WRITING’S ON THE WALL FOR TOON
IT IS not unusual for Newcastle assistant Graeme Jones to watch a game’s early stages from the stands. And there he was at Vicarage Road — alongside analysts in the press box, armed with a pen and paper. Jones tends to head down to the dugout after 20 minutes. On Saturday, he remained in the stand until the closing stages. By then, the damage was done. By then, you wondered what was left for him to jot down. A diagram of the goal, perhaps? A wanted poster for prolific strikers? For 70 minutes at Watford, Newcastle were excellent as they created chance after chance. They played with such verve that even Steve Bruce was given a brief reprieve from the protest songs. That didn’t last, of course. Not when Newcastle played with fire and were burnt by Ismaila Sarr’s headed equaliser in the 72nd minute. Had Joshua King’s ‘winner’ not been chalked off, the afternoon could have turned even uglier. But it should never have come to that. The unfortunate truth, however, is Newcastle’s winless run — now seven matches in all competitions — won’t end while they can’t take their chances. Too often under Bruce they have relied on moments of individual magic to mask stodgy performances. Not so here. If only they had someone to make it count. Allan Saint-Maximin, Joe Willock, Ciaran Clark and Sean Longstaff all had glorious openings. Jacob Murphy