It was a sobering Sunday afternoon at St James’ Park, as Newcastle were second best for the majority of a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa.
Would it have been a different game had Tonali taken that big chance in the opening minute? Almost certainly. But we struggled to hit anything close to top gear for much of the match, falling short on and off the ball as Villa slowed down the match at every opportunity.
Howe made one change from midweek, as Miley replaced the injured Bruno. In better news, though, both Burn and Osula were back in the squad for the first time in well over a month.
We came flying out of the traps and so nearly scored within a minute, as Tonali jinked his way into the box and saw a low strike saved by Martinez’s legs. A period of pressure followed, but aside from a lively opening 10 minutes and one Miley header saved brilliantly, Villa edged the first 45.
The goal was another poor one to concede. As we’d seen too often in a frustrating first half, we didn’t react quick enough, sat off Buendia and saw the Argentine curl in past Pope from outside the box.
In between that and the break we saw yet more poor refereeing at St James’ Park, plenty time wasting from Martinez and a customary yellow card for Joelinton, who left two on the deck before picking up a caution.
We looked slow to react at times, open on the counter and like a team missing both Bruno’s creativity – especially his ability to take responsibility on the ball – and struggling to hit the heights physically after playing in midweek.
The second half started with exactly what we didn’t need; another injury. Joelinton seemed to feel his groin and Ramsey came on against his other club. Villa were sitting deep, giving us little room to play in aside from a Trippier cross that Barnes and Gordon both failed to capitalise on.
Our attack just wasn’t clicking. Gordon wasn’t getting much change out of Cash, Barnes was trying but struggling to get himself into good positions and Wissa looked like a player struggling to start his third game in a week. Mix that in with Villa’s low block and the Iack creativity without Bruno, and you can see why we were struggling.
Woltemade and Elanga both came on, although nothing really changed. Big Nick barely got a touch and while Elanga gave us an outlet, showed bursts of pace and put one good ball in, the pattern continued and we never really looked like scoring.
Then a game that was already drifting away from us was put to bed. A Digne cross found Watkins at the back post and that was that. 2-0 Villa, St James’ Park emptied and with that came our first league defeat at home in many a month, seeing us miss a our chance to close the gap on Villa and move back into the top six.
Miley was impressive once again, displaying an outstanding all-round game, and both Botman and Thiaw did little wrong once again, but it was the lack of creativity in midfield or cohesion across the front three that saw us blank for the third time in our last four games.
Next up, the small matter of PSG away on Wednesday before a trip to Liverpool in the league next Saturday night.
Keep the faith. Howay the lads!
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