Howe’s that for a Toon turnaround?
JOEWILLOCK declared life gets sweeter every day under Newcastle chief Eddie Howe. The Toon midfielder grabbed his first goal of the season to stretch their unbeaten run to six games and lift them four points clear of danger.
That was no more than Howe’s depleted line-up warranted as they refused to allow their survival charge to be blown off course.
Herowillock hailed the amazing revolution at St
James’ Park under Howe and said: “Eddie’s a brilliant manager and a brilliant person. We trust and buy into his ways. We have a close relationship. I’m so happy he’s here.
“We’re all fighting for each other.we don’t come to places like this and sit back.we now go for the win.”
Failure to make it four league victories on the bounce was the one irritation for Howe, who said: “I’m satisfied and yet frustrated it wasn’t more than a point. But we saw real resilience from the players that came into the team. Everyone stepped up.”
Hammers boss David Moyes was rather more downbeat after his team blew the chance to overtake fourth-placed Manchester United.
The Scot, with one win from five, groaned: “We’ve scraped another point and that could be important at the end of the season but I can’t say I’m enjoying it.we gave away an incredibly soft goal. Some players need to improve their levels again.”
Having withdrawn from last weekend’s game moments before kick-off with a stomach bug, cat-kicking Kurt Zouma had the guts to face Howe’s side, who arrived more optimistic of beating the drop after wins over Leeds, Everton and Aston Villa. Not even losing skipper Kieran Trippier to a serious injury had dented confidence on the evidence of their lightning-fast start here.
They were all over their opponents and almost went ahead on three minutes, whenwillock’s effort flew over the bar following Jacob Murphy’s strike.
After a flurry of corners and decent possession, the Geordies were made to rue their failure to hit the net.
The Hammers’ Jarrod Bowen had a drive bravely blocked by Matt Targett before forcing a brilliant fingertip save against the bar by
Martin Dubravka. But the Toon keeper was helpless on 32 minutes, when unmarked defender Craig Dawson powered in a close-range header from Aaron Cresswell’s free-kick.
That was harsh on Newcastle, yet their heads did not drop as they would have a few weeks ago. Withwillock at the heart of everything good, they went in search of an equaliser and it duly arrived on
the stroke of half-time courtesy of a rare Declan Rice howler.
The England midfielder’s attempted headed clearance only went backwards into the danger area.
That caught out Dawson but not the lurking Willock, whose fine instinctive finish hit the inside of the post before rolling over the line.
A good first half then gave way to a dull second 45 minutes that contained no shots on target.
That sparked huge frustration within the home camp, underlined at the death by Bowen squaring up to giant Toon defender Dan Burn over a late lunge.
That tussle came to nothing, just like the second half.