Newcastle United left it late, but we got the win against the Terriers today with a goal after 80 minutes from Ayoze Perez.
That was Ayoze’s fifth goal of the season and a very vital one for the club.
That moves Newcastle up to 35 points from 31 games – now 4 points above Huddersfield in the league.
Crystal Palace, Swansea, Brighton, West Brom and Southampton were all beaten, so it’s a massive day for Newcastle, as far as avoiding relegation.
Ayoze Perez scores winner – after being set up by Kenedy
We are now 7 points above the drop zone and with our good goal difference that’s equivalent to 8 points clear with 7 games to play.
This was Newcastle’s second win in a row for only the second time this season, and we have now won our last three home games without conceding a goal.
It was also the debut for Islam Slimani who came on for the last 15 minutes while Newcastle were still tied at no score.
Newcastle were dominant in the first half, and there were some chances created, and it was Dwight Gayle, the main culprit in missing some of those chances.
But Newcastle were also disciplined and didn’t panic at all after missing the chances.
Dwight didn’t have any luck as he missed three decent opportunities to score in that first half, so it was still 0-0 at the break.
As the second half progressed the Terriers came at Newcastle more, and the game started to open up.
Rafa brought on Christian Atsu for Ritchie after 67 minutes, Slimani for Gayle after 75 minutes to make his long-awaited debut and then Isaac Hayden for Diame after 79 minutes.
It was very soon after Hayden came on that Newcastle got the all-important goal.
It was scored by Ayoze Perez, and it brought a mighty roar from the St. James’ Park faithful.
It was Atsu who put in a cross from the right wing, and goalkeeper Lossl pushed the ball away from the challenging Slimani, but only to Kenedy.
The young Brazilian immediately put the ball to Perez who had only to tap the ball home to get us the goal that gave us all 3 points.
There was no panic from the Newcastle players as they contained the Terriers for the final minutes of the game to get Newcastle a fabulous win that takes us to 12th place in the league table.
That’s out 9th win of the season, and we are now 10 points better off than two years ago when we were relegated.
We are 2 points below Bournemouth in 10th place, so who says we cannot finish in the top half this season?
If we can do that it will have been another colossal management job by a certain Mr. Rafa Benitez.
Howay The Lads!!
Teams:
Newcastle: Dubravka; Yedlin, Lascelles, Lejeune, Dummett; Shelvey, Diame (Hayden, 79); Ritchie (Atsu, 67), Perez, Kenedy; Gayle (Slimani, 75).
Subs not used: Darlow, Manquillo, Clark, Murphy.
Huddersfield: Lossl, Smith (Mounie, 83), Kongolo, Schindler, Jorgensen, Hogg, Mooy, Van La Parra (Malone, 86), Pritchard, Kachunga (Quaner, 56), Depoitre.
Subs not used: Coleman, Billing, Ince, Hadergjonaj.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire)
Attendance: 52,261 (sell-out)
Comments welcome.
5 comments so far
Bambams
Mar 31, 2018 at 5:34 PM
Comment #1Check out @Total_NUFC’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/Total_NUFC/status/980117515388014592?s=09
ronaldo aarons
Mar 31, 2018 at 5:35 PM
Comment #2Kenedy showed his quality. Poor game in general but sill showed composure when it mattered when a lot of players would have panicked. Good assist.
Tsunki
Mar 31, 2018 at 5:37 PM
Comment #3That was hard work and I doubt we will have as tough a defence to crack again in some time. Really surprised they decided to play our old game of soak and break. They will miss getting a win against us, they’ve got tougher to face yet
ronaldo aarons
Mar 31, 2018 at 5:41 PM
Comment #4What I like is last season and this season we’ve been quite easy to beat at home. Since Jan we have been tougher to beat in general but 3 home games in a row we have won, without conceding, including v Man Utd. That makes me think we are starting to turn st James park into what we need it to become. A bloody hard place to come to for opposition players.
SA Toon
Mar 31, 2018 at 6:02 PM
Comment #5What a fantastic day it has been. Brighton, Swansea, Southampton, West Brom and Palace all going down – a much deserved win for NUFC – and the Proteas have Australia 110 – 6 (chasing 488 in the final test). What a day!!!!
I thought we played well today. Some good link-up play and some good individual performances. I thought Diame was bossing the midfield and Dummet had one of his better games. He put through some really good passes and generally seemed composed. Kenedy continues to impress me, and Shelvey is just class. We’re nearly there folks, we’re nearly there!!! Jealous as hell of my wife and son who’re going to be in the Toon next week. Please look out for a couple of South Africans looking a little lost and completely frozen. HOWAY THE LADS!!!