Serious problems at St James' Park - Newcastle 0-1 Everton
An utterly miserable night at St James’ Park as Newcastle delivered a pitiful display in a 1-0 defeat to Everton.
The boss made two changes, bringing in Joelinton and Anthony Elanga as Jacob Ramsey and Jacob Murphy dropped to the bench. Lewis Miley and Matias Fernandez-Pardo missed out once again.
We were promised a reaction and supposedly out for ‘revenge’ after last Thursday’s cup exit, yet we served up one of the most flat and uninspiring performances I’ve seen in a long time.
A painful watch once again
Once again, our opponents didn’t have to play well at all to beat us. We afforded Everton too much space, we were slow to react, weak in duels and woeful on the ball, with countless passes into the final third hit in hope, not expectation, of finding a black and white shirt.
We looked like a bunch of strangers. No sense of urgency, no fight, no movement, so few leaders and such poor body language. No obvious style of play, a crippling lack of quality, confidence levels on the floor and a side devoid of ideas. There was an inevitability about the defeat, despite us coming up against an Everton side who’d not won away all season.
It felt like there was such a disconnect both on and off the pitch. The flat pre-match atmosphere, the boos at half-time and full time, the players’ inability to get anything going and Jaissle’s inability to find a plan A, never mind a plan B when Everton went ahead in the second half.
The rain pouring down as the players left the field in front of an almost-empty St James' Park summed up the sad and sombre mood on Tyneside. Five years on from the takeover, it feels like we suddenly have a side more likely to be battling relegation than a place in Europe, such is the scale of our recent regression.
Problems all over the pitch
Starting XI: Hornicek, Dedic, Schar, Burn, Hall, Gonzalez, Joelinton, Elanga, Willock, Barnes, Osula.
Substitutes: Pope, Botman, Bamba, Wissa, Thiaw, Steur, Toure, Murphy, Ramsey.
Starting in goal, it was a bad night for Lukas Hornicek, who saw George's effort spill under him before Barry tapped home.
Schar was reckless, Hall was unusually sloppy, Dedic struggled defensively, Joelinton's second touch was often a tackle, Elanga and Barnes could barely get into the game and Willock was a passenger for so much of the match, with Osula feeding on scraps as we persisted on pinging long balls up to the isolated Dane.
Steur was one of the only standouts, being the only player able to pass the ball into the final third effectively, and Toure put some good balls into the box, but Wissa was wasteful once again; greedy, lacking movement and continuing to look a monumental waste of £55m as his lively start to 2026/27 feels like a false dawn.
The players looked lost, disheartened and like a group that don't really know what's being asked of them. It was an absolute mess in all departments and has to improve on Saturday at Fulham before a run of fixtures against Arsenal, Brighton, Man Utd and Sunderland over the next month.
Trying to keep the faith, but it's becoming increasingly difficult if that is our 'reaction' performance under the lights.
HWTL.
