Newcastle risk unwanted St James' Park record against Aston Villa
Newcastle could set an unwanted club record against Aston Villa tomorrow, with another goal conceded taking our run without a home clean sheet to 16 games in all competitions.
We've conceded 36 goals across 20 home matches in 2026, keeping opponents out just twice. After Monday's 4-1 defeat at Coventry, that offers little reassurance that returning to St James' Park will help us tighten up.
Newcastle's home problems stretch beyond Coventry
Our last home clean sheet came in the 3-0 win over PSV in January. We've conceded in every competitive game at St James' since.
This season's home league results have continued that pattern: 2-2 against Liverpool, 2-2 against Bournemouth and 2-1 against Hull. Five points from those games, but five goals conceded too.
The Hull win was a welcome response to the heavy defeat at Leeds. It also showed how quickly a promising afternoon at home can become uncomfortable.
A fast start needs to be followed by more control
In that 2-1 win over Hull, we led 2-0 after seven minutes, missed a penalty and still ended up hanging on. Hull finished with 21 shots to our 10.
That is the sort of game Jaissle needs to get a firmer grip on. Newcastle played some excellent football before the break, but were struggling to clear their lines and offering little going forward by the closing stages.
The three points come first against Villa. We could also do with a performance that gives us more faith in our defending, because even a two-goal lead at St James' hasn't recently been enough to make an afternoon comfortable.
