re fortunate enough to be in the stadium, why not lend the lads a hand by cheering them on?
Bruno Guimaraes
Boy, did we miss our talismanic captain yesterday? And boy, do we miss him more generally?
I think I’m correct in suggesting the last time Newcastle United won a Premier League game without Bruno in the starting eleven was against Brighton in May 2022, when we beat the Seagulls 2-1, the mercurial Brazilian on the bench that day.
We know he’ll be out for several more matches, all coming in quick succession, so we need to find a way without him, otherwise what promises to be an exciting climax to an already topsy turvy season might turn out to be a damp squib.
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