The Week For Newcastle United 8
- mattlewis89
- Oct 10
- 5 min read
Sunday saw a win, draw and defeat for 3 of our teams but to be honest being down at Sutton for the draw it felt like a win.
The Win
The lads got a much-needed win over Nottingham Forest picking up their 2nd league win of the season and an incredible 6th clean sheet out of 10 in all competitions.
I cannot comment too much on the game itself but from what I have seen from the highlights and subsequent reading it took us until the 2nd half to get going and we did about as much as needed to get the win against a struggling Nottingham Forest side. Bruno scored a fantastic goal to open the scoring and Woltemade scored his 4th of the season and impressively 3/3 in the premier league as well.
The international break may look like it has come at a bad time but on the flip side of that, Brighton are one of our bogey teams, especially away where we haven’t beat them since a championship win in 2017, so the international break may offer an opportunity to unsettle that run on our return.
It also starts the next big run of fixtures that come with being a European side. We play 7 games in 22 days which include 3 away premier league games as well as two crucial home Champions league games. It will be another test on our squad, and we can only hope that the international break doesn’t create any further problems for us on the injury front.
Nick Woltemade has been called up to the Germany squad. Anothony Gordon and Dan Burn are part of the England squad who beat Wales 3-0 yesterday and will play Latvia on Tuesday. Leo Shahar will be part of the England under 19s squad. Of course, Sandro Tonali will be part of the Italy squad and with games against Estonia and Israel hope his national coach doesn’t take any risks with him. The same sentiments about risk apply to Carlo Ancholtti as Brazil travel to Asia for two games during this break where Bruno has already secured an assist and Anthony Elanga is part of the Sweden squad who have made a stuttering start to their World Cup Qualifying Campaign. They face Switzerland and Kosovo who both sit above them currently in qualifying and Alex Murphy will be a part of the Republic of Ireland under 21s set up.
In other 1st team news Nick Pope has been nominated for September’s fans player of the month award. Despite all the noise about Ramsdale potentially replacing him (Including from me) he has shown consistency overall, kept us in games and been reliable most of the games he has played this season.
The Draw
As I said at the beginning, there was ever a drew game that felt like a win it was Sunday. Crystal Palace are a good side and the position they are in the league is a bit false in my opinion. Yes, I have only saw the game against us but looking at their squad, I expect them to be there or there abouts come the end of the season. After losing over 70% of their league games last season it was always going to take a bit of adjustment to being back in the second tier. Credit to their fans on the day as well because they were singing most of the game as well. (Not quite as much as the toon though “We sing for our subs”
The 0-0 1st half was a tight affair, and I said to someone at half time this looks like a 1-0 either way. It was Palace who took the lead about ten minutes after half time and followed that with a second goal just under 20 minutes after. Subs were made just after Palaces 2nd and the determination to never give up was rewarded on 87 minutes when new fan favourite Oona Sevenius netted her 1st goal for the club, to a thunderous reaction from the away end. The comeback was completed when Morgan Gautrat whipped in a corner to what we thought at the time to be bundled in but watching the game after it was straight from the corner. She also assisted Oona’s goal so a big day for American superstar.
Every player can be proud of their performance that game after those three defeats in a week. The guts and determination to fight for everything and that never give up attitude that will get points for us that may not be there will be crucial as we tackle this increasingly competitive season on a game-by-game basis. Birmingham got beat at the weekend at home, Charlton are top and look the side to beat but only the bottom 3 have scored less than them so that may become a problem for them at some point. The league is very open we saw the point exchanges happening again and will continue to happen and as I said have said previously its going to be about who hits that purple patch of form at the right time.
The takeaway from Sunday is a positive one for sure, it was one of my favourite away days for the comeback and the great atmosphere amongst our fans, but also as what I hope turns out to be a positive turning point moment for the season.
Jasmine Mcquade and Charlotte Wardlaw has been called up to the Scotland Under 23’s Squad for the women’s international break as well as Freya Gregory for Scotland’s senior side.
The Defeat
The defeat almost inevitably came for our under 21s as they were defeated 4-1 by spurs. At half time we were drawing 1-1, thanks to an equaliser by Irish Centre back Heffernan. The stats at half suggested we were in the game, and the core stats were evenly spread across both sides but the second half it seemed like it unravelled with Spurs 3 goals, superior possession and shot count and our young magpies not being able to register a single shot on target in the second half.
There was a similar sense of unravelling when I saw the cup result for our under 18s. On 59 minutes the U18s were drawing 1-1 but the final score saw us beat 7-1 and dropping 3rd in the group.
Midweek
Wednesday saw the U21s get a break from league action as they played there second national league cup fixture. A competition that represented our only win for the season.
The Under 21s secured their 2nd win of the tournament and campaign with an impressive 3-1 win against Boston United. Boston hadn’t been in great form in the league but in this competition, they had won three out of three against the U21 sides, so we know we had to perform. In the first half we were excellent. Sean Neave scored a first half hat trick and all three of the goals, including the penalty were composed finishes, Park showed a lot of skill and quality with his creativity and his assists during the game. We can’t get too excited because it was against a national league side but if we can use that as a platform for the league games then our league form might take an upturn. Sean Neave with 7 goals for the season is an impressive return regardless of our form so hopefully he can keep that going.
The Lasses U21s played against Aston Villa this week and suffered another heavy defeat. As the academy grows, I’m sure improvements will appear on the pitch but the most important thing for the young lasses is develop in the right environment.
Fixtures
Sunday 12th October Newcastle United Women Vs Bristol City (WSL 2)
Wednesday 15th October Mansfield Town Vs Newcastle United U21s (EFL Trophy)
Wednesday 15th October Manchester United Women’s U21s Vs Newcastle United Women Under 21s (PGA Academy)
Tables
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