Newcastle United (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

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***The Return of the King!***

What a fuckin game! My heart's STILL banging away like a demented bongo drum player! How the fuck did we play the way we did in the first 35 minutes, & end up 2-1 down? ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠⊙⁠_⁠ʖ⁠⊙⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

We were all over them, & played a level of cheat code football for the first 25 minutes that was simply out of this world.

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Bernardo's backward flick goal through his legs for the opener was a thing of absolute beauty, & was the very least we deserved.

We were sitting comfortably, & then had a crazy 5 minutes starting with a 60-40 ball in favour of Doku who jumped out of the way of a sliding tackle. The ball broke to Guimarães who played a KDB-esque curling pass in behind our defence to Isak, who sprinted to the edge of the box, turned Walker inside out & curled the ball past Ortega into far right corner to equalise.

We still seemed shook by their goal, when moments later a ball was played to Gordon on our right. Positioned in central midfield, Walker just crawled along behind him like a stoned slug toward our box, & didn't go out wide to engage Gordon, which gave him the freedom of St James' Park.

By the time he woke up to the danger, Gordon was attacking our box against a retreating & backtracking Kyle who was all over the place. But taking nothing away from Gordon, he made a brilliant shift onto his right with a curling finish into the far corner past Ortega to give Newcastle the halftime lead. WTF! \0/

Two individual errors, & two well taken, but undeserved goals based on the balance of play imo!

In the second half we toiled away & dominated possession 86%/14%, but Newcastle just erected a Black & white blockade & battled to frustrate us getting a much deserved equaliser. We continued to struggle to break down their 10-man defence & a change was needed. Enter stage left King Kev!

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KDB was only on for 4 minutes when he received a through ball in the Geordie's midfield. He strode forward looking like there was only a pass out wide to Doku on, but out of the Blue he passed the ball between the defenders legs & into the corner of the net for our equaliser.

We were all over Newcastle at this point & they were clearly playing for the draw, with the hope of snatching a winner on the break.

We kept the pressure on but still looked vulnerable to their sporadic counters. Doku looked like he'd run out of steam & was struggling to get behind the three players Newcastle had marking him. Enter stage right Bobb for Doku!

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Bobb was being similarly frustrated, & at this point I was happy to settle for a point, but still hoping for a miracle winner. So who answered our collective prayers? King Kev! KDB reacted to Bobb's run into the box with a brilliant clip over the top to an on-rushing Oscar, & what a sublime winner from the kid!

I couldn't believe how Bobb perfectly timed his run, shrugged off Trippier & played a one-two off his left then right boot whilst off balance & punched the ball past their keeper for the last gasp, added time winner! My head nearly blew the fuck off! :-)

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Hard fought wins like this can make a season, & we certainly showed our mettle. The difference maker was our Ginger Prince. Without KDB, at best I reckon we might have scraped a draw, but he stepped up on instinct & saved our bacon, so he's easily my MoTM.

I've no idea what Walker must be going through mentally, but he needs to sort his blummin shed out. Why he left Gordon alone for so long, which led to Newcastle's second just beggars belief.

This was one of the PL games of the season & thankfully we emerged the victor to keep the pressure on the Dippers, Arse & Villa.

We've clearly benefitted physically from another mid-season week off, but our defensive frailties nearly cost us again in a game we dominated from start to finish.

Hopefully the winter break & warm weather training camp in Abu Dhabi will sharpen us up & give us time for Ederson, Haaland, Akanji & Stones to return from injury.

When our season resumes, we need to stop being so profligate in front of goal & so shaky defensively, otherwise we'll be punished at White Hart Lane where we're still to score a goal in Spud's new stadium.

All said & done, it was a good day in the end.
 
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Loved that performance attacking wise anyway, that's the best I've seen us this season. Defensively we looked like we could concede every time they came forward.
Rodri amazing motm by a distance, great performances by Phil, Kev, and an underrated Kovacic.
What a way to win the game as well, brilliant footwork by Bob Oscar. Give him a start at Tottenham please Pep
 
Great goals all around, a thrilling tie.... Fair result from a stats view.
Bernie magic, great ball from both Walker and Doku.
KDB s goal was divine, great to see tbe return of the king. Usually it takes 3 games to break a player back into the team. Wow.
Bobb.... what a run, touch, composure, quick feet and finish. Amazing goal. Great ball from Kev and Bobb done the rest.
CTID.
 
Eccles Blue said:
I couldn’t watch it all but there was one period in the second half when Walker was on the wing one second then I blinked and he was in the middle running toward the goal passing the ball superbly to someone as he went. I had to rewind to check it was definitely him!!
The hug Pep gave him at the end was heartwarming. :-)
Click to expand...
Yea no matter anyone’s views on walkers erm behaviour. You have to admire how the boss deals with it. Clearly cares a lot about the player. Nice touch, no one is perfect, well apart from Kevin -:)
 
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