Ciaran Clark came into the team on Monday night at Turf Moor in place of the inured Paul Dummett.
And the former Aston Villa defender put in an excellent performance and scored Newcastle’s second goal from a header, and that turned out to be the winning goal in the fabulous 2-1 win.
Newcastle moved up a couple of places in the league with the win into 13th place and we now have 12 points from 13 games played – that’s only a couple of points less than last season after 13 games played.
Last season we had just lost our 4th game in a row with a 3-0 defeat at home to Watford and picked up just one point form the next 5 games.
Ciaran Clark – delighted with 3rd win in a row
Ciaran has talked about the preparation for the game and he was delighted to be in the team and also to be handed the captaincy by Rafa Benitez:
“We’d worked on a few things during the international break in preparation for Burnley, including playing with three centre-backs,”
“But we weren’t exactly sure what the manager was going to go with until we got to the ground.”
“When he announced the team, he not only said I was in the XI, he said I was captain too – which was great.”
“Obviously, I was pleased to be given that honor, but really I was pleased just to be playing again and part of the team, if I’m honest.”
“But the most important thing at the end was the result, and we’re buzzing with that win.”
“It was a great night,” “We started off really well, got two early goals and I felt like we were fairly comfortable.”
“We knew what Burnley were going to do. Their strengths are getting the ball forward early to the two strikers, and for the most part we dealt with it.”
“They scored their goal, which made it kind of nervy for us, but we battled through.”
“Then, in the second half, we refocused and concentrated and managed to hold on so it was a great night, a great result and a great three points.”
“We had a really tough start, and we were unlucky in most of the games we actually played in.”
“To go on this run of three wins in a row is unbelievable, but we always had the belief in the team we would turn this around.”
“We’ve proved that, but we really want to keep this going now and really kick on and pick up more points in December.”
It was another excellent team performance by the lads and we are hoping we can make it four wins in a row against West Ham on Saturday at Sy. James’ Park.
Howay The Lads!!
Note: Three Newcastle fans are launching an unofficial children’s book – ABC with NUFC – this Friday.
The book is an A-Z of the great and the good of Newcastle United. They’re also launching a competition to win one of five copies of the book.
All you have to do is guess which trumpet playing former midfielder takes the letter Nn?
Here’s where you can try to win a book.
7 comments so far
The next Mike Williamson
Nov 29, 2018 at 2:18 PM
Comment #1It’s great that Schaar, Ki, and Fernandez have turned out to be super bargain buys, but it’s such a shame they all play in positions we weren’t desperate to improve. They’ve come in for Shelvey and Lascelles and while we look better than we did a few weeks ago, it would be harsh on the two dropped players to say we’re better than last season in those positions as they were our stand-out performers. What we really desperately need is to see some of the attacking players come good. It would do us more good if Muto or Rondon turned out top class than the other three combined because upfront is where we have the problems. If those two can come good,Kenedy can show consistency, and another can be added on the right wing, we could be competing with Everton and Leicester (only if Rafa stays)
Toonces
Nov 29, 2018 at 2:35 PM
Comment #2TNMW – while we may not have been desperate to improve upon the starters at those positions it shows how important depth in quality at those positions is. So while we may not have been in dire need to improve upon Shelvey, Lejeune and Lascelles in terms of them being starters, Ki, Fernandez and Schar have most certainly helped cover for their loss to injury and allowed them time to recover without pressure to bring them back in too quickly.
Nostra Magpie
Nov 29, 2018 at 2:42 PM
Comment #3I know some have said that Clark made a couple of mistakes on previous threads but let’s not forget that so do all players in a match, including players in the top six. I for one give Clark his due since he came into a team and Rafa made him Captian which in itself is daunting, he played and scored the winner.
This is a good thing for the club, players competing for places and for once our team having coverage which we lacked way more in the past.
West Ham will be tricky, four in a row would be amazing, getting 12 points from four games in a row is unheard of in the lower half normally, I really want the win but three games ago if someone asked me I would have said getting 10 points from twelve would also be amazing.
Jib
Nov 29, 2018 at 2:45 PM
Comment #4http://football-formation.com/lineup/70414/Toon
Lee Charnley Bunga Party
Nov 29, 2018 at 3:15 PM
Comment #5It really is difficult to get quality attacking players at bargain prices these days as every team is after them!!
Joselu Murphy and Atsu cost 20 million plus combined and none of them have really increased their value we are never going to really progress until decent money gets spent!
hibbit
Dec 1, 2018 at 5:53 PM
Comment #6>:(
hibbit
Dec 2, 2018 at 8:56 AM
Comment #7:'(