MATT’S THE WAY STEVE
Debut-making teen gives Bruce a first
MATTY LONGSTAFF was left crying tears on the Tyne after his stunning debut piled the pain on Manchester United.
Longstaff was handed his first Premier League start and celebrated it with a second-half winner to sink United and leave Newcastle singing in the rain.
The 19-year-old became the youngest player to score on his league debut for the Magpies as well as giving Steve Bruce his first-ever managerial win over his old club.
Longstaff provided the lone moment of magic in an otherwise damp squib of a game when he ran onto Jetro Willems square pass on 72 minutes to drill a low drive past David De Gea and find himself overcome with emotion as he celebrated.
United must have felt like shedding some tears of their own after another crushing result for the fallen giants and their beleaguered boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. United were so bad they achieved the impossible and made the Magpies look good.
It is 23 years this month since the Magpies demolished United 5-0 on this ground, back when this fixture gripped the nation and actually meant something.
But times have changed because, despite Longstaff’s brilliance, this was a melancholy match of utter mediocrity between two teams struggling to tread water.
The Magpies went into the game in the relegation zone amid calls for Bruce to be sacked, while United weren’t even in the top half of the table. They still aren’t and next up is Liverpool.
Solskjaer made six changes to the side that drew 0-0 at AZ Alkmaar in
the Europa League as he chased just a third league win of the season.
The Magpies’ last home game attracted the lowest league attendance for almost a decade while United arrived on Tyneside without an away win since March and with their lowest points total after seven games since 1989.
Bruce had been so furious after last weekend’s 5-0 hammering at Leicester that he couldn’t stomach seeing his flops at training on Monday and told them to stay home.
So it came as no surprise when he made five changes, the most notable being throwing in Longstaff, who lined up in midfield alongside his brother Sean, 21.
It was Longstaff Jnr who came closest to ending the tedium with a first half-strike that rattled De Gea’s crossbar on 28 minutes, while Fabian Schar flashed a header wide. In terms of creating opportunities, Bruce’s men looked prolific compared to United, but it was the visitors who wasted the best one of all on the stroke of half-time when Harry Maguire headed wide from just six yards.
Longstaff made United pay to secure a huge win for Bruce, who said: ‘‘Matty has beaten them in his first game and I’ve been trying for 20 years now.
“It’s fantastic to see a local kid play alongside his brother and then to score on debut against Manchester United.”
The result leaves the Red Devils just two points above the drop zone in 12th – and facing a growing crisis that might leave Old Trafford bosses with no choice but to sack yet another manager.