NUFC: A few things about last night.

I hadn’t planned to write a Newcastle United flavoured post today. But then last night’s performance was so pleasing & there were so many points that occurred to me that I thought I would get a few things down.

1. It’s an obvious place to start, but Elliot Anderson was robbed. I won’t go into the details simply because I don’t think anyone could possibly understand the decision. But it’s safe to say that it was a ludicrous, baffling piece of refereeing and VAR completely outdid it’s own ridiculousness. Imagine that even being contemplated as a decision against Man It’d, Liverpool or Chelsea! It’s neither wonder we’re a bit paranoid about this whole Big 6 thing!

Elliot Anderson was just excellent when he came on. He suddenly looked like a much more mature pro and helped to keep the game going in our favour after the late first half goal. His goal showed that maturity as he not only read Isak’s ball over but then out-muscled the defender at the back post and planted a superb header back across the keeper into the net.

His reaction to the decision to disallow the goal was an absolute credit to him as well. Despite being robbed of a proper moment of glory, he was there visibly urging his team mates on. It would have been easy to sulk, but instead he carried on being heavily involved in the game, taking defenders back towards goal again and again and involving himself in every aspect of our play. While I wouldn’t say that he came of age, it was still a cameo performance of real quality and proof if needed that we’ve definitely got a player on our hands.

2. We are UNITED! It’s been evident all season, but what stood out for me last night was just how united we are. Team, management, fans and owners all pulling in the same direction for once is a joy to see. Against Forest we had various players including Bruno, Isak and Anderson all involved with the crowd, all imploring them for even more noise. And of course, the away following did everything they could to oblige. To a man, woman and child, Newcastle are united are pulling in the same direction for once.

The famous banner from the Ashley era proclaimed that we wanted a team that tried. Well, we got one. At the same time though, we got a squad of players that truly cares as well. And thanks to Eddie, we get that winners photo after every 3 points…to the delight of Mags everywhere!

3. We’ve been experts in game management – or shithousery, whichever term you prefer – since very early in Eddie Howe’s time as manager. It was in evidence, as usual, on Friday night with delayed throws and goal kicks and players making the most of their ‘injuries’. But Kieran Trippier holding the ball and pretending he was going to take the penalty in order to take the heat off Alexander Isak was moment of genius. He’d convinced me that he was going to take it so much that I was frantically trying to cast my mind back to penalty shoot-outs for England to work out the likelihood of him scoring! I’ve seen it lots of times since, but that grin as he holds the ball is just absolutely brilliant.

4. The referee, Paul Tierney, had an absolute shocker. Within about 10 minutes Forest had committed at least 4 bad fouls and could very easily have had a player sent off. Yet, Tierney and ignored them all and not long after was booking Dan Burn for asking what the f*** was going on. His inconsistency with Forest’s constant assaults carried on for much of the game. The fact that he’d freshly shaved his head for the occasion put me in mind of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver and we all know how that ended. Suffice to say, the fact that he overturned a perfectly good goal for the reason he did shouldn’t have come as any surprise. And if you think back to our last league visit to the City Ground, when referee Steve Martin sent two of our players off and then proceeded to just make the rules up as he went along, last night wasn’t a shock at all.

5. Our former player, Jonjo Shelvey, gave a pretty stupid interview after the match. I wasn’t his biggest fan when he played for us, but what he said last night sent him further down in my estimation. If the irony police existed they’d have been inundated with calls last night after Jonjo told a reporter that our players were whingers. The bloke barely cracked a smile in his entire time of Tyneside and never looked too far away from a good whinge himself, particularly when Rafa Benitez asked him to run a bit more. Don’t forget, this was the same Jonjo Shelvey who was chuffed to bits with Steve Bruce because he didn’t want him to track back so much. Considering his attempts to break Bruno in half during the first 15 minutes he was very, very lucky to still be on the pitch, let alone giving a bad loser’s interview afterwards.

Last night’s result felt a little bit like another turning point in our season. It felt important, like we’d taken the three points against all odds. With the international break to come and a few results going our way today, let’s hope we can get a few more players fit and really kick on again when we return to the Premier League.