One good, two bad and an observation from Forest 1-1 Newcastle

Newcastle United drew 1-1 with Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon in an uninspiring follow-up to the huge win against Brighton. 

Premier League safety assured, United fell back into familiar failings as they served up more of the same from this incredibly disappointing season.

27 points dropped from winning positions this season is a shocking and embarrassing record, which shows just how mentally weak this side has been whilst serving up mediocre displays week after week. Thankfully, there are now only two games to go this season.

Here’s my one good, two bad and one observation from the game:

Good: Subs made a difference

With a crazy, almost unreadable starting formation with players playing all over the shop, it was genuinely pleasing to see two subs, in Harvey Barnes and Jacob Ramsey, make a massive difference when they came onto the pitch.

The move that led to our goal was pleasing on the eye, and Ramsey’s ball through to an incisive Barnes run through the centre is something we just haven’t seen much of in the last six weeks or so.

Ramsey has been unlucky to find himself out of the side recently (Barnes too to be fair!) and his sharp passing was in huge contrast to Bruno who was uncharacteristically off it, but the Brazilian look absolutely knackered throughout.

Bad: Playing players out of position

At 12:45 when the teams dropped, I imagine the collective “huh” from Tyneside could be heard aboard the International Space Station. It was bemusing and it only got weirder when the match started and it was confirmed that Lewis Hall was playing at RB, Joelinton was back on the LW, Woltemade was in midfield and Burn was (conveniently) still playing at LB.

I’m all for Howe experimenting in the final few games, but the formation and player selection for the positions they were playing led to a disjointed and awkward first 45 which saw very little quality on display.

The formation was so lopsided with Joelinton being so deep having to protect Burn from a marauding Bakwa , Hall (whilst being one of our best technical players) looked lost on the right, and despite some nice passing and touches from Big Nick (and Osula really should’ve bagged him an assist) he wasn’t really in the game, but he was bound to be rusty after weeks warming the bench.

But make no bones about it, with us generally running the game even with being so disjointed, I feel that if we’d just played players in their natural positions, we would’ve won that game.

Bad: More dropped points

I was tempted to copy and paste a section from a previous article for this section, but United dropped yet more points from a winning position this season as the familiar inability to kill a game off exposed our mouse-like weak mentally in the closing stages.

Bruno probably stayed on too long which allowed Forest to cut through the middle of the park, Wissa killed our attack completely when he came on, and with us carrying players who clearly don’t want to be here (more to come on that) limited our ability to change things further from the bench despite the other subs making a genuine difference.

Willock, after playing well last week, found himself without a minute this week, and Jacob Murphy was genuinely atrocious but still managed to get an hour. But this Newcastle side has been an enigma this season and needs serious surgery this summer.

Observation: Gordon is gone

It’s crazy to think that just six weeks ago Anthony Gordon was leading the line (out of position) ahead of all other striking options considering he now appears to be likely to be the first one out the door this summer. And considering all the other players Howe had to upset by playing him there when he is a LW, the drastic switch is jarring, frustrating and stinks of rank bad management.

To name him on the bench in consecutive weeks and not give him a single minute when he is one of our best players (and would’ve probably made a difference in each) clearly indicates to me that he is finished at United. But what makes the situation even more mental is that if he cannot be trusted because his head is already elsewhere, what is the point in even bringing him with the squad? Bring a youngster, give them the experience.

Honestly, I feel that Gordon is an excellent footballer and we will miss him, especially if we don’t replace him correctly, but how the whole situation has come to this is baffling and disappointing…or I’m reading too much into it and Howe’s post-match comments.

West Ham on Sunday in our final home game of 2025/26.

Keep the faith. HWTL