Newcastle 1-0 Everton: Miggy magic seals big win as Mags tame toothless Toffees
A huge effort from all involved as Eddie Howe's Mags secured another big win at St James' Park, featuring another exquisite Miguel Almiron strike that flew past Jordan Pickford.
The result consolidates our spot in the top six, leaving us just two points off the Champions League places barely a year after we were winless, in the bottom three and staring relegation in the face.
St James' Park really is a fortress again. with this latest win meaning we've now picked up an incredible 34 points from a a possible 45 at home in 2022.
It was a feisty first half to put it mildly, with late tackles, heated scuffled and yellow cards a plenty. Thankfully, there was also plenty of lovely football from a Newcastle perspective, with Bruno Guimaraes firing wide at the end of two flowing, one-touch moves.
The deadlock was broken by who else but Miguel Almiron, who curled Bruno’s square pass over Jordan Pickford’s little arms and into the far corner.
Watch the match winning moment below:
His fifth of the season and another well deserved goal for the smiling assassin, who was once again one of our most lively performers as he pressed, linked up superbly and even floored a 6ft 5’ Amadou Onana; not that it took much for him to go down!
Joelinton was forced off at the break with a knock to his knee, seeing Joe Willock come on for the second half in search of his first goal of the season. A shame for big Joe however it seems Howe is hopeful he'll be fine for Sunday's trip to Spurs.
We were clearly very tired and struggled to get things going in the final 45, with sloppy passes and loose touches creeping into our game, but we continued to defend admirably and frustrated a toothless Everton side who seemed reliant on long balls from Pickford to move the ball into the final third.
However, the impressive Sven Botman and Fabian Schar dealt with just about everything in the air, with Kieran Trippier typically impeccable at right-back and Dan Burn doing a job on Anthony Gordon down the other flank. In truth, the scouse winger's only memorable involvement in the game was another shameless dive and being sent flying by Schar, who was having none of it.
Howe made a host of late subs to see out the game, as Anderson, Fraser and Wood all came on to replace a tiring trio in Almiron, Murphy and Wilson. We were clearly exhausted and desperate to hold on for all three points, but saw out the game superbly in the end, winning battles, drawing free kicks and refusing to allow Everton to build any sort of sustained pressure.
We didn't keep the ball as well as Howe would've liked us to in that second half - tired legs may have played a part - yet it speaks volumes about the collective effort that we limited the Toffees to just ONE shot all game and not a single effort on target.
Wor Flags played their part once again with the big surfer flag appearing in the Leazes End and the 52,000 inside St James' Park followed suit, pushing the lads on to secure a precious three points under the lights.
Next up, a trip to Spurs on Sunday!
STARTING XI: Pope – Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn – Longstaff, Guimaraes, Joelinton – Almiron, Wilson, Murphy.
SUBS: Karius, Lascelles, Lewis, Targett, Shelvey, Willock, Anderson, Fraser, Wood.
