Newcastle United vs West Ham United. Premier League.
St James' Park, Newcastle.
Report and free match highlights as Newcastle go six games unbeaten in the Premier League
Monday 6 July 2020 09:17, UK
Newcastle came from behind twice to deny West Ham a second successive Premier League win, with the Hammers having to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Michail Antonio got the visitors off to a perfect start with a thunderous finish inside four minutes. But Newcastle reacted well and equalised 13 minutes later as Miguel Almiron (17) tapped home.
It was a similar and much quicker story in the second half. Thomas Soucek (65) scored in his second successive Premier League game to put West Ham ahead once again, but less than two minutes later, Jonjo Shelvey (67) found the back of the net.
West Ham pushed hard for another late winner but were unable to find it this time. However, the point does edge them further away from the relegation places with 31 points, although they stay in 16th. Newcastle remain in 12th with 43 points.
West Ham picked up where they left off against Chelsea on Wednesday and scored within four minutes of kick-off.
Pablo Fornals' sweeping diagonal pass found the feet of Jarrod Bowen down the right of the area. Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles was perfectly placed to sweep Bowen's cross away - but didn't - with the ball finding Antonio, who finished emphatically into the top of the net.
The fast start continued as both goalkeepers made vital saves. West Ham stopper Lukasz Fabianski got down low to push away a low Dwight Gayle free-kick before Antonio almost added a second, but his hooked effort was pushed away well by Martin Dubravka.
Newcastle had responded well to going behind and scored a deserved equaliser in the 17th minute. It was a superb Newcastle move, with Allan Saint-Maximin - who nabbed three assists against Bournemouth in midweek - driving towards the area before laying the ball off for Emil Krafth on the right.
It was an inviting fizzing cross from the Swedish defender that allowed a lurking Almiron in the middle of a packed six-yard box to turn home from close range.
West Ham improved after the drinks break, and almost scored another just after the half-an-hour mark. Aaron Cresswell hit a low, hard ball into the area - looking to be a shot - and Bowen just popped a foot out to try and guide it goalwards. However, Dubravka made an instinctive save with his legs to see the ball away.
The second half was a mostly meandering affair, although Almiron did have a few sights of goal.
He fired wide not long after the break following a neat Saint-Maximin lay-off. He then sent a volley goalwards after some neat play between himself, Joelinton and Shelvey, but it went over the crossbar.
On 65 minutes, West Ham took the lead again. Bowen delivered a corner which Rice powered to meet at the far post, but could only smack his effort off the crossbar. The loose ball then fell to the waiting Soucek who hammered home.
But 87 seconds later and Newcastle were once again level. It was another neat passing move as Joelinton picked out Shelvey at the top of the area. He then laid the ball off for Gayle, who guided the ball around in a half-circle before finding the run of Shelvey again, with the midfielder finishing well.
Having twice been ahead and with a chance to pull six points clear of the relegation places, West Ham went close to the winner in the final few minutes.
Soucek saw a header saved by Dubravka before substitute Andriy Yarmolenko unleashed a powerful drive goalwards, but the goalkeeper was there to stop. Soucek again went close in the 87th minute, but could only loop a header over the crossbar.
It was a good performance from the midfielder, who is Newcastle's top Premier League scorer with six goals from just 12 shots on target.
He ranked the highest for the highest number of successful passes (63/74) and made a total of eight crosses with a total of 63 good passes. Shelvey also had 91 touches, made three key passes and scored with his only shot on target. Not a bad day at the office.
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce: "It's never easy to come from behind in the Premier League and our reply, the second one, was a minute or so [later] and I think that's what pleased me more than anything, the quality of our first goal.
"But we gave away a poor first goal and the second one, we knew they were a threat from set pieces. In that respect, a disappointment but we've shown a great resilience again to come back, especially after going behind twice.
"I think they [the players] have enjoyed playing in the system we're using at the minute. Yes, we've had off days, but the resilience of them all season, they certainly have a pride about their work, which is always a good thing to have in your locker and all credit to them. I think if someone had said we'd taken 43 points with five games to play, I think we'd all be delighted with that.
"We always want to win. What we're trying to do and achieve is to keep the ball better but keep playing forward if we can. Once we did that, I thought we looked more of a threat and certainly when you see our goals, we played forward and ran forward and that's the big improvement, I believe and why we've been so successful over the last few weeks.
"I've said it before, it's a great club and it's a unique club and at the minute, we're having a decent time so let's enjoy it while it lasts."
West Ham manager David Moyes: "I'm disappointed in our defending, that we didn't do better generally but I'm not disappointed with the players and in many way, I'm not disappointed to pick a point up, I just felt there was an opportunity to get three.
"We gave it up so quickly after getting the second goal, we didn't give ourselves a chance to even get the ball back or settle ourselves down and that's probably the more disappointing thing.
"The dressing room knows what I feel like, but in the same breath, they also know that coming here to a Newcastle team that have shown good form since coming back from lockdown and had some really positive results, it wasn't the worst result.
"I was sickened [by the second equaliser] just because of us working so hard to get a goal back and then giving it up so quickly. I thought Newcastle had played quite well in the first half and made it difficult for us but I felt that before half-time, we started to grow into the game, tried to sort one or two problems out.
"By the end of the game, I think we were the team who created the most chances, their goalkeeper had to make a few good saves. So I'm not disappointed with that, I'm just disappointed to give that second goal up especially and some teams could have gone under then but credit to the lads, they showed real resilience not to go under and give up and third goal."
Newcastle face a huge test on Wednesday as they travel to Manchester City in the Premier League (kick-off 6pm), having been beaten 2-0 by Pep Guardiola's side in their FA Cup quarter-final last weekend.
West Ham are also in action again on Wednesday as they host Burnley at the London Stadium (kick-off 6pm).
