Newcastle United fans watched on as their team collapsed to lose 4-1 against Leeds United.
A woeful NUFC first half saw the hosts take the game away from the visitors.
The opening couple of goals only two minutes apart were shockers in very different ways.
A poor shot from outside the penalty area ending up leaving Lukas Hornicek no chance, as two beyond belief cruel deflections off Miley and Steur gifted the first goal.
Nico Gonzalez suffered a concussion in the seventh minute and belatedly had to come off for his own safety, 18-year-old Sean Steur then showed his naivety and inexperience when NUFC conceded the second. Quite probably still weighing on his mind the inadvertent role he had played in that opening goal. The old adage of whatever you do don’t concede another goal straight after the first was lost on him, as he attempted a suicidal pass just outside his own penalty area within seconds of the restart and it was game over as Leeds punished the error. The rest of the game a bit of a non-event as the damage already done, although Newcastle did improve after the break and drew the second half 1-1, although this at least partly helped by Leeds dropping off a bit.
Anyway, this performance and scoreline has led to a ‘bit’ of a reaction.
Some would say very much an over reaction.
The worst over reaction for me is the misrepresentation of the expectations of Newcastle United fans by most of the media.
The coverage since Monday night at Elland Road has been full of stuff along the lines of how must Newcastle United fans be feeling when they had such high expectations this season…
Hmmm, that isn’t quite how I remember how it was ahead of this 2026/27 season.
After the summer we experienced as Newcastle United fans I think the ‘expectations’ of supporters, or more accurately the ‘hopes’ of the fanbase, was simply clinging on to a hope that this season wouldn’t prove to be a disaster. Then anything that ended up better than that would be a huge bonus.
The start to the 2026/27 season looked especially problematic considering the massive job Matthias Jaissle took on only two and a half weeks before the Liverpool match and on top of everything else that had harmed NUFC this summer, the first thing the new Head Coach witnessed was Captain and talisman Bruno Guimaraes walking out of the door.
If the media want to know the truth of how Newcastle United fans were seeing their early season expectations, then journalists should look at this question we asked NUFC supporters exactly four weeks ago today.
On Thursday 20 August we put a poll up on The Mag asking fans: ‘How many points will Newcastle United pick up in their first six matches?’
Thousands of Newcastle United fans voted to give us a great snapshot of how the NUFC fanbase were expecting the early stages of this season to go.
On Friday 21 August we published the responses from the Newcastle United fans who voted, the percentage of supporters who voted for each points number (each total rounded up/down to the nearest whole number):
0 – 3%
1 – 2%
2 – 2%
3 – 5%
4 – 9%
5 – 11%
6 – 13%
7 – 12%
8 – 12%
9 – 9%
10 – 9%
11 – 4%
12 – 4%
13 – 1%
14 – 1%
15 – 1%
16 – 0%
18 – 2%
When it came to the ‘expectations’ of Newcastle United fans…
Before a ball was kicked a majority (57%) of Newcastle United fans (who voted) believed NUFC would get 7 points or less from the opening half dozen games. That then became 69% of fans believing Matthias Jaissle and his players would pick up 8 or less points from a possible 18.
At the other end of things, only 13% of Newcastle United fans thought that NUFC would bank more than 10 points in the first six matches.
If Newcastle can beat Hull on Saturday then that takes NUFC to eight points already and then bottom club and pointless Coventry City away still to play on Monday 12 October.
Photo by The Mag
Considering Matthias Jaissle has already also guided United into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup, he has massively exceeded the expectations of Newcastle United fans so far, the exact opposite of what much of the media are claiming. None of us expected the new boss and new look squad to be tearing teams apart in the opening matches. It has been far beyond expectations then that so quickly Jaissle has got his team competitive in all the matches so far until Leeds on Monday night.
When you consider the abysmal luck that Matthias Jaissle has also experienced with injuries, it became seven missing when Nico Gonalez was forced off after that 7th minute concussion, it makes this start to his Newcastle United era all the more remarkable.
Newcastle United have had to battle to get three wins and two draws already, Monday night was like a steamroller smashing into them as very big and physical Leeds side took advantage of early season issues for such a new look team and manager, a team/squad that was missing so many of their own big and physical and experienced players.
If say by the close of play on Monday 12 October, NUFC have managed eight points from the opening six games as well as into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup, that that will have easily exceeded expectations for most Newcastle United fans.
If picking up four or more points from Hull and Coventry…whilst I wouldn’t claim it was beyond our wildest dreams, the start to the season would certainly be seen to have been beyond most of our wildest expectations when dreading the season kicking off against Liverpool less than four weeks ago.