Rafa Benitez’ Newcastle side claimed their third victory in succession this time against Sean Dyche and Burnley at Turf Moor 2-1.
Coming into the game Newcastle had not won in 12 attempts at a Monday night fixture and had never won a game against Sean Dyche. So history was in Burnleys favour before kick off. The fixture was made more important by other results on the weekend including Huddersfields somewhat surprising win against Wolves. Leaving both teams at Turf Moor firmly in a relegation battle.
The kick off was delayed by half an hour due to a medical emergency in the stadium which involved referee assessor Eddie Wolstenholme who collapsed near the tunnel. It is believed he went to the hospital conscious and is recovering well.
This fixture has historically never brought many goals but it was a full speed start at Turf Moor. It took just four minutes for the first goal. Following a Newcastle corner the ball eventually landed on the edge of the box where Argentinian Federico Fernandez stood, he lashed a speculative shot towards goal which took a huge deflection off of the leg of Ben Mee taking it spinning over Joe Hart and into the top corner. Benitez’ side surprised many at kick off, playing a centre back trio with wing backs. A tactic rarely opted for by Rafa apart from against the likes of Manchester City. Even in his press conference Benitez said Ciaran Clark would directly replace the injured Paul Dummett at left-back but Clark ended up in his more comfortable role of centre back. This seemed to hinder Burnley as they were forced to play through the middle as the wing backs of Deandre Yedlin on the right and Matt Ritchie on the left gave little space to the likes of Aaron Lennon out wide. Burnley began to grow into the game with Chris Wood and Sam Vokes both starting up top linking up well. However on the 23rd minute the visitors doubled their lead. The ball found itself on the Newcastle right following a corner and Ritchie whipped a cross towards the near post where Clark had made a run unmarked, the ball had enough pace on it so he glanced the header towards the far post where it found the corner of the net. Newcastle were playing with a new confidence as they emulated their football from late last season. Martin Dubravka was called into action for a couple of fairly simple saves but was caught off guard five minutes before half-time. Mee touched the ball into the Newcastle half before playing a beautiful diagonal ball towards Vokes who beat Clark in the air and Dubravka was caught off his line as Vokes met the header cleanly and it looped over the Newcastle goalkeeper from a staggering 17 yards out. This was just what Benitez would have feared and Burnley rallied before half time looking for a quick equaliser as they created a couple of good chances which Dubravka kept out. The Magpies went into the break a goal ahead.
Within just four minutes of the restart Newcastle could and should have had the game all but wrapped up. Some good work by Yedlin eventually led to him evading two Burnley defenders and the ball broke to him just in front of Hart. He managed to poke it towards the far corner but Harts leg denied it from trickling towards the goal, however it travelled perfectly across the face of goal where Ritchie had to slot home but instead somehow slammed it into the side netting from all of 4 yards. I will be shocked if we see a worse miss this season. Steven Defour was looking lively for Burnley but summer signing Ki Sung-Yueng and Senegalse Mohamed Diame were tidy and assertive in the middle of the park to stop Defour providing a real threat towards goal. Burnley struggled to create many other goal scoring chances until the 69th minute. Fernandez attempted to clear from the Newcastle box but Vokes was able to control the ball coming down from the heavens and set his striker partner Wood in space who struck straight down the throat of Dubravka and that began a nervy last 20 for the travelling Newcastle faithful. Wood had a string of other chances which he should really have done better with, barely testing the goalkeeper. Benitez side would yet have another chance to finish off Dyches’ outfit. Joselu who directly replaced Salomon Rondon on 70 minutes got a lovely ball poked through by Ayoze Perez who travelled well with the ball towards Burnleys defence. Joselu was through and got thoroughly unlucky as he looked to do everything right as the ball slipped under Hart but clattered back off the post which Burnley then cleared. Burnley continued to threaten as the brought on a third striker in the form of Ashley Barnes. Although their late string of free kicks into the box were dealt with well by Fernandez in particular.
Anthony Taylor brought proceedings to a close after five minutes of added time and Benitez tucked his glasses away into his top pocked with a smile on his face once again as Newcastle began to draw away from the bottom three and leave Burnley in hot water.
Man of the Match: Mohamed Diame