Newcastle 1-1 Watford: Missed opportunity as NUFC are held by beatable Hornets
A share of the spoils at St James' park today as Newcastle respond to an early setback to earn a point.
It feels like a chance missed to earn a precious win against a very beatable Watford side, but it's a result and one that takes us to 4 points after 4 games - something we'd have bitten your hand off for a week ago as we arrived at Spurs pointless.
The game couldn't have started worse, with Hughes ghosting in to tap home after a deflection fell his way just 90 seconds in, but Schar put us back on level terms just before the break in what was a incredibly sloppy first half lacking in quality.
We looked the most likely side to score early in the second half and it felt like a winner was coming, but we seemed to tire and run out of ideas somewhat.
Foster pulled off a great save to deny Hayden, there was a few goal-mouth scrambles that didn't fall our way and Almiron had a big chance well blocked. That said, Dubravka made one or two key saves to deny Watford, so it really was a game that could've gone either way in the end.
Krafth and Willems did well at wing-back, with the former being rock solid defensively and the latter getting forward well. Joelinton showed impressive all round play and Atsu was lively in patches, but Almiron huffed and puffed with little final product.
Longstaff had a very sloppy first half and Hayden looked a bit leggy, meaning Shelvey may be frustrated not to have cone on - especially when it felt like we needed that killer pass to unlock a leaky Watford defence.
It's not an ideal result against a Watford side who lookwe very beatable, but it's another point on the board and a result that's far from disastrous on the back of our big win at Spurs.
