Kenedy key as Toon look to play it safe
NEWCASTLE would have lost this during a troubled first half of the season, when home games were dominated yet ended in despair.
Rafa Benitez’s side slumped to five defeats on the spin at St James’ Park for the first time in 64 years over November and December, a painful period when just one point was collected from a possible 27.
And so, in January, the manager brought in a goalkeeper and a winger. Three straight home wins later — during which Martin Dubravka has not conceded and Kenedy has excited and excelled — and Newcastle are seven points from danger with seven to play.
Kenedy, however, had been subdued for the large part here and the Chelsea loanee could well have been hooked long before the moment when the ball dropped at his feet at the far post 10 minutes from time.
The Brazilian had an angle to shoot and the crowd urged him to do so, such was their desperation after a second half low on energy and invention. Kenedy, though, had other ideas, a far better one as it transpired, instead rolling a pass to Ayoze Perez inside the six-yard area and he clipped home the winning goal. That is why Benitez left Kenedy on the field.
‘With him, when he has the ball, he’s a Brazilian player that likes to play and isn’t scared on the ball,’ said Benitez. ‘That is a big difference. Sometimes you are under pressure and the anxiety doesn’t allow you to think clearly, but with him you know you have that. He has scored goals, given assists and the composure for that pass was the key (to winning).’
Perez, too, is another usually sacrificed when things are not going Newcastle’s way. Benitez, though, had taken him aside at half-time and told him to ‘stay calm and make the right movement at the right time’. That he did, stepping into space and anticipating the ball from Kenedy to score his first topflight home goal in two years.
It lifted the anxiety which had spread through St James’ Park after Newcastle failed to convert first-half superiority into goals. Dwight Gayle was the main culprit, wasting two good chances either side of the halfhour mark. Newcastle’s intensity dropped after the break and it was Huddersfield who should have led when Mathias Jorgensen connected with Aaron Mooy’s corner, but he nodded straight into a crowd of bodies.
Benitez responded to his side’s loss of purpose by replacing Gayle with Islam Slimani, making a belated debut two months after joining on loan from Leicester. A thigh injury has kept him sidelined.
The Algerian gave the visitors a physical presence to worry about, a factor in Perez’s winner when Christian Atsu’s cross dropped towards the Algerian and Huddersfield cleared to Kenedy. He found Perez and Newcastle found the goal which has taken them up to 12th.
Huddersfield have now taken one point from four matches, but boss David Wagner said: ‘Our game-plan worked perfectly — we frustrated them and wanted to hurt them on the counter. It was one of our best performances of the season in the second half. We can take confidence from this.’
Not as much confidence as Newcastle will, for they are as good as safe, and you would not have predicted that at the turn of the year.
NEWCASTLE (4-4-1-1): Dubravka 6; Yedlin 6.5, Lascelles 6.5, Lejeune 7, Dummett 7.5; Ritchie 6 (Atsu 67min, 6), Shelvey 7, Diame 7 (Hayden 79, 6), Kenedy 6.5; Perez 7; Gayle 5.5 (Slimani 75, 6). Booked: Lascelles. Subs (not used): Clark, Murphy, Manquillo, Darlow. HUDDERSFIELD (4-2-3-1): Lossl 6; Smith 6 (Mounie 83), Schindler 6, Jorgensen 6, Kongolo 6; Hogg 6, Mooy 6.5; Kachunga 5.5 (Quaner 56, 5.5), Pritchard 6, Van La Parra 6.5 (Malone 86); Depoitre 5.5. Booked: Mooy, Hogg, Quaner. Subs (not used): Billing, Coleman, Ince, Hadergjonaj. Referee: M Atkinson (West Yorkshire) 7.