Geordies roar into top flight
Perez hits double as Toon bounce straight back into the big time
THE DVD review of this season is unlikely to be a best- seller, even in these parts. ‘Job Done’ would perhaps be the most appropriate title.
Rafa Benitez, though, will argue that the aesthetics of their ascent matter not — and he is right.
The Spaniard never promised to decorate this division with beautiful football and emerge from it in a blaze of goals and glory.
Preston’s second-half collapse here did put a shine on the promotion party, but Newcastle haven’t so much been limping towards the finishing line as crawling towards it in recent weeks.
They have, in all likelihood, surrendered the Championship title to Brighton but Benitez has said from the outset that an automatic return to the Premier League was the only concern.
He has reiterated that stance through gritted teeth of late — they were five points clear at the top as recently as last month — but finally last night he relaxed, allowing himself to indulge in the adulation of the Gallowgate End. Not that he was smiling after a typically frustrating first half in which Ayoze Perez bundled home an early opener only for Preston to equalise and seize the initiative.
Christian Atsu’s second for the hosts was against the run of play and it was only after Preston skipper Paul Gallagher was dismissed for a deliberate handball that Newcastle took control, Matt Ritchie scoring from the penalty spot before Perez poached another.
And it is control that Benitez will now demand from owner Mike Ashley. Control to build a squad capable of surviving next season, for this one would not, and Benitez knows it. That is why he refused to confirm that he will be in charge next season when asked directly afterwards.
It was a year ago this week when Benitez stood on the patio outside his office and surveyed the potential of Newcastle United.
There, in front of a vast green stretch of training ground pitches, he shared with confidants his vision for the rebuilding of a football club which was teetering on ruin. His team were not yet relegated from the Premier League and his own future was undecided.
But Benitez knew the promise which resided on Tyneside, possibilities which simply did not exist for him elsewhere. That is why, despite demotion being confirmed a fortnight later, he signed a threeyear contract.
And, while their stuttering finish to this term has perhaps dampened the mood of some, the majority of fans appreciate their manager’s influence. For without Benitez this season would have been played out to the backdrop of supporter protest and dwindling crowds. Instead, Benitez used relegation as the motivating force to persuade the club to re- engage with a fanbase which had long been ignored and belittled. The club had become inward looking, a poisonous place to be around. Benitez changed all of that.
And he will want to change a whole lot more in the coming months. He will think nothing of mass overhaul and will demand the scope to undertake such necessary renovation work.
For he will hope that the team which begins next season will bear little resemblance to this one, whose shortcomings have been exposed of late. The loss of topscorer Dwight Gayle to a hamstring injury has hit them hard, so hard that without the collapse of Huddersfield and Leeds they may well have been in the play-offs.
They got a slice of early fortune last night when Perez’s unintentional arm turned the ball in from a corner. He knew little about it and a goal- of-the- season contender it was not.
Preston’s leveller was very much in keeping with the direction of play, Jordan Hugill doing ever so well to apply an improvised flick to Tom Barkhuizen’s centre and locate the bottom corner on 14 minutes.
The visitors continued to grow in confidence as the half progressed and that, ultimately, proved their undoing. The fourth official was readying his board for one minute of added time when they committed too many bodies in attack and lost possession.
Newcastle broke at pace with Isaac Hayden and his ball to Aleksandar Mitrovic was in turn rolled into the path of Atsu who tucked home from close range.
Still, though, Benitez wore a frown — it had been that sort of half, again. But he was grinning on 64 minutes. From a goalmouth scramble Hayden snapped a shot on target only for Gallagher to save — quite impressively — with a double-handed fist on the line. The midfielder was sent off and Ritchie swept in his 16th of the season.
Perez’s second goal on 67 minutes was almost as fortunate as his first, Jonjo Shelvey’s corner evading everyone inside the six-yard area before clattering the post and bouncing in off the Spaniard. It was not pretty, much like the bulk of this season. But what does make for a pretty picture for supporters and Benitez today is the league table, and the promise once again of Premier League football.
Job done.
NEWCASTLE UTD (4-2-3-1): Elliot 6.5; Anita 6, Lascelles 6.5, Clark 6, Dummett 6.5; Shelvey 7.5 (Colback 76min), Hayden 8; Ritchie 7, Perez 8.5 (Murphy 83), Atsu 8 (Gouffran 67, 6); Mitrovic 6.5.
Subs not used: Darlow, Yedlin, Mbemba, Diame. Booked: Shelvey, Ritchie. Manager: Rafa Benitez 7. PRESTON NORTH END (4-3-3): Maxwell 4.5; Browning 5, Huntington 5, Boyle 5.5, Spurr 5.5; Browne 6, Gallagher 4.5, Johnson 5; McGeady 6 (Horgan 72, 6), Hugill 6.5, Barkhuizen 7. Subs not used: Lindegaard, Vermijl, Pringle, Beckford, May, Robinson. Booked: Browning. Sent off: Gallagher. Manager: Simon Grayson 5.5. Referee: Andrew Madley 6.5. Attendance: 50,212.