Sunday’s match ended Newcastle 3 West Ham 1.
Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the game.
Plenty to talk about after this West Ham one…
A match that saw Newcastle United lead 2-0 inside 20 minutes, then add a third in the second half. The Hammers only able to manage a consolation effort late on.
On this occasion it is ‘Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey…’:
POSITIVES
Finishing our home campaign on a high
A win’s a win and we took all three points with well taken goals from big Nick and Will Osula. The former scoring his first Premier League goal of this calendar year, a neat finish from a Barnes cross, whilst also having his most effective game in some time. The latter becoming a regular on the Newcastle United scoresheet, seven Premier League goals now, with six of those in our last nine fixtures.
Europe Bound (Again)?
It’s been a punishing campaign and despite the nonsense that’s continuously pedalled on social media that this season has supposedly been an unmitigated disaster, that win keeps our faint hopes of European qualification alive.
True enough, we need to see an unlikely and quite dramatic set of results unfold and not just on the final day (it starts tomorrow night where Chelsea need to fail to beat Spurs) but it potentially gives us something to play for at Craven Cottage next week.
Kieran Trippier
As with my Europe Bound comment, this could be a negative in many respects, the former England right back leaving the club this summer.
Rightly celebrated by the St James’ Park faithful, Tripps has been a fantastic servant these past four and a half years, joining the club at such a critical time, playing his part in the resurgence of Newcastle United. His free-kick against Everton in February 2022 cementing his arrival at the club, lifting us out of the bottom three as Eddie Howe charted a path to safety.
Tripps was also my MOTM on 16 March 2025. Just saying……
NEGATIVES
Willock and Bruno
It looked like Joe Willock lost his cool with our Captain Fantastic after ignoring the Brazilian and then attempting a poor cross that admittedly took a deflection and went for a corner down at the Gallowgate End.
Having watched the clip back, I’m not sure Bruno was as easy to find as some might be suggesting, but Willock’s industrial language aimed in the direction of his captain was unedifying and that’s a pity because he did so well in linking with Osula for our third goal yesterday.
West Ham made to look half decent?
There’s been a lot of talk about how West Ham’s form since the turn of the year doesn’t warrant a relegation scrap, but they were poor yesterday, perhaps looking better than they were because we failed to put them to the sword?
Let’s face it, we utterly blitzed the Hammers in that opening twenty minutes, racing into a two-goal lead and looking very comfortable, only to sit back, Nuno Espirito Santo shaking things up with the substitution of Jean-Clair Todibo after just 26 minutes, at which point West Ham looked more comfortable.
Even after we scored the third, we were unable to go on and extend our lead, instead succumbing to that Castellanos wonder strike at the Gallowgate End just a few minutes later, the game then petering out in true end of season fashion.
It’s going to be a long, yet not quite so long, summer
When the season draws to a close, there is always that empty feeling, only one match left, away to Fulham, no more home games for three months or so.
We might have the consolation of the World Cup to look forward to, but I cannot get too excited about that just yet.
A big clear out looks on the cards, but with the spectre of that almost six weeks long festival of football looming, when is this business going to be transacted? In the blink of an eye, we’ll be back at SJP.