The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Ringing the changes
NEWCASTLE MAKE HARD WORK OF IT
Any qualms over Newcastle’s previous away form has been firmly put on the back burner after another fantastic result on the road – but boy did they make hard work of it.
The visitors led twice in the firsthalf but were pegged back twice before the interval, with Forest’s second coming in the fourth of five stoppage time minutes. After the break, it was Nuno Espirito Santo’s side who looked like they would kick on and win it.
Taiwo Awoniyi had the ball in the back of the net in the early stages of the second period, finishing well from a tight angle before seeing the linesman’s flag go up. Soon after, the Nigerian forward wanted a penalty after the slightest of contact from Dubravka.
Bruno wasn’t about to let Newcastle throw more points away, however, as he took matters into his own hands when he intercepted a Forest clearance before curling an effort beyond former Newcastle stopper Matz Sels.
After failing to hold a lead against
Manchester City, a nervy end to the Aston Villa win, last week’s frantic 4-4 with Luton and now Saturday, Newcastle are making life harder than it needs to be but still coming away with much-needed points.
HOWE CHANGES THE SYSTEM – AND IT WORKS
Howe has often been criticised for not changing his go-to setup, even when things aren’t going right. However, from the very early stages of Saturday’s tie there was a noticeable change in Newcastle’s system while in possession.
For starters, Guimaraes was playing further forward in an advanced position, rather than being deployed at the base of Newcastle’s three-man midfield. Bruno has often spoken of wanting to play further up the pitch and the change certainly works wonders this weekend.
“I think I can play six, eight and 10. I played very well with the two goals,” Guimaraes said at full-time. “Thank you gaffer. To be honest with you, when I saw the ball come I didn’t know whether to hit it with my left or right but it was a perfection finish.”
Lewis Miley was the deepest of the trio for most of the encounter, while Sean Longstaff was also dropping into a holding role to try and pick the ball up off Sven Botman and Fabian Schar when in possession.
Kieran Trippier was also being used as an inverted full-back when Newcastle’s defence had possession unchallenged. The right-back moved into a midfield slot, allowing Dan Burn, Botman and Schar to act as a back three. An intriguing move from Howe – and one that paid off.
ELANGA FEARS COME TRUE
The main talking point of the last seven days revolved around who Howe would opt for at left-back for Saturday’s clash. After such a staunch defence of Burn during Friday morning’s press conference, you suspected it would be the former Brighton man who kept his spot in the Newcastle backline.
Burn did indeed get the nod as Tino Livramento took his place among the substitutes once again. But just 17 minutes into the tie, the fears over Anthony Elanga’s frightening pace came to fruition.
The attacker raced in behind Newcastle’s defence, beating Burn with ease, before forcing a strong save from an onrushing Dubravka. Moments later, Howe’s men wouldn’t be so lucky.
Newcastle were on the attack but in a flash Forest pounced with a lightning-fast counter attack, slicing through an absent midfield, before Elanga torched Burn for speed before making Dubravka look foolish as the goalkeeper ventured into no man’s land outside his area only to see the ball go under him and into the back of the net.
This was no real surprise. After all, Forest have scored more goals on the counter attack this season (8) than any of their top flight counterparts, and Elanga enjoyed similar success against Burn on Boxing Day when Forest won at St James’ Park.
Apart from a few twitchy moments after the opening goal, Burn stead