The Week For Newcastle United 11

mattlewis89
2 days ago
6 min read

It was a comfortable night’s work at St James Park last night as Newcastle United dispatched of Athletic Bilbao with relative ease. Truth be told it was an average game with glimpses of quality during the game. The standout moment was Dan Burn’s header to put us 1-0 up. The ball in from Trippier was outstanding, lack of marking from Bilbao left Burn free for the header but how it curled in the back of the net was a joy to behold and will be a goal that will stick in the mind. Joelinton scored early in the second half to effectively end any concern that we would drop points and the second half petered out to a solid win.

I am happy Joelinton scored and his omission from the Brazil squad could give us a very fired up player after the international break. There will always be a worry about him getting suspended especially with his Xhaka battle looming but do think the lack of an international break will benefit him and our team for the busy December months.

As for our Champions League campaign we have given ourselves a near perfect platform to qualify for at minimum the play offs. I said in my article after the champions league draw that we had to be looking for 7-9 points from our 1st 4 games and we have the 9 which is brilliant. 11 points was enough last season to get into the top 24 so you would think 4 points would be enough to secure that. Of course we have to think big and hope we can qualify in the top 8 but first and foremost let’s get the play offs secured and go from there.

A disaster against West Ham

In the stands at Colchester and someone updated us on the score in London to say Murphy had given us the lead at the London Stadium and I could be forgiven for thinking “Excellent, could be a nice triple win for me today” (Both Newcastle’s and Ciren town Ladies)

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Obviously knew the final score which was already baffling but once I got back to London Victoria and looked at the highlights, checked out match reactions and write ups it was evident that the performance was extremely poor and equally concerning. West Ham are a side we have a good record against anyway and factor in their own league struggles to leave with not even a point is a bit of a shambles. Seeing the game back, West Ham deserved to win but we didn’t help ourselves. Nick Pope maybe should have done better for the 1^st goal, and the 3^rd goal was poor goalkeeping.

The result leaves us in 13^th in the table after ten games with the LWLWL inconsistencies in the league that are worrying.

We are still relatively early in the season but the game against Brentford feels like a big one for a few reasons.

1. We need a response after West Ham- Bilbao result was half of it and a positive performance and result against Brentford would be the other half.

2. As Supporters we can into the international Break positively- A win at Brentford would break away streak and give us 7 wins in our last 9 in all competitions.

3. The other fixtures this weekend- This weekend sees 2^nd Vs 3^rd 1^st vs 4^th 6^th Vs 8^th 9^th vs 10^th. The likelihood of all those games being draws is slim so if we lost or drew were going to see ourselves cut even more adrift of the positions, we expect to be challenging for.

4. The Volume of Fixtures after the next international break- After the international break we play 11 games in 39 days. That run includes 2 away Champions League ties, the away Tyne/Wear derby, A league cup QF, Dodgy away games at Everton and Burnley and Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd on Boxing Day. I know we have to take each game as it comes and on it’s own merit but with the amount of games during that period I think it’s vital we get a result against one of the “Lesser” League sides away from home.

A win for the Lasses

The first game of the “interim era” brought an impressive 4-1 win over relegation candidates Ipswich Town. We continued our goalscoring form hitting our 11^th goal in the last 4 games (8 in the league) Hayles scored either side of the half to seal the game. Even when they pulled it back to 2-1 I felt we would have enough quality to get the result and on the hour, Molly Pike scored to seal the win and some gloss added with Emily Murphy getting the 4^th in stoppage time.

Molly Pike was excellent in midfield and deserved her goal, Jordan Nobbs is starting to show her quality gradually and hopefully that can help us build up a bit of a head of steam. My wife is less enthusiastic about Jordan Nobbs this week. Nothing to do with football have just spent the whole week alternating singing her new chant and a modified Christmas song. Jemma Purfield coming off the bench was also a great sight as well adding more squad depth for whomever takes over from Becky Langley.

I would have been shocked and concerned had we not beat Ipswich, but we still had to so the job and play what was in front of us and we did that superbly. The league table looks a lot healthier and adding that 2^nd win of the season hopefully kick starts a spell of momentum in the league. Shout out to the fans who came down to Colchester another brilliant away day on and off the pitch.

We play Durham on Sunday who did the double over us last season and I hope we can put thar right this Sunday. Due to some incorrect scheduling information, I am missing the Durham game which is frustrating 1^st league game I have missed since Ironically Durham at Kingston Park last season. The Atmosphere will be similar to last season. This is Durham’s big home fixture of the season, and their fans will act as such but adding another win before our big home fixture will be another step in the right direction.

Becky Langley released a statement following her departure (Pinned at the bottom) and showed class as she always has. Once again Thank you Becky.

Under 18s with another win, Defeat for the Under 21s but hope is there.

The under 21s couldn’t follow up their 1^st win of the season and we defeated by now top of Premier League 2 Ipswich Town. The Under 21s have one more Premier League 2 game this weekend before heading into a period of cup games.

The Under 18s move back up to 3rd in a very congested Under 18s Premier League. Matheos Ferreira was on the score sheet and was rewarded with a start against Bilbao in the UFEA Youth League. He played well in the 1^st half and won the penalty for Sean Neave.

We did lose to Bilbao’s U19s, but it was a spirited performance against a top European Youth side, and we had chances to get something from the game. Sean Neave scored from the spot.

Both U18s and U21s play Burnley at the weekend before the Under 21s head off to a Harrogate game with nothing on it following Huddersfield’s win earlier in the week. That game will be on Sky so will look forward to watching it.

Other News

More changes behind the scenes as Peter Silverstone leaves Newcastle and will now need to appoint a new Chief commercial officer. David Hopkinson clearly has a new vision in mind for the boardroom and that is very visible during his 100 day review.

The weeks Results