Vox Pop – TF writers reflect on an inspiring night at SJP!

Newcastle United has a pulse, we are alive and kicking . Manchester United won’t be as lucky again to get out of St James with a draw

That was the best performance from us for years. Players who I thought didn’t have the fight in them brought it all as we did what I’ve been crying out for seasons to do. Get into them and f**k them up. They deserved all they got.

But in the cold light of day I will be massively disappointed we haven’t won. Man Utd were rank, we missed a sitter, hit the bar’ and how De Gea clawed that out from Almiron I will never know .

We deserved to win but we missed a golden chance there in my opinion.

It’s a minor gripe to an inspiring performance though which gives me hope at least .

Scott Robson

Good result.’ Excellent performance.’ All else is noise.’ We can agonise over ASM’s missed chance just after half-time and wonder what might have been.’ We can curse our luck that Murphy’s shot came back off the inside of the post.

We can also worry about Wilson’s injury.’ But tonight was a performance to savour, and the point could be a crucial one.’ If recent results and performances had dented the side’s confidence, there was no evidence of that here.’ For that, the manager deserves credit, as does the captain.’ Jamaal Lascelles has taken plenty of criticism lately (and justifiably so) but this was not a side lacking leadership or heart.’ He must take his share of the credit.

There was plenty of quality too, most encouragingly in the combative, all-action midfield displays of Joelinton and Longstaff.’ Big Jo and Little Sean (I know, they sound like an acoustic duo you’d see at The Cluny as a warm-up act) were both superb, with Longstaff, in particular, producing the kind of display that had yesterday’s opponents sniffing around not so long ago.

I don’t want to get carried away by their performances (they’ve produced plenty of bad ones, and we can’t just point the finger for that at the now-departed army of Steves) but if Howe and Tindall can get either, or even both of them, delivering performances of that calibre in central midfield on a regular basis, maybe we don’t have as much of a problem in the engine room as I’d feared.’ In my pre-match vox pop, I said that I thought Hayden would be a big miss, as our only combative central midfielder.’ I was wrong, and I’m delighted about that.

Because we won the midfield battle, it freed up ASM and Shelvey, and particularly Fraser (who gave his best performance in a black and white shirt, and was a nuisance all evening), to focus on creating, which they duly did.’ It also eased the pressure on a defence that had become habitually over-worked and error-prone.’ In short, while there were solid performances all over the pitch, it all comes back to those two in central midfield.

They dominated, and as a result, so did we.’ I feel more optimistic about our prospects of survival than I did 24 hours ago, and more proud of our team than I have for a very long time.’ Howay Eddie’s Mags!

Yousef Hatem

Manchester United made the visit to St James Park in the final home game of 2021 for The Magpies as Eddie Howe and his boys once more have the opportunity to show that they are worthy of their position in the Premier League.

The Magpies could only name 8 players on the bench as they suffered a shortage of numbers due to Covid-19 and injuries.

The visitors got the game underway and the hosts started brightly spurred on by the Geordie Faithful. The fans didn’t have to wait long before the first goal was scored in the 8^th minute and it was by the French wizard Allan Saint-Maximin who showed what he can do by neatly tucking it away from just inside the penalty area after being laid off by Sean Longstaff.

The belief and intensity from the home side continued for the rest of the first half and they deserved to go into the break in the lead. What will be worrying for the Newcastle United fans is their Number 9 going off just before half time with what looked like a calf injury and he was replaced by Jacob Murphy. They have however made Manchester United look like a bang average Sunday league team which isn’t something that happens easily.

The second half started with the same intensity by the hosts and Allan Saint-Maximin had the chance to double the lead just after the restart when Emil Krafth’s cross found the French man unmarked but he couldn’t find that connection to tuck it home.Saint-Maximin tested De Gea once more with an effort from long range after twisting and turning his way through the Manchester defence. The visitors finally got their equaliser in the 71^st minute when Cavani tucked away his effort at the third attempt. Despite conceding the equaliser, the hosts refused to take their foot off the gas as they attempted to snatch a late winner. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case as when the final whistle came, the match finished 1-1.

Sutty’s Full Time Thoughts: Manchester United can consider themselves lucky to leave Tyneside with a share of the points this evening as The Magpies were definitely the better team.Joelinton was Man of the Match and rightly so. The Brazillian didn’t put a foot wrong and continues to flourish under Eddie Howe. The Newcastle manager will be hoping that the injuries to Callum Wilson and Saint-Maximin aren’t too serious as both players are crucial to Premier League survival. If we play against Everton like we did tonight then we will definitely be considered favourites.

Match Attendance:52,178

What’s Next? Both Teams next play on Thursday 30^thwhen The Magpies visit Everton in the 19:30 KO and Manchester United host Burnley in the 20:15 KO. Both games will be televised on Amazon Prime.

Newcastle United Line Up: M Dubravka, E Krafth, J Lascelles, F Schar, J Manquillo, A Saint-Maximin, J Shelvey, S Longstaff, R Fraser, Joelinton, C Wilson.

‘Newcastle United Bench:F Woodman, M Gillespie, J Hendrick, J Murphy, M Almiron, E Anderson, J White, D Gayle.

Manchester United Line Up:D De Gea, H Maguire, R Varane, D Dalot, A Telles, M Greenwood, Fred, B Fernandes, S McTomminay, C Ronaldo, M Rashford.

Manchester United Bench:D Henderson, P Jones, L Shaw, A Wan-Bissaka, N Matic, D Van De Beek, E Cavani, J Sancho, A Elanga.

Match Officials: Craig Pawson (Referee), Ian Hussin & Darren Cann (Assistant’s), Robert Jones (Fourth Official), Peter Banks (VAR), Timothy Wood (Assistant VAR).

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