LUCAS AID Paqueta wrecks clean-sheet
WEST HAM are a long way from being an irresistible force but they at least blew the theory that Newcastle’s defence has become an immovable object.
The rock-solid Geordies had shut out their six previous Premier League opponents but Lucas Paqueta found a chink in their armour to cancel out Callum Wilson’s third-minute opener and earn the Hammers only their sixth away point this season.
They are still in trouble but seeds of recovery have started to emerge.
Many sides would have gone under after conceding twice – one chalked off – in the opening moments but David Moyes’ players displayed great resolve to hit back and emerge from St James’ Park unscathed.
The Carabao Cup finalists were below their best though Eddie Howe will have been pleased by an impressive cameo from Anthony Gordon who came off the bench and Wilson (below) scoring for the first time in 10 games. Newcastle have been racking up some impressive statistics this season and perhaps the most remarkable was they had not conceded a first-half goal in 16 successive league games. So the Hammers had every right to celebrate wildly when Paqueta became the first opponent since Wolves’ Ruben Neves in August to breach the Magpies’ defences in the opening period.
The irony of the visitors’ goalscorer was not lost on the Toon Army, many of whom campaigned for the Brazilian to join his best mate Bruno Guimaraes on Tyneside when he decided to quit Lyons last summer.
The pair were even pictured together on the Quayside.
The suspended Guimaraes could only watch on helplessly from the directors’ box when Declan Rice swung in a 32nd-minute corner
and though Paqueta’s first touch took him away from goal, he turned sharply to poke the ball past Nick Pope.
It was the first league goal Pope had conceded in 574 minutes and it had been coming with West Ham recovering well from a horror start.
Joe Willock scored after just 38 seconds though his joy was shortlived with VAR ruling – correctly – that the ball was over the line when Miguel Almiron supplied the assist.
Within seconds, however, Newcastle had broken the deadlock with Wilson’s first goal since before the World Cup.
It will have given the Toon striker satisfaction on two fronts. Not only did it bring to an end to his longest drought in a black and white shirt, it proved he’s not a bad forecaster. He had predicted on the podcast he hosts, alongside Michail Antonio, he would score in the fourth minute.
He was only a minute out and it was Antonio of all players, who ceded possession allowing Sean Longstaff to thread a pass between two defenders for Wilson to finish.
West Ham looked visibly shaken but they gradually gained a foothold and could even have led at the interval. In first half injurytime, Vladimir Coufal floated in a free-kick and the unmarked Nayef
Aguerd should have done better than head over the bar.
Allan Saint-Maximin was quiet in the first half but came close to restoring the hosts’ lead in the 54th minute when his goalbound shot was blocked at the near post.
But it was a disappointing night for the Frenchman who made way for Gordon in the 67th minute.
He immediately breathed new life into Newcastle with one superb pass setting up Wilson who was denied by a last-gasp Aguerd challenge. The Magpies finished strongly and Wilson could have stolen the points but headed a Kieran Trippier cross into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski.