No Howe and No Hat-trick

Back to normal after last week and time to see how one of the new managers gets on with their new club. For this game I took a 7 and a half hour round trip to the furthest northern reaches of the Premier League. I went to Newcastle to see St, James’ Park and to see how one of the most iconic and historic clubs in the country is adjusting to both its new owners and its new manager.

The 3 hour train journey to Newcastle was at least direct, but it was also exceedingly boring with the only interesting part of the journey being the glorious view of Durham Cathedral that you get treated too on your way in and out of Durham station. Unfortunately, having made that journey up to Newcastle I was not able to see Eddie Howe on the bench as he had tested positive and was self-isolating. This was disappointing for me as I would’ve loved to have seen how the Newcastle team got on with their new manager watching on and able to make tactical changes in real-time. Even with Mr. Howe isolating in a local hotel, Newcastle gave a great account of themselves and I still got to see the glorious St. James’ Park. It is a stadium that has been on my bucket list to visit for a long time so to finally be able to tick it off is an incredible feeling.

Finding St. James’ Park from the station is beyond simple. It’s pretty much straight on the whole way and the full journey from station to stadium takes 10 minutes to walk. It is also extremely well signed and the one right turn that you have to make is easy to spot as the stadium dominates your view as you look right at the junction where you need to turn. There is also the option to turn right at the old town wall as this wraps around to spit you out seconds away from the stadium. Whichever route you chose though it is almost impossible to miss the stadium and if you manage it I will be extremely impressed.

The stadium itself is huge and imposing as you turn the corner and see it right there in front of you. It’s an incredible stadium to look at and I was awestruck as I turned the corner to come face to face with one of the most iconic stadiums in football history and the largest stadium I have been to in a long time, since I went to England games at Wembley before the pandemic hit. The stadium is fully enclosed on 3 sides whilst the 4th side opens up onto a road that was festooned with stands from multiple different groups. The ones that stood out to me as unusual for a football ground were the ‘Ask a Muslim’ stand and the food bank donation stand. Two extremely different issues being tackled metres away from each other.

There were also programme sellers everywhere on that road, but there were none that I could find anywhere else around the stadium. The programme sellers are cash only, whilst the club shop and all the kiosks inside the stadium are card only so make sure you have a bit of both on you before heading to the match. I picked up my programme and my traditional keyring before making a lap of the stadium to take a look at the statues to Wor Jackie and Sir Bobby Robson, both of who are legends of the club and Robson is also an ex England manager who did wonders with the national team at Italia ’90. There is also a plaque to celebrate the achievements of ex-player and manager Joe Harvey which lists all the trophies he won with the club. There was even both physical and digital roll calls of all the players ever to play for the Toon under the Milburn stand. What surprised me most though was there was no statue to Alan Shearer as in my mind he is the main Newcastle legend of the past 30years.

That all being said it’s now definitely time to get inside the stadium and as an away fan that meant heading down to the Leaves stand under the covered area below the stands that seems to go on forever. Another thing that seems to go on forever at St. James’ Park is the walk up the stairs, it takes you all the way up to your seats on Level 7 of the stadium and if you’re out of shape in any way this will point it out to you in blaring neon letters. There must have been lifts somewhere as there were fans in wheelchairs up in the stand with the rest of the away fans, but these are kept separate for the exclusive use of those with mobility issues so for the rest of the away fans its the long walk up stairs.

Once those stairs were below me I went straight out to find my seat and jeez it was high up. I am not great with heights and had not been this high up for a long time so it took me a little while to adjust to the view of the pitch I had and just how high up this meant I was. Luckily though I had got to my seat with long enough to go till kick-off that I was relaxed and able to focus on the game by the time it got underway. Not that I could actually make out who was who from my vantage point though and I had to rely heavily on both the screen to my left and the stadium announcer to work out who scored all the goals that we were treated too.

With both teams having something to fight for, Newcastle looking to impress their new manager and Brentford looking to avoid a hat-trick of first wins of the season for their opponents, plus the fact that there had never been a draw between these two teams I hoped that we would be in for a good match. Despite the injury depleted bees squad that saw two debutants being named on the bench I was not disappointed.

The teams walked out to the song O Fortuna and from the first minute both teams went at the match trying to ensure it lived up to the grandeur of that song. It took a mere 3 minutes for the hosts to have their first chance of the match when the visiting centre-backs got pulled out of position and Roerslev was beaten to the ball as he rushed back to cover. The resulting header went just inches wide of the left-hand post. Only 3 minutes after that Brentford had their first chance of the match as they got in down the left and headed the resultant cross inches wide of the right-hand post.

With a near miss under their belts for each team it was now time for some goals. The first of these came in the 10th minute and it went to the hosts. Newcastle’s first goal under Eddie Howe came from a simple corner which was missed entirely by the visiting defenders, Jansson in particular completely mistimed his jump. As the ball floated over him it found the forehead of Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles 6 yards out in the centre of the goal and he deflected it off the post and into the back of the net. The joy of the home fans was unleashed and the roar was deafening.

It was silenced within 60 seconds though as Brentford wasted no time in evening up the score. Worse still for the home faithful was the fact that the equaliser came through Ivan Toney, who Newcastle released years ago and who was now back with a vengeance. His goal was a beautiful solo effort down the visitors right before he cut inside and slid the ball under the keeper to level the scores. Some of the home fans were still cheering their opener at this point and the shock that you could hear around the ground at how quickly their lead had been wiped out was palpable.

Toney then had the ball in the net again less than 10 minutes later in the 19th minute of the match. The visitors got in down the right again on the break and Mbuemo’s cross from that side hit the post before rebounding off Toney and nestling in the back of the net. The despair of the home fans and the away fans joy at taking the lead was short lived however, as VAR got involved and the goal was chalked off for a tight offside call against Toney.

The hosts made the most of this reprieve as they took charge of the game and spent the next ten minutes camped in the Brentford half of the pitch. They put the visitor’s goal under siege as Brentford seemed to forget what a clearance was. Newcastle were only prevented from taking the lead due to a series of last ditch defensive blocks from the visitors who banded together to weather the toon storm. Newcastle kept the pressure up though and it looked certain that they would be the next to score.

Imagine then the surprise of almost every fan inside St. James’ Park when the visitors took the lead. They finally worked out what a clearance was and with the home players all focusing on attack the visitors were able to get in behind them with ease. Once more the cross came from the right to be met by Rico Henry this time who was able to head it in off the crossbar. This time there was no VAR to come to the hosts rescue and the visitors took a 2-1 lead.

This pushed Newcastle forward even more as they begin the new era with the attacking football their fans have been wanting for a long time now. This means that they conceded a lot of goals so far this game but it also meant they were creating a lot more chances than they had been in other games so far this season. Newcastle almost had a second goal in the 34th minute as they created another chance on the right of the penalty area, but the shot that came in bounced inches wide of the post.

The hosts didn’t have to wait long to actually get their second though as they drew the scores level in the 39th minute. After a session of penalty area pinball the ball finally broke to Joelinton in the centre of the box who proceeded to gain himself a yard of space before wrapping the ball around Pinnock and into the right hand corner of the net. It brushed the post on the way in, but not a single home fan cared about that. The noise that St. James’ Park makes when Newcastle score is spine-tingling. It is a noise that has to be experienced as it cannot be put into words.

Having scored their second of the match the hosts once again laid siege to the visitors goal right up till half-time and once again the visitors weathered this siege without conceding. They had to rely on last minute blocks again to keep the ball out of the net, particularly in the 42nd minute when a defensive mix-up left the hosts with the ball mere yards out in the penalty area. The resulting Newcastle shot looked certain to go in and give them the lead, but Toney got back just in time to make a goal-line clearance and sink the hopes of his previous employers. The hosts had one other chance in the half a minute later when a rasping shot from distance skimmed just inches wide of the left-hand post.

That was the last chance of a half that was full of them. The 4 goals that we were treated too would’ve been a lot in a half of few chances, but with so many near misses from both teams, a disallowed goal and a goal-line clearance there could have been so many more. It was certainly a half that should give the Toon army hope for the rest of the season.

At half time I picked what turned out to be the slowest queue for the food kiosks and by the time I reached the front of mine there was only one type of pie left. The servers made up for this disappointment though as they were both hilarious, they joked with both me and each other whilst serving and whilst this may have added to the wait it also put a smile on my face and left me ready to go for the start of the second half.

The second half started with both teams seeming to be fatigued by the frenetic pace of the first half. The first ten minutes were end to end for sure but with far fewer clear cut chances and no chances that were good enough to distract me from the pie I was eating, it was delicious.

Perhaps Thomas Frank saw this too because he was the first manager to make a substitution in the 59th minute when he replaced Ghoddos with Onyeka. This change made an impact as it was only 2 minutes after this that Brentford got their 3rd goal of the match. A minute before the goal Mbuemo had got in behind the defence and was one-on-one with Darlow, but the keeper was quick off his line and cleared it off the striker’s toe just before he could get his shot away.

The ball came straight back to the hosts penalty area though and this time there was no last minute block. Onyeka unleashed a shot from the left-side of the area which flashed across goal and settled in the goal at the far post. From my vantage point on Level 7 of the stand it looked like the ball went straight in, but it has been given as an own goal by Lascelles on official match reports. I’m sure Lascelles and Onyeka would both prefer what I saw to be right, but I’m equally sure that the officials have looked at the replays to ensure that the goal is credited to the correct person.

Luckily for Lascelles that wasn’t the winning goal though as Newcastle were able to score a third goal of their own in the 75th minute. This one came through a simple switch ball on the break that found Allan Saint-Maximin in space on the right who sent the ball to a teammate. He then followed his run into the area to meet the cross to the back post and send Newcastle level again and leave the game poised at 3-3 with just 15minutes left in the game.

Those final 15 minutes were extremely tense and end-to-end, neither team was settling for the draw. The visitors were the first to go close in this final part of the match with a testing ball across goal that barely evaded the onrushing Jansson. Then Mbuemo skied his effort from 25 yards when the ball landed to him from the resulting corner. Then in the 82nd minute Joelinton found himself clear in the box with just the keeper to beat before losing his footing with the goal at his mercy. This was Newcastle’s last glaring chance to secure a winner for their passionate fans and to get their new manager’s tenure off to a successful start.

Brentford’s final chance to win the match came in the 86th minute when Mbuemo found himself clear in the box with the goal at his mercy. Unfortunately for all those who had made the 6-8hour journey up from London he couldn’t sort his feet out in time to score and the defenders used this time to get in with a last ditch tackle to secure the point they more than deserved.

The game ended 3-3 and a draw was absolutely a fair result given the effort put into the game by both teams and the quality of play by both teams. This was a game that both teams will feel they did enough to win and that losing would’ve left both teams feeling hard done. The draw is the first one ever between these two teams and, with both Aston Villa winning this weekend, a result that prevented the hat-trick of managers getting a hat-trick of wins on there first games with their new teams. Although this may be unfair on Howe as he was the only new manager unable to be directing his teams play from the dugout and perhaps if he had been able to do so the result would’ve been different. He should be back in the dugout for Newcastle’s trip to Arsenal this weekend so I wish him the best of luck for his first game on the touchline with his new club.

As you leave St. James’ Park, where descending the stairs is far easier than ascending them, you will find a double line of stewards and police officers separating the home and away fans from each other. I think the only time this would actually be necessary is if Newcastle and Sunderland meet in the league once more. With there current league positions such a clash is possible next season, but I do believe Newcastle will stay up and I hope they do too. Having clubs of Newcastle’s size and storied history in the league is what makes the Premier League such an attractive proposition for clubs in the lower leagues to aim for. They wish to try themselves out against these huge clubs and see how they fare.

On that front Brentford are doing excellently in their first season in the league and my next two blogs will continue to chart their progress against these big teams as first I see how Everton do on their visit to London this weekend and then on the first weekend of December I am heading to Elland Road to see how the newcomers do at another of the most most historic clubs of the north.