Eddie Howe’s Newcastle Utd lived up to their recent billing as the new Entertainers as they came away from the City Ground Nottingham with three points on a rain-soaked evening that produced five goals.
In what was a back and forth encounter Howe’s team lead twice in a hectic first forty fiver minutes only to be pegged back by a resolute and fast paced Nottingham Forest side hell bent on doing the double over the magpies and in so doing stopping the blip that had seen them pick up only one league point out since the turn of the year; a far cry from the first two games under Nuno Espirito’s management when they gained back to back win’s against Newcastle Utd and Manchester Utd over the Christmas period.
Twice Newcastle went ahead with goals from Bruno Guimarães and Fabien Schar, only to be pegged back by strikes from Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi; the latter goal coming on the stroke of halftime.
Newcastle’s opener in the 10th minute came from a clever corner routine that saw Almiron play short to Kieran Tripper who whipped in a fine ball towards the far post where an unmarked Guimaraes had timed his run to perfection. The Brazilian, with both feet off the ground placed his shot beautifully with the outside of his right foot past a despairing Mat Sels; a finish that brought back memories of a similar though slightly more acrobatic finish by Paolo Di Canio all those years ago. A goal described at the time as a wonder goal!
Forest were level on 26 minutes when Morgan Gibbs White, seeing the entire Newcastle midfield stranded up field played a sublimely weighted pass that split the Newcastle defence into the path of the on running Anthony Elanga, whose paced saw him outrun both Dan Burn and Sven Botman before sliding his shot past the onrushing Martin Dubravka.
On 43 minutes Newcastle were ahead again from a free kick which was floated into the Forest box where it was met by Sven Botman. The Dutchman duly headed the ball into the path of Fabien Schar who fired past Sels to restore the lead.
It looked at this point that Newcastle would go into half time with a 2:1 lead but with 6 minutes of added time being played Callum Hudson Adoi, picked the ball up on the left edge of the penalty area and with nobody in a blue shirt closing him down he watched as his speculative effort on goal took a deflection off Lewis Miley to wrongfoot Dubravka and nestle into his net.
So; 2:2 at half time and while the travelling black and whites went for a well-earned drink to replenish their parched throats; those at home were left to question the performance not of their team but of the shockingly biased and hyper critical co-commentary Sky Pundit Andy Hinchcliffe. A man hell bent on pinning any negative word he could find on the magpies’ chests.
And the tv viewing public were not saved from such talk from Sky’s half time punditry aas the critical opinion of Issy Christensen and Jamie Redknapp saw both struggle to have a good word to say about Newcastle’s performance so far. Christensen in particular described Bruno’s exquisite goal as a “safe finish, just guiding the ball back across the goal” while Redknapp nodded like a little dog sitting on the dash of his father’s car as daddy conducted an impromptu piece to camera from the driver’s seat.
Apparently, these so-called experts get well paid too!
The second half started much like the latter part of the first, with Forest eager to gain the upper hand in their efforts to gain three points but they were not going to get any assistance from referee Anthony Taylor who waved away their demands for a penalty in the 60th minute after Taiwo Awoniyi ran into Dubravka's outstretched arm and claimed in doing so that the keeper had caused him to tumble down and miss out on a goalscoring opportunity. Both Taylor and his colleagues in the VAR booth disagreed.
With the game starting to stretch Eddie Howe made a tactical switch that saw Guimarães move inside from the previous left midfield berth that he had previously occupied as Harvey Barnes replaced Almiron and that tweak saw the Brazilian begin to exert even more of his presence on the game in a forward central midfield role that he had in the first half down the left.
And six minutes later the move paid off when the Brazilian Picked off a poor pass from Elanga towards the static Gibbs White. before steadying himself, looking up and picking his spot past the forest keeper from the edge of the box.
Howe made a further tactical change in the 81st minute replacing Lewis Miley with Tino Livramento bringing in some fresh legs and the opportunity tighten up the back line should Forest come searching for their third equalizer of the game.
But that search wasn’t forthcoming, and Newcastle saw out the remaining minutes with ease; even bringing on Emil Krafth for Anthony Gordon in time added on.
Bruno was rightly named man of the match for what was a wonderful performance. Two goals; a grin as wide as the Tyne and fears of any release clause forgotten in the joy of watching him simply exude his wonderful presence in a Newcastle shirt.
The Victory lifted Newcastle up to seventh in the table 11 points off fourth placed Spurs and speaking after the game Bruno told Sky Sports "We have to get Europe again, try for Champions League, I know it's difficult but definitely for Europa League."
And Captain Kieran Tripper, who had a fine game reiterated Bruno’s opinion saying Newcastle have a "never say never" attitude towards qualifying for Europe's premier competition.
In what was a back and forth encounter Howe’s team lead twice in a hectic first forty fiver minutes only to be pegged back by a resolute and fast paced Nottingham Forest side hell bent on doing the double over the magpies and in so doing stopping the blip that had seen them pick up only one league point out since the turn of the year; a far cry from the first two games under Nuno Espirito’s management when they gained back to back win’s against Newcastle Utd and Manchester Utd over the Christmas period.
Twice Newcastle went ahead with goals from Bruno Guimarães and Fabien Schar, only to be pegged back by strikes from Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi; the latter goal coming on the stroke of halftime.
Newcastle’s opener in the 10th minute came from a clever corner routine that saw Almiron play short to Kieran Tripper who whipped in a fine ball towards the far post where an unmarked Guimaraes had timed his run to perfection. The Brazilian, with both feet off the ground placed his shot beautifully with the outside of his right foot past a despairing Mat Sels; a finish that brought back memories of a similar though slightly more acrobatic finish by Paolo Di Canio all those years ago. A goal described at the time as a wonder goal!
Forest were level on 26 minutes when Morgan Gibbs White, seeing the entire Newcastle midfield stranded up field played a sublimely weighted pass that split the Newcastle defence into the path of the on running Anthony Elanga, whose paced saw him outrun both Dan Burn and Sven Botman before sliding his shot past the onrushing Martin Dubravka.
On 43 minutes Newcastle were ahead again from a free kick which was floated into the Forest box where it was met by Sven Botman. The Dutchman duly headed the ball into the path of Fabien Schar who fired past Sels to restore the lead.
It looked at this point that Newcastle would go into half time with a 2:1 lead but with 6 minutes of added time being played Callum Hudson Adoi, picked the ball up on the left edge of the penalty area and with nobody in a blue shirt closing him down he watched as his speculative effort on goal took a deflection off Lewis Miley to wrongfoot Dubravka and nestle into his net.
So; 2:2 at half time and while the travelling black and whites went for a well-earned drink to replenish their parched throats; those at home were left to question the performance not of their team but of the shockingly biased and hyper critical co-commentary Sky Pundit Andy Hinchcliffe. A man hell bent on pinning any negative word he could find on the magpies’ chests.
And the tv viewing public were not saved from such talk from Sky’s half time punditry aas the critical opinion of Issy Christensen and Jamie Redknapp saw both struggle to have a good word to say about Newcastle’s performance so far. Christensen in particular described Bruno’s exquisite goal as a “safe finish, just guiding the ball back across the goal” while Redknapp nodded like a little dog sitting on the dash of his father’s car as daddy conducted an impromptu piece to camera from the driver’s seat.
Apparently, these so-called experts get well paid too!
The second half started much like the latter part of the first, with Forest eager to gain the upper hand in their efforts to gain three points but they were not going to get any assistance from referee Anthony Taylor who waved away their demands for a penalty in the 60th minute after Taiwo Awoniyi ran into Dubravka's outstretched arm and claimed in doing so that the keeper had caused him to tumble down and miss out on a goalscoring opportunity. Both Taylor and his colleagues in the VAR booth disagreed.
With the game starting to stretch Eddie Howe made a tactical switch that saw Guimarães move inside from the previous left midfield berth that he had previously occupied as Harvey Barnes replaced Almiron and that tweak saw the Brazilian begin to exert even more of his presence on the game in a forward central midfield role that he had in the first half down the left.
And six minutes later the move paid off when the Brazilian Picked off a poor pass from Elanga towards the static Gibbs White. before steadying himself, looking up and picking his spot past the forest keeper from the edge of the box.
Howe made a further tactical change in the 81st minute replacing Lewis Miley with Tino Livramento bringing in some fresh legs and the opportunity tighten up the back line should Forest come searching for their third equalizer of the game.
But that search wasn’t forthcoming, and Newcastle saw out the remaining minutes with ease; even bringing on Emil Krafth for Anthony Gordon in time added on.
Bruno was rightly named man of the match for what was a wonderful performance. Two goals; a grin as wide as the Tyne and fears of any release clause forgotten in the joy of watching him simply exude his wonderful presence in a Newcastle shirt.
The Victory lifted Newcastle up to seventh in the table 11 points off fourth placed Spurs and speaking after the game Bruno told Sky Sports "We have to get Europe again, try for Champions League, I know it's difficult but definitely for Europa League."
And Captain Kieran Tripper, who had a fine game reiterated Bruno’s opinion saying Newcastle have a "never say never" attitude towards qualifying for Europe's premier competition.