7th January 2026. EPL
Well, having had a few hours to ponder the events at St James’ last night… I still feel the same! Our naivety, inexperience, lack of game management and this constant ability to give the opposition soft goals have done us again. Going forward, we were brilliant but in defence, less so. We should have won on Sunday and last night.
I don’t like highlighting
individual players for shortcomings, but I’m going to mention Lucas Perri
again, as I have done several times before. I honestly do not think he is good
enough, certainly not worth the £15 million we paid or whatever it was. Last
night’s defeat is not solely his fault, but we saw again how feeble he can be
and how slow his reactions are. Even the disallowed Newcastle goal as early as
the 14th minute showed how poor he can be; he had the ball in his grasp, yet
the slightest contact with Schar made him drop it! You can tell by the way he
fell to his knees in disgust with himself that he knew he’d messed up, thinking
he’d gifted away a goal, and we really did get away with one there. Equally, we
can tell what Daniel Farke thought of his weak attempt to keep out that
last-second Harvey Barnes mishit effort by listening to his post-match
interview with Bryn and Tony. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: he
isn’t good enough, and, just like Meslier last season, he is starting to cost
us big time. Rant over.
However, as I already mentioned, the defeat was not all his fault. Going forward, last night Leeds were superb, possibly as good as we’ve seen all season; in defence, though, we continued to show how very vulnerable we can be. Maybe it is the very quality of our pressing that is actually leaving us open to counterattacks. I’m no coach, but it looks like that – our press last night was superb, with central defenders and forwards alike pressing high up the pitch to harry and dispossess the Toon midfield. We saw it with the early shot for Anton Stach when we had DCL, Aaronson, Gruev, Struijk and Stach all down in the Leeds left-forward corner! That shot was straight at Pope, but minutes later, the Leeds press by DCL caused Thiaw to slip, DCL pushed the ball through to on-running Aaronson, and Brenden finished with a perfect shot. The little American is in the form of his life, and, even though he can be pushed off the ball too easily on occasion, even last night, his all-round play is now central to how Leeds operate and we just have to remember that if Brenden was perfect, he’d be at Real Madrid not Leeds!
Of course, within a few minutes Leeds had handed the Toon an equaliser. This time, failing to clear a ball bobbling around in our box, players hesitated, watched, and didn't take control, and Barnes punished us, giving Perri no chance with that one. Maybe I’m being too hard on our defence, you tell me, but I’ve just cringed watching it back.
We allowed a bouncing ball through to strike our woodwork, too, before we got the penalty break just before halftime. I’m critical of our defence, but the way the hapless Thiaw then tried to swipe away a ball with his hand was equally as daft! DCL put the spot-kick away for a ninth goal of the season for him. Should the consequence of this handball and the accidental one by Aaronson later have been the same?
On another day, Brenden might
have got his second goal just after the break when Anton Stach burst through
the middle, but this time Pope’s foot stopped the shot. And of course, typical
of our luck, the Toon were then able to go down the other end and equalise.
Again. It wasn’t great defending by Leeds again on several counts. First, I
think Gruev thought the ball was going to run over the byline when it was
prodded through, and perhaps we saw how the intense Christmas period was
finally affecting us – willing the ball out rather than chasing to make sure.
Ironically, it was Gruev, seconds earlier, who uncharacteristically let the
ball go out of play, handing possession to the Toon. Anyway, Lewis Miley didn’t
give it up, and then he had loads of space to find Guimaraes, also not being
closed down, and his clever ‘outside of the boot’ clip into the box found
Joelinton, throwing himself ahead of the static Joe Rodon to head past Perri.
Should Perri have reached it? Again, maybe I’m being too harsh, but once again,
Perri didn’t exactly seem to be flying across his line to me. It’s all these
little errors or moments of hesitancy by all of our defenders that are costing
us, and they are coming from players who, otherwise, are doing a fantastic job.
It’s so frustrating. I know everyone makes mistakes, but it just feels
avoidable. 2-2.
There was some good defending from both sides at times – at 2-2 there were incredible interventions in front of goal at both ends, first DCL being blocked as he slid in and then James Justin doing likewise in front of his own goal. It was that sort of a game – brilliance and tardiness coming almost as regularly. Ampadu then made another amazing sliding block to deny another certain goal, while there was another Keystone Cops moment in the Leeds six-yard box, as it looked more like bagatelle than football, with the ball ping-ponging about and striking the Leeds post. Newcastle were having the majority of the ball and the chances at this point, but when Leeds broke, they too had chances – James Justin unlucky as he rose miles above the home defence to head against the crossbar with Pope well-beaten. We got to the 79th minute like that, and then we thought, surely we’ve won this now, as another slip in midfield left Gruev with the ball and he fed it through for Aaronson. Brenden jinked left and right and then planted a low shot through a defender’s legs and into the corner of the net! 3-2 Leeds and ten minutes of normal time to go. Just close the game out eh, lads?
There were chances for both sides in those final minutes – several Toon corners and a breakaway by Nmecha, on as an 87th-minute sub for Dom Calvert-Lewin. I didn’t think that sub was sensible as we then knew any long clearance would be hoovered up by the home side as Nmecha seldom wins the ball in the air. Okafor was already on for Stach, too, as Anton hit his regular 60-minute wall. We were nearly there, though…
Then old Lady Luck struck, or at least her ugly sister, Bad Luck. I’ve rewatched the alleged handball incident a few times, and there is no doubt that Aaronson raised his arm and that the ball struck it, but was that really clearly inside the penalty area? Did VAR check it, and did they have the right camera angles to confirm it? Why was referee Michael Salisbury so quickly convinced? It beats me, but end of the day, it was at least damn unlucky. Guimarães levelled from the spot. Just close the game out (again), lads.
It is also clear from Farke’s post-match interview that he may now regret making three more substitutions in the 97th minute. It’s what most managers would have done – eat up some time, bolster the defence, etc., etc., get the one point and go home. But it may have worked against us this time.
Willy Gnonto was one of the subs, and in the short space of time he was on, he followed the tone of the game – he did some good stuff, and he did some poor stuff. Was he the right sort of player to throw on to hold what we had? He failed to sprint and keep the ball in play, when it was cleared towards the touchline by Perri. He was then slow to realise the danger as he ran off the pitch with his momentum, failed to hack the ball into row Z, and was then out of the game as Toon took a quick throw. This time the ball was launched in again, Leeds failed to clear, and that annoying bloke Barnes spun, and half hit that bobbler past Perri and even the one point was gone.
It was a sickener, a real sickener, to lose the game at the death in that manner, having, attack-wise anyway, played perhaps our best game of the season at a tough theatre of football. But, that’s the way it goes sometimes. The unbeaten run is gone, and we have to start again. Given how the results have gone again over the last few days, we haven’t done any real damage, although the two points against Man U and at least the one last night would have had us well and truly in the pink. Now we must go again. I fully expect us to play all of the fringe players at Derby in the cup, and, just as happened at Hillsborough in the Carabao Cup, I’d expect us to bow out as we usually do. Then, the next key moment is the home game with Fulham where we MUST maintain our recent performances and we MUST not lose.
Premier League
Newcastle United 4 (Barnes 36’, 90’; Joelinton 55’, Guimarães 90’)
Leeds United 3 (Aaronson 32’, 79’; Calvert-Lewin 45’)
Newcastle: Pope (GK), Hall, Schär (Ramsey 75’), Joelinton, Tonali (Livramento 46’), Gordon (J Murphy 81’), Barnes, Thiaw (Botman 46’), Woltemade (Wissa 75’), Guimarães (C), Miley. Subs not used: Ramsdale (GK), Trippier, Willock, A Murphy.
Leeds: Perri (GK), Gudmundsson, Ampadu (C), Struijk, Rodon (Bornauw 90’), Calvert-Lewin (Nmecha 87’), Aaronson (Gnonto 90’), Bijol, Stach (Okafor 80’), Justin, Gruev (Tanaka 90’). Subs not used: Darlow (GK), Piroe, Harrison, Byram.
Venue: St. James’ Park
Attendance: 52,176
Referee: Michael Salisbury
Booked: Thiaw, Gordon, Joelinton (Newcastle) Calvert-Lewin, Ampadu (Leeds)
