It ended Newcastle United 2 Manchester United 1.
Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the match.
An interesting game at St James’ Park…
Plenty to talk about after this one.
On this occasion it is The Armchair Fan.
POSITIVES
Result
What a win for Newcastle!
This was a brilliant result against a team on top of their game.
I think most of us would have taken a draw before kick-off but from the first moment it was clear that the real United were up for this one and achieved a richly deserved three points.
Performance
Even with ten men, Newcastle were by far the better side.
We were on the front foot for almost the entire ninety minutes. It was a travesty that we went in at the half-time break on level terms and it would have been easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves having been ludicrously reduced to ten men.
Newcastle instead rolled up their sleeves and continued to take their game to their opponents.
On the rare occasions when our defence was breached, Ramsdale was there with world class saves to keep the scores level, allowing us the opportunity to score a glorious winning goal.
Last minute winner
Is there any greater feeling!?
This was a classic case of a perfect late substitution. Osula’s fresh legs just about carried him to the right wing where he was able to keep the ball in play before terrifying the Man United defenders with fancy footwork.
He then curled home an unbelievable winning goal.
He actually did something similar earlier on in the season against Fulham when his attacking play allowed Bruno to slam home the winning goal from the rebound. This time however, Osula had all the glory for himself and ended up being the toast of the Toon!
NEGATIVES
Sending off
I thought the entire point of VAR was to stop such ridiculous refereeing decisions from standing.
Ramsey wasn’t even appealing for a penalty after going down in the box and replays clearly showed he didn’t dive.
Thankfully it didn’t decide the destination of the points but we’re now facing an added suspension to an already stretched squad.
(Lack of) Consistency
Typical Newcastle United to be complete Jekyll and Hyde.
We’d lost five of the past six league matches and looked well off the pace in a number of them. We’ve shown once again however that there’s clearly a good team in there.
If we can just add a bit of consistency to our league form, there’s no reason why we can’t climb the table and battle for the European places.
We’ve only got nine games left of a stop-start season and the lack of consistency has been incredibly frustrating.
League Table
Three points for Eddie Howe’s team has us up to the dizzy heights of…twelfth.
In fact, we’re actually a fraction closer to the relegation places than the top four.
For us to be in mid-table after twenty-nine matches is hugely disappointing after the league finishes we’ve enjoyed in recent seasons.
We may have done well in the cups but they shouldn’t disguise the fact that we’re dangerously close to going backwards in the league.