Snapshots of a beaming Eddie Howe at the final whistle do not quite tell the whole story.
Newcastle’s manager describes January as a “season defining” month for his inconsistent side and he looked suitably delighted to begin it with the collection of three points as Crystal Palace’s winless run stretched to seven games in all competitions.
Yet those home smiles allied to the bald statistics of a victory secured thanks to second-half goals from Bruno Guimarães and Malick Thiaw offer a perhaps slightly misleading summary of this often chaotic collision between the Carabao Cup and FA Cup holders.
Indeed, if the injury-hit visitors had not been quite so vulnerable to set pieces, the outcome of a contest decided by two poorly defended dead balls might well have been different.
By the 78th minute, when Guimarães’s inswinging corner eventually dropped before Thiaw, who poked the ball past Dean Henderson, the disappointment was writ large across Oliver Glasner’s face suggested the Crystal Palace manager knew the game was up.
Until then, the visitors had looked eminently capable of securing at least a draw from an ugly match almost as bleak as the bitter winter chill that ensured there will be no imminent thaw on a snowy, icebound Tyneside. With the exception of Thiaw, Guimarães and Lewis Miley, a 19-year-old midfielder once again outstanding out of position at right back, not too many home players were at their best.
If Miley suggested it will not be that long before this Newcastle team is built around his elegant vision and stellar passing range, Anthony Gordon once again disappointed on the left. It was no coincidence that Howe’s side improved considerably once the England winger was replaced by the catalytic Harvey Barnes in the 63rd minute.
“It was a tough game, a bit bitty at times,” said Newcastle’s manager whose team rose to ninth, only five points behind fourth-placed Liverpool. “It was very, very difficult for us to control, there were nerves in the stadium and we had to be patient. But today was a big step forward for us.” It was also rather untidy. Admittedly, there were minor early highlights; Henderson acrobatically tipped Fabian Schär’s header over the crossbar and Yoane Wissa selflessly slid a square pass for Gordon to tap home before a VAR review detected Wissa had been fractionally offside.
Generally though, Palace proved reasonably resistant to the attacking pace of Gordon and Wissa, and might even have opened the scoring had Thiaw’s tremendous interception not prevented Yeremy Pino from making the most of Adam Wharton’s excellent, potentially goal-creating pass.
Shortly after an offside Joelinton had swept a shot into Henderson’s net in the wake of one of Schär’s trademark long, lofted passes, Jean-Philippe Mateta curved a shot narrowly wide.
That chance had arrived when, with the atmosphere inside the stadium strangely flat, Brennan Johnson, newly arrived at Palace from Tottenham in a club-record £35m deal, dodged past Lewis Hall.
Although Nick Pope was not required to make a single first-half save, Howe’s players rode their luck a little.
A disbelieving Glasner screamed “Oh no; oh my goodness” after Will Hughes and Pino played a slick one-two only for the former to somehow drag an extremely presentable chance wide. Small wonder a crestfallen Hughes walked towards the tunnel at the interval muttering to himself and shaking his head. “We missed a big chance there,” reflected Palace’s manager.
A big part of Newcastle’s failure to assert any sort of real control had stemmed from a midfield department where an ultimately withdrawn Sandro Tonali was left limping in the wake of a wince-inducing early challenge from Maxence Lacroix. As a streetwise Palace slowed the play at every opportunity, even Guimarães took a little time to properly get going.
Nonetheless, as the second half unfolded and the game became increasingly open, only some fine defending from Marc Guéhi – once a defender on the very top of Howe’s shopping list – helped keep the score goalless as growing frustration rippled down from the stands.
Palace were succeeding in fraying the bond between Howe’s players and their increasingly disgruntled fans, who seemed unimpressed as Wharton’s fine pass left Pope to repel Johnson’s shot. Things felt fragile but the mood became instantly more upbeat when Guimarães headed Newcastle into the lead from close range after Jacob Murphy’s free kick, Barnes’s cross and Miley’s cushioned cutback.
Shortly afterwards, Thiaw secured the three points that left Palace’s manager ruing his team’s dead-ball inadequacies.
“It was a disappointing defeat,” said Glasner. “It was a good performance but we can’t afford to give away so many goals from set plays. It’s not acceptable. I have to find solutions. Set pieces are the reason we lost today. They’ve cost us in five of our last six defeats. We have to get it sorted.”
