Newcastle travelled to the south coast to take on Southampton at St Mary’s this afternoon for a 2pm kick off.
Southampton fielded a very young defence which was playing with fire coming up against free-scoring Newcastle, but for the first half an hour, Southampton’s youngsters, through more luck than judgement, kept the magpies at bay.
On the 34th minute, the hosts were forced into a change as their right back, Juan Larios was withdrawn through injury and Ainsley Maitland-Niles was pushed back into defence with Romeo Lavia brought on to replace Larios. It was Maitland-Niles who gifted Newcastle a goal as an on-rushing Miguel Almrion forced Maitland-Niles to launch himself into a challenge, missing the ball completely, Almiron was able to regain control of the ball and rolled a shot beyond the keeper to make it 1-0.
That’s how it stayed until halftime, but only just as Mohamed Elyounussi really should have found the net in first-half stoppage time after a cross was drilled across the face of Pope’s goal for Elyounussi to put the ball inches wide when it looked easier to score.
Callum Wilson didn’t make it out for the second half, presumably still not feeling 100% after his illness this week, but Trippier, who looked to pull up with a hamstring injury after the Elyounussi chance just before halftime, was able to continue. Chris Wood replaced Wilson.
The opening minutes of the second half saw Newcastle struggle to get into the game having had no shots but facing four from Southampton who looked much more up for it. However, one chance was all we needed to turn the game back in our favour and that chance fell to Chris Wood who took the ball in the box, turned on a sixpence and curled the ball into the far post. It was a glorious finish from the Kiwi, his first since April.
Who Was Your MOTM Against Soton?
Bruno Guimaraes
Miguel Almiron
Kieran Trippier
Other
Then, less than five minutes later, Joe Willock made it 3-0, latching on to a fantastic through ball from Kieran Trippier, Willock toe-poked the ball beyond Bazunu.
With the game beyond doubt, Howe made a few changes. Shelvey, Saint-Maximin, Anderson and Manquillo all got some game time under their belt. And it was birthday boy, Anderson who was caught in no man’s land on 89 minutes when Romain Perraud picked up the ball on the left wing, cut inside and ran into the box, firing a shot beyond Pope for a Saints consolation.
Newcastle, however, weren’t going to settle for that and soon after the restart, Newcastle had a fourth with Bruno Guimaraes getting in on the action, lashing in a shot from the edge of the area into the far corner. He couldn’t have placed it any better.
It wasn’t our best performance of the season by any stretch with the scoreline flattering us slightly. But it doesn’t matter how you win, as long as you do, and that win takes Newcastle up to 3rd place in the league before Tottenham take on Liverpool.
Sean Longstaff was given Player of the Match on Sky, and he had put in an excellent shift. I was going to give it to Trippier who was excellent once again. Almiron was also a contender, grabbing another goal for his collection. Seven in seven now for the Paraguayan. But, in what might be a controversial move, I’m giving it to the 12th man. Our fans were absolutely brilliant today. They were consistently louder than the home fans (of which there were six), but in the pouring rain, the lads were there, shirts off, having a party after making the arduous journey down to the south coast. Well done, lads and lasses.