Newcastle 2-1 Bournemouth: Sensational Salomon Rondon secures back to back wins at SJP

by Olly Hawkins · Published 10 November 2018, 18:23

A superb display at St James' Park and a performance from Salomon Rondon worthy of the NUFC number 9 shirt, with the big Venezuelan absolutely outstanding as he fired us to a well deserved 2-1 win against an in-form Bournemouth side.

We showed a brilliant mix of fight, grit and determination to beat Watford last weekend, and we showed all of that and more today - with some real moments of quality making this and even more impressive and convincing win.

It was a terrific team performance, but Rondon really was the star man. Even if he hadn't scored twice I would've been coming out of the ground saying just how good he was. Two goals (one bullet header!), some outstanding hold up play, brilliant in the air and never stopped running. I always said he would suit this system better than Aleksandar Mitrovic, and today's performances proves that. It was one of the best all round performances I've seen in a couple of years from a NUFC striker at St James' Park.

With Lascelles and Shelvey out, many may have feared for us when reading the team sheets, but Schar and Ki came in and did brilliantly once again - and they weren't the only ones who were brilliant today.

Fernandez was monstrous, Dummett didn't put a foot wrong, Kenedy was a brilliant outlet and instrumental in Rondon's second, Ritchie's deliveries were much improved, Yedlin was better at both ends of the pitch and Perez put in his best performance of the season after several struggling displays.

We were all quite fearful coming into a home double-header against two sides flying in Watford and Bournemouth, but we've beaten both, secured rare back to back wins at St James' Park and are now up to 14th!

Today's results elsewhere went pretty well too. Cardiff may have won late (although the subsequent defeat for Brighton means we're just 3 points behind them now), but both Huddersfield and Southampton lost leads at home to take just a point, with Burnley only drawing too.

The dreaded international break is now upon us, but we'll go into the Burnley game full of confidence two weeks on Monday.

Here's our next six fixtures between now and Christmas - with us facing a trip to Turf Moor two weeks on Monday: