This was a reminder of just how good Newcastle United can be, when they are at their intense, ferocious best, they are magnificent, blowing Nottingham Forest apart like a hurricane in the first half. And it was also a reminder of how easily they can lose the way, when they let their intensity drop and their focus slip, as the visitors almost staged a remarkable comeback in the second.
The feelings of pride and joy that accompanied their blistering, sensational first 45 minutes, were replaced by anger and astonishment as Forest came so close to snatching a point. If Eddie Howe’s side were brilliant, they were dreadful too. They are an enigma; a riddle their manager is still struggling to solve. No wonder he let slip afterwards that he “loves management, but can hate it at the same time” on days like this. It was exactly that sort of afternoon for both managers on the touchline.
For the spectator, it was wonderful, bewildering, infuriating, intoxicating, sometimes at the same time. But most of all, it was highly entertaining, a lot of fun and one of the candidates for game of the season. Callum Hudson-Odoi TAKE A BOW! 🔥. What a return for the winger 👏 pic.twitter.com/PBSLPpnCyR.
Both teams deserve praise and criticism, both played some wonderful stuff and ruined it with some rubbish too. But nobody left, whether they were the relieved but celebrating home fans, or the frustrated travellers from Nottingham, feeling like they had not been part of something exhilarating.
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s early opener was overturned by an 11-minute Tyneside blitz which put Newcastle three ahead at the break. Alexander Isak’s double in under two minutes added to Lewis Miley and Jacob Murphy’s goals. But the second half saw Forest hit back with strikes of their own through Nikola Milenkovic and Ryan Yates, setting up a tense finish.
It was an edge of your seat, white knuckle ride. It was football’s equivalent of a bungee jump, an adrenaline rush tied to the end of a rope. What a moment for Lewis Miley! 😍 pic.twitter.com/CDJuqWNdUD. “It was a crazy game,” said Howe. “You have seen the best and the worst of us in two 45 minutes. We were outstanding in the first half, dynamic, fluid, played with speed and intensity. We attacked really well, but we didn’t sustain it and in the second half lost momentum and couldn’t recapture it.
“It was difficult to watch, but the game is the best sport for me for a reason. It is the drama, that ability for teams to come back. The challenge we have is to find solutions in those moments, it has happened too many times this season. “We have been inconsistent, not just game to game, but in games too. Having said all that, we have won the game and it’s a great result for us. We have responded to a bad result last weekend yet again. I always keep my emotions in check.”.
Once the emotions had subsided and calm heads returned, it was mainly a very important win for Newcastle, that lifted them back up to fifth in the table, just three points behind Forest in third. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are having a tremendous season, but this was a third away defeat in a row and they are starting to feel the stress and strain of maintaining their Champions League pursuit.
For Newcastle, this ended a run of two successive home defeats and means they have beaten Forest three times this season, if you include their penalty shootout victory in the Carabao Cup. If you had offered anyone at St James’ Park that position in the league in February, with a Carabao Cup final at Wembley to come next month, they would have ripped your arm off and ran away with it, just to make sure you could not ask for it back.
Jacob Murphy sees it in!. What a turnaround from Newcastle 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Kaqw27zugE. Context is everything and with Newcastle’s chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan watching on from the stands for the first time this year, it was a reminder of how far the club have come since the takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2021. Big decisions await. Newcastle have not signed a player to improve their first team since the summer of 2023 and Howe has done incredibly well to keep the positive momentum on the pitch.
But there are vital calls to make now on the new stadium and training ground, all of which should come some time after Al-Rumayyan has carried out his various departmental reviews this week. Progress can easily stall, just as momentum in games like this can easily be lost if you do not remain on top of things.
Alexander Isak has arrived 😅👋 pic.twitter.com/4TqZJgoEWF. “If we had more time, the momentum was there for us to get an equaliser,” said Nuno. “In the first half, I did not recognise my team. Newcastle were much better. But in the second half things shifted.
“I wish there was 10 minutes added on. We needed that time. We were on top, Newcastle were on the ropes. With 10 minutes I think we can get something from this game. But what an incredible game…”. Nuno was diplomatic in his post-match media duties, but the Portuguese was furious when only three minutes of injury time were added. When you now routinely see at least seven or eight minutes of extra time, these days you can see his point.
