Five-star United celebrate first anniversary of takeover in style
NEWCASTLE United celebrated their one-year takeover anniversary in true style with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Brentford.
On a day on which striker Callum Wilson went through the game without scoring, his teammates showed their clinical side as they made the Bees pay for some awful defending.
A sparkling performance from Bruno Guimaraes set Newcastle on their way to another three points as they made it back-to-back wins and nine goals in two games.
Boss Eddie Howe will not get carried away by this of course – but the Magpies nudged their way into a Europa League slot after a great afternoon at St James’ Park.
Howe named an unchanged line-up to the side which beat Fulham comfortably last weekend but Allan Saint-maximin was on the bench after shaking off a hamstring problem.
United’s first chance came from a set-piece routine as Kieran Trippier elected to roll it short for Bruno Guimaraes and, despite his cross finding Sven Botman, the Bees cleared the danger on three minutes.
Two minutes later Guimaraes sprayed the ball to the right for Miguel Almiron but his effort from outside the box was palmed away by David Raya at the Leazes End.
Brentford thought they had gone ahead on 10 minutes when a well-worked move led to Bryan Mbeumo firing past Nick Pope.
United players protested for an offside with referee John Brooks initially giving the goal before being advised to check the monitor.
After a quick assessment by the official, it was deemed offside after Ivan Toney proved to be the offender and, much to the joy of the St James’ Park crowd it was wiped out.
It was Newcastle who went ahead midway through the first half after another routine setplay from the training ground.
A short corner was rolled to Trippier who whacked the ball in with venom from the righthand side to pick out Guimaraes, who headed low and in off the post to put Newcastle into a deserved lead.
Moments later Murphy weaved into the box but his low effort was easily gathered by Raya.
United were grateful to Pope who made a fine save to deny Shandon Baptiste but they strolled into full command of this game on the 29-minute mark.
A shocking clearance from Raya fell straight into Wilson’s path before he unselfishly rolled it into the path of Murphy, who arrived to tap home into an empty net for 2-0.
With Brentford becoming frustrated, former Toon striker Toney was booked for a challenge on Sean Longstaff.
Newcastle were in full control at half time and were full value for their double advantage after enjoying 61% possession and having seven goal attempts.
Brentford made a change at half time with Vitaly Janelt replacing Josh Dasilva for the second half.
It was the Londoners who started the second half strongly, creating a couple of half chances before being awarded a penalty.
Dan Burn conceded the goal after a handball in the box before Toney stepped up to send Pope the wrong way to reduce arrears nine minutes into the second period.
Before Brentford could even start thinking about staging a comeback, though, Newcastle restored their twogoal cushion just two min
utes later.
It came thanks to a super individual goal from Guimaraes, who picked the ball up in the middle of the park and weaved his way through before hammering a powerful shot past Raya to make it 3-1.
In what looked like the last throw of the dice for Thomas
Frank he made a double change
when Yoane Wissa and Frank Onyeka came on for Mbeumo and Baptiste.
Howe made his first change of the day when he brought on Joelinton for Murphy with 25 minutes to go.
Trippier’s corner on 67 minutes fell for Willock but he struck the ball horribly wide at the Gallowgate End.
Seconds later he turned in the box to latch on to Joelinton’s flick on but his shot was blocked.
It could have been four on 68 minutes when Almiron’s shot fell for Joelinton who back-heeled into the path of Guimaraes, who helped it on for Wilson – but his shot also hit a Brentford defender.
Playmaker Almiron swung a boot at a half clearance with 20 minutes left but the ball flew wide of the target.
There was a standing ovation with 13 minutes left when Guimaraes was replaced by Allan Saint-maximin after a man-ofthe-match display from the Brazil international.
It was 4-1 with nine minutes to go after another howler from Raya and his defender Ethan Pinnock, the duo getting in a real muddle.
A poorly-placed back pass rolled kindly to Almiron, who rounded the goalkeeper and belted it into the empty net.
Howe then made a series of changes as Elliot Anderson, Chris Wood and Matt Targett came on for Almiron, Trippier and Wilson.
Newcastle added another goal as the game drifted into stoppage time.
Saint-maximin helped the ball down the left for Joelinton before his cross was turned into his own goal by Pinnock to extend the lead to 5-1.
That put the icing on the cake for Newcastle as they strolled to their biggest win of the season and the best victory of the Howe era so far.