It was a rainy New Year’s Eve when Leeds United came to town to spoil Newcastle’s end of year party, and they did just that.
In-form Newcastle were hosts to struggling Leeds and all signs pointed towards a convincing Newcastle win, but it seemed Leeds United hadn’t read the script and defended for their lives, and in doing so, opted for the good old Leeds United kicking-the-proverbial-out-of-the-opposition approach with a whopping 19 fouls committed by the visitors.
The first half was largely a forgettable affair with both teams fairly even without ever really threatening with Fabian Schar coming the closest for Newcastle.
It was Leeds who came the closest to scoring early in the second half with Nick Pope forced into action a few minutes into the half. But from 55 minutes onwards it was all Newcastle. Leeds were completely pinned back into their own half with eleven men behind the ball.
Down to a mixture of stubborn defending and terrible finishing that kept the game level. Fabian Schar and Sean Longstaff were both guilty of sending shots into the stratosphere instead of the back of the net. Chris Wood also missed a couple of great chances either through choosing the wrong shooting option or by simply not being in the right place at the right time.
Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin replaced Chris Wood and Joe Willock and both of them added a new dimension to the play but still no breakthrough could be found.
Who Was Your MOTM Against Leeds?
Sean Longstaff
Bruno Guimaraes
Kieran Trippier
Other
The referee completely lost his hold on the game somewhere in the first half and it just got worse as time went on. Newcastle maybe should have had a first-half penalty that was completely overlooked by the referee and VAR after Schar was brought down in the box, although it would have been a soft one in reality. .
At the end of the game, Newcastle’s frustrations came to the fore with Callum Wilson pushing over Ilian Meslier during one of Leeds’ many time-wasting sessions and triggering Bruno Guimaraes who completely lost his head.
The final whistle blew and the Newcastle players all headed for the referee to give him a piece of their mind, but in reality, Leeds fought hard for their point. Yes, we really should have won and on another day we would have, but nobody had their shooting boots on today.
As for my Man Of The Match pick, I’m going with Sean Longstaff. Despite blasting a couple of shots over the bar when he should be doing better, he played a blinder today. He was all over the pitch – he seems to have gained a yard of pace as the season has gone on as well.