2 good, 1 bad from Palace 0-2 Newcastle

Newcastle United returned to winning ways at Selhurst Park with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday.

After terrible back-to-back defeats (for very different reasons), it was a much-needed victory for the lads in black and white, both on the pitch and in the stands.

The goals came via Will Osula, who ghosted in between defenders to poke the ball home from a Jacob Murphy cross, and Harvey Barnes, who finished off a sweeping move from an Amar Dedić cutback.

Here’s two good and one bad from the game.

Bad: First-half woes

Make no bones about it, the first half was just more of the same from the previous two games. In fact, I’ll direct you to this tweet from NUFC Blog's Olly Hawkins to sum up exactly how it went.

Another half without a shot on target, with the thinnest veil of passing control and attacking intent, made it look like the writing was on the wall against a poor Palace side.

We were not good to watch by any metric, and at times it was just boring, as there was literally nothing to get excited about.

The pressing was off, and there was no energy against a side who had an extra 90 minutes in their legs this week, and it was a real concern.

Throw in the fact that we are still conceding too many shots (another 17 in this game!), and at half-time, it seemed like the outcome was only going to go one way.

Good: Finally some quality in the final third 

Instead, however, we were treated to perhaps the best 15-minute spell of the season so far immediately after half-time. Two minutes after half-time, Murphy did the only thing he is good for these days and whipped in an excellent cross that Osula prodded home.

Then Joe Willock collected an excellent through ball by Joelinton and finished well but was denied by a correct but tight offside flag.

United then produced the move of the match (by some distance, it must be said) as Nico shrugged wonder-boy Wharton off the ball high in the Palace third, laid off a quick pass to Murphy, who played in an overlapping Dedić, who picked out Barnes to slot home from inside the box.

It was also notable, considering how reliant we are on our left side to provide any attacking impetus, that both goals came from the right side.

I feel that we still need to create more overall, especially against better sides (and play well for an entire 90 minutes and not rely on short spells), and after we’d got the two-goal lead, we seemed to just drop off and challenge Palace to score.

But after such a torrid week, where confidence (if not in the squad but amongst sections of the fanbase) had taken a knock, it was a huge win and turnaround in what was a must-win game.

Good: Three changes at the back (and their impact on Nico and Dedić)

Whilst I have concerns around defaulting to the tried and trusted, and the complete lack of blooding the youngsters we spent hundreds of millions on this summer, it was the right decision to revert to Dan Burn and Fabian Schär as the centre-back pairing for the simple reason that they didn’t make any mistakes.

Thiaw and Botman have been a car crash as a CB pairing this season, and it was the right decision to drop them.

Dedić, despite often being caught out of position up the pitch (and the highly probable reason Murphy continues to play, as he was deeper than the Bosnian at times), showed how effective he is as an attacking force as he picked up his fourth assist of the season already.

But the huge impact of the much-changed back four was on Nico, who was able to play much higher up the pitch, contest duels closer to the opposition goal and use his passing ability in more dangerous positions on the pitch.

The Spaniard was much more recognisable as the player we thought we’d signed throughout and deserved his Man of the Match award.

So, onto Everton in the cup next, and if we can build on this result, then perhaps we can take a dollop of extra confidence into the league game against the same opposition a week on Monday.

Keep the faith. HWTL.