Welcome to the Newcastle United v West Brom preview.
Wednesday 26 August and a 7.45pm kick-off.
Newcastle United turn their attention to the League Cup on Wednesday night as they do battle with high-flying West Brom for a place in the third round.
There’ll be no extra time so if the scores are level after ninety minutes, it’ll go straight to a penalty shootout.
The Toon may have ended the weekend ultimately disappointed with a draw against Liverpool but can now reflect on a magnificent performance that has left plenty of positives to build upon.
Matthias Jaissle has won five major trophies in the past five years as manager and will be relishing the opportunity to emulate our class of 2025 as we look to take one step closer to Wembley.
Form
The Toon had a hit and miss pre-season with just two wins in seven matches as they came to terms with a change of manager and the sale of three high-profile players. When the real deal started however they put in a tremendous shift and were desperately unlucky to be rewarded with just a point from a fantastic performance in their first match of the season.
West Brom have already played three competitive matches this season and will be looking to continue their one hundred percent record. They started the campaign with a 4-1 away win at Rochdale in the League Cup before scoring two late goals to win at Norwich in the opening game of the Championship. Last weekend saw another good win for the Baggies who came from behind to win against Burnley. They’ve scored nine goals already this season and conceded three.
Last time out
The Toon hosted Liverpool on Sunday afternoon in a match that many fans were dreading before kick-off.
The game started with a highly emotional and richly-deserved tribute to the late, great Kevin Keegan who will always be an absolute legend at both clubs. With a cracking atmosphere on the cards, the only thing needed to whip the crowd into a frenzy was an early-goal and this came to pass when Will Osula played in Anthony Elanga who took a touch before scoring his first Premier League for NUFC. Newcastle and their new manager were in dreamland and with Toon fans booing and jeering every touch from former-favourite Alexander Isak, Liverpool appeared absolutely rattled throughout the first half.
The half-time break gave a small amount of respite for the reds and they tried taking control of the match when equalising ten minutes into the second half. Back roared NUFC however just two minutes later when a superb run by Wissa teed up Joe Willock to restart the party with a well-taken effort at the Gallowgate end.
The Toon looked very comfortable from this point on and were well on course for a tremendous three points until LiVARpool were given a soft penalty and scored an ill-deserved equaliser in the ninety-ninth minute to put a dampener on what promised to be a wild night of celebration. This was still a fantastic occasion however and may well have sown the seeds for a bright season for NUFC.
Photo by The Mag
West Brom built on their excellent start to the season over the weekend when hosting Burnley in the Championship, behind early on to an own-goal, they were on level terms before half-time and scored twice in the second half to seal a fine 3-1 victory.
Stat attack!
-The last six meetings between the two sides at St James’ Park have seen four Toon victories, one draw and one defeat.
-NUFC have netted seventeen goals against West Brom in their last ten home matches.
-West Brom have visited Newcastle in the League Cup on two occasions and won both, 1-0 in 1989 and 2-1 after extra time in 2003.
Memorable match
In December 2020, the Premier League was being played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus, meaning no fans were allowed in to see one of the fastest Premier League goals we’ve ever scored.
Miggy Almiron opened the scoring with just nineteen seconds on the clock.
If anyone watching at home thought this would be the signal for NUFC to run riot however they would have another thing coming. The rest of the first half was fairly comfortable and saw no further scoring but the start of the second half saw a massive improvement from the Baggies who scored a deserved equaliser through Darnall Furlong in the fiftieth minute.
With the match now on a knife-edge and the Toon hanging on, it looked like we’d have to be content with a point at most from a match that had started so perfectly. Thankfully, Toon substitute Dwight Gayle had other ideas and bulleted a header in off the bar in the eighty-second minute to secure a crucial victory as Steve Bruce’s side stuttered towards Premier League survival. Newcastle 2-1 West Brom.
Played for both
Steve Watson made his NUFC debut at the tender age of just sixteen under Jim Smith in Nov 1990. He stayed at the Toon for eight years, playing under five different managers.
An integral part of the entertainers team fashioned by Kevin Keegan, Watson played primarily as a defender but also had an eye for goal. One of the highlights of his time on Tyneside came in a League Cup tie at Anfield in 1995 when a wonderful solo strike gave us our last away victory over Liverpool. A local lad, Steve was a firm fan favourite who only missed two games of the 95/96 season as Keegan’s side came desperately close to winning the league for the first time in sixty-nine years. He scored eleven premier league goals for Newcastle before being sold to Aston Villa by Ruud Gullit. After spells at Villa and Everton, he’d spend two years at West Brom, making forty-two league appearances, scoring one goal.
Andy Carroll was another local lad who achieved his dream of playing for the Toon, making his debut in a 1-0 win in the UEFA under Glenn Roeder. He scored three goals in our ultimately doomed attempt to avoid relegation in 2009 but thrived in the Championship the following season, scoring seventeen league goals as Chris Hughton’s team cruised back into the Premier League.
Things looked very bright for Carroll indeed as he scored a hat-trick against Aston Villa in just our second match of the 10/11 season and had racked up eleven league goals by Christmas. Unfortunately, a deeply controversial big-money move to Liverpool that January tarnished his reputation amongst Toon fans and he was roundly booed when trying to win a penalty against United with a ludicrous dive the following season.
Things didn’t work out at Liverpool for Carroll and he played for West Ham before being brought back to Newcastle under Steve Bruce in 2019. He failed to make much of a difference, scoring just the one goal (a late consolation in a defeat by Leicester). He went on to Reading before making fifteen appearances for West Brom in 2022, scoring three league goals.
Issue 105 – November 1997
Salomon Rondon was signed on loan from West Brom by Rafa Benitez for the 18/19 season with Dwight Gayle going the other way. Rondon had spent three years at the Hawthorns scoring thirty goals in one-hundred-and-eight league games. He had a cracking season on Tyneside especially after Christmas when he linked up with Almiron and Perez in a partnership that helped improve all three players. Highlights of his time at the Toon include a brace in a man-of-the-match performance at home to Bournemouth, an equaliser as we came from behind to beat Man City and a goal in a 3-2 win over Everton despite being 2-0 down in the second half. One of the main reasons that Rafa left in 2019 was due to not being allowed to sign Rondon permanently and the pair of them ended up at Chinese side Dalian Professional whilst we were stuck with Steve Bruce and Andy Carroll. Mike Ashley you fool!
Managers
Matthias Jaissle after a 2-2 draw with Liverpool: “Hard luck, I would say. I’m really, really happy with the performance after such a short amount of time. The guys were fighting till the end, they put their heart on the pitch and this is something we said that’s not negotiable. That’s the standard. And together with the crowd, it was, in general, a really good performance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the full three points. The heads are a little bit down, but they’re also realistic, they know that we had many mini-challenges already. If you have this synergy between the fans and then the players delivering on the pitch, something special can be created. We are a young squad, and they really left their hearts on the pitch and this is something we can build on. I’m proud, we are proud to see a unit on the pitch. The guys were trying to do it in the intense way that we want to play; to be front-footed and vertical in our approach. After such a short amount of time, I’m really happy. That is our philosophy. It depends on the opponent, but we have a clear idea of how we want to play and today we saw quite a lot of that.”
James Marrison after a 3-1 win against Burnley: “I thought it was a top performance. I enjoyed at times watching it on the sideline, just with the intensity, the lads willing to run for each other. The basics, really.We did the basics really well. When we lose the ball, we run back and when the opportunities were given to us, we took advantage. I felt like Burnley couldn’t handle the intensity really, and I could smell that at half-time, so my message was to up the intensity and keep going.”
Charity
Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.
For further info and/or to donate online go to Newcastle Foodbank
Prediction
This is a tough one to predict. Obviously Newcastle will be favourites against a Championship team at home but West Brom have had a great start to the season and will be keen to take a Premier League scalp. I think we’ll go through but this will be a much sterner test than many are anticipating. Newcastle 1-1 West Brom (Newcastle win on penalties).