Halfway through this match, Eddie Howe must have wondered where on earth his Champions League-chasing team had disappeared to. What had happened to the swagger so evident just a few days earlier in the rampant 5-1 victory at West Ham?
Fortunate only to be a goal down after Ivan Toney had recovered from one penalty miss to convert a second, the visitors glumly dragged themselves into the changing room at half-time having been totally overrun. Were three matches in six days catching up on them?
Their performance after the break proved their resilience should not be in question. Emerging with a different lineup – courtesy of two substitutions – a reshuffled formation and a refreshed mindset, Newcastle’s players showed their designs on joining Europe’s elite next season are very real.
Within 20 minutes of the restart they had put the ball into the Brentford net three times, albeit the last of those was ruled out for handball in the buildup. But a David Raya own goal and a superb strike from Alexander Isak were enough to secure a fifth successive win that also ended Brentford’s remarkable record of never losing a Premier League game after taking the lead.
“It was very much a game of two halves,” said Howe. “The first half was difficult. Brentford were very good. We struggled to get any rhythm in our game. Even in possession we were a little bit negative with our decision-making.
“I was pleased to get in at half-time, regroup and try to find a way back into the game. We hadn’t been in that position many times this season, so the challenge to our players was: ‘Can we come back? Have we got the strength of character? Have we got the physicality to deliver a huge 45 minutes?’ Right from the whistle, in that second half we looked a totally different team.”
The goal that brought Newcastle back into the game in fact had little to do with the unfortunate Raya and all to do with Joelinton, who made a fool of Ben Mee with one smart turn and fired across goal, where the Brentford goalkeeper accidentally turned it into his own net.
Their second was proof that Callum Wilson and Isak can indeed share a pitch together, as Howe has frequently suggested. Wilson, one of the two half-time substitutes, worked some space on the edge of the penalty area and squared to his strike partner, who expertly fired high into Raya’s goal from 20 yards. That Wilson then had his own effort chalked off for an inadvertent handball minutes later mattered little in a comeback befitting of Newcastle’s league position.
The outcome could have been so different. “I don’t think any team has done to Newcastle what we did in the first half,” said a rueful Thomas Frank. “With a missed penalty and marginal offside we could have been up 3-0.
“The [first] 45 minutes definitely is up there with the best we have played in the Premier League. That could, and should, have given us more.”
The hosts initially thought they had taken the lead after 10 minutes when Toney responded quickest to tap home from a scrambling Nick Pope save, only for his haste to prove his undoing when the video assistant referee ruled it out for offside.
It was the start of a Toney v Pope showdown that played out in two penalty duels. The first came after the lively Kevin Schade destroyed Fabian Schär for pace and suckered a scrambling Sven Botman into recklessly crashing into him.
Ordinarily impeccable from the spot, Toney promptly passed the ball with a bewildering lack of power to Pope’s left, allowing the Newcastle goalkeeper to gently tumble and gather.
That was his second miss from 30 penalties, but he soon made amends. This time, Isak was stripped of the benefit of the doubt originally afforded to him by the referee, Chris Kavanagh, after Rico Henry had gone down at the near post claiming a kick from the Newcastle striker.
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While no concrete proof showed whether Isak’s clumsily raised leg had made contact, Kavanagh decided he had seen enough on the pitchside monitor to overturn his decision.
Toney stuck with the same side, but added considerably more force to score. If only he had struck his first penalty with the same strength, Newcastle might not have been emboldened to respond as they did.
