Newcastle 2-1 Stoke: Lascelles strikes again to fire the Toon into the top four!

Crisis? What crisis! Yet another Jamaal Lascelles header handed us a third successive win in a battling performance against Stoke City at a packed out St.James’ .

Stoke started brightly and saw a lot of the ball in the early stages, but it was yet another spirited performance from the lads. We were organised, pressed well and created several chances – it could and should have been more comfortable than the scoreline suggested.

Atsu’s opener came out the blue, with the brilliant Matt Ritchie putting an enticing across on a plate for the Ghanaian, who couldn’t miss after arriving late at the back post.

The game should have been done and dusted before Shaqiri’s almost inevitable equaliser. Joselu spurned two big openings, whilst the Gallowgate were left perplexed by the referee’s failure to hand us a penalty after a goal-bound Christian Atsu was pretty blatantly bundled over.

Shaqiri’s strike was a bitter pill to swallow after the missed chances, but the captain soon put things right. He latched onto a Matt Ritchie corner and cannoned the ball in off the bar. The Gallowgate erupted and we hung on for yet another well earned win.

Merino was magnificent again in midfield, whilst Clark and Lascelles held the fort at the back with two strong displays. Yedlin and Mbemba did a good job to contain the tricky Jese and Shaqiri whilst Ritchie outstanding. Busy as ever and played a big part in both goals.

Joselu held the ball well on occasion but missed a few too many big chances. He could have had a hat-trick! Atsu offered us an out ball on the break and looked lively yet again, whilst Perez had one of his better afternoons with some good work on and off the ball.

Player ratings

Elliot (8) – Yedlin (7.5),  Lascelles (8.5), Clark (7), Mbemba (7) – Ritchie (9*), Hayden (7), Merino (8), Atsu (7.5) – Perez (7) – Joselu (6).

A great shift from the lads. Another big win and sign that we have more than enough to compete at this level. Get in!

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

182 thoughts on “Newcastle 2-1 Stoke: Lascelles strikes again to fire the Toon into the top four!

  1. No team that has racked up nine points in their first five games of the season has EVER been relegated in the Premier League era.

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  2. georgio:
    No team that has racked up nine points in their first five games of the season has EVER been relegated in the Premier League era.

    well now, that’s a rather comforting stat 🙂

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  3. Eric Sykes:
    Shamrock: you are too young to remember how special the BBC build up to the FA Cup final used to be, but I sure Kimtoon does and definitely Icedog who will go back further. I remember the 1974 final and loving every minute of it (except the game ).

    now your really bringing back old times,dad took me to the 1955 final great day,but the bbc really did not bother me the crowds on their returrn home was ureal saw a couple of camaras broke in the crowd,pushing forward to get to the bus,in those days before crowds were really counted (big fiddle) there were 60.000 inside SJP many times and me getting past head over head by the crowd to get to the front and sit on the little wall where i could get my peanuts easy lol

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  4. I am a bit pissed off at Mereno saying he will only give 100% every week. Doesn’t he realise that the range of effort for footballers starts at 110% and sometimes goes up to a million percent.

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  5. Has Rafa ever played an unchanged starting 11? With 8 days rest until Brighton I am going to go out on a limb and say he will this Sunday. I don’t think we have any new injuries and I don’t think any of the subs played their way into the team.

    I shouldn’t say it, but I am sort of glad we are not in the League Cup. It is a cliché to say that we can concentrate on the League but also Chelsea away would not be an easy game so I would rather have more time to prepare for Brighton.

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  6. Brighton have Bournemouth away in the League Cup. So, another South Coast derby and another charged atmosphere. I wonder if they will play the reserves?

    Still not getting what Garth Crooks said about NUFC and fatigue. We are only playing one game a week until the holiday fixtures and have an almost fully fit squad. I remember when Ugly John had 14 players on the treatment table and could hardly muster a full subs bench and played Janmaat at centre back. He was/is a **** manager but he was also unlucky.

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  7. So, Joey Barton continues his (social) media career and adds to the long list in of rent-a-scouser, whether it be yer actual scousers or ex-players. I will try to think of a few:

    Thompson
    Collymore
    Barton
    Redknapp
    Owen
    Souness
    Gerrard
    Redknapp
    Lawro

    I am sure there are many, many more.

    When you add all of them up plus the rent-a-Manc and the rent-an-**** there just isn’t any room for anybody else on the pundity couches and chairs. There’s ‘Arry of course, Shearer and Lineker and the totally unwarranted und unwanted views of Arrogant Alan. Very few others who get the odd minor gig like Peytar.

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  8. I think what I am saying is that it is obvious that there will be bias in favour of 3 teams especially if the media keep hiring their ex-players. They all claim to offer fair and balanced coverage (like Fox News 🙂 ), but how can they when all of this lot are homers – and even admit it. And, as a few on here have said there is some sort anger to NUFC from a few of these pundits as they never fail to put the boot in, predict a loss or crow when we are in trouble.

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  9. I have said this before, but the Yank coverage is better and not biased. Apart from one commentator, Arlo White, they don’t have a w@nk when Rooney scores.

    They have Rebecca Lowe who is a trained UK journalist and not your typical eye (Sky) candy. Robby Earle and Robbie Mustoe who didn’t have stellar careers but were solid pros and can actually talk without continually using clichés. And they have an American voice, ex-National team, college educated and articulate, Kyle Martino. There isn’t a screaming baboon (Thommo) or school dunce (Merse) in sight.

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  10. I mean, is it any wonder that all of the football channels are biased when every game they show is like a reunion for ex-players, like a charity golf event or after dinner speaking engagement. A time to talk about the old days when the cameras are off and have that banter between the old boys’ clique.

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  11. I am not saying that some of the pundits are not tactically astute or do not make the odd useful observation, I am saying there is an inherent bias because most of the ones that are on the big games are from the same 3 teams. For once when **** play Liverpool I would like a neutral, not a panel stacked with ex-players from those teams. I know they have massive fan bases but aren’t these games also supposed to appeal to the neutral fan or fans of other clubs?

    It is banal and homogenous because you already know what each pundit is going to say before they say it. If their team has a good day they will go over the top in their praise. If they have a bad day they will go over the top on the negative side, harking back to their day, when men were men and Beats by Dr. Dre were Sony Walkmans.

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  12. Eric Sykes:
    So, Joey Barton continues his (social) media career and adds to the long list in of rent-a-scouser, whether it be yer actual scousers or ex-players. I will try to think of a few:

    Thompson
    Collymore
    Barton
    Redknapp
    Owen
    Souness
    Gerrard
    Redknapp
    Lawro

    I am sure there are many, many more.

    When you add all of them up plus the rent-a-Manc and the rent-an-**** there just isn’t any room for anybody else on the pundity couches and chairs. There’s ‘Arry of course, Shearer and Lineker and the totally unwarranted und unwanted views of Arrogant Alan. Very few others who get the odd minor gig like Peytar.

    Owen
    Souness
    Allardyce
    Jenas
    Shearer
    Pardew
    Waddle
    Gullit
    Even Lawro

    All formerly NUFC in one capacity or another.

    Then there is Savage
    Upson
    Linekar
    Murphy
    Sutton

    Who dont have direct ties with any of the traditional top sides, so in terms of representation and insight to our club, there is a decent spread – more so by far than any of the other sides outside the ‘Top 6’. There are a few neutrals, but not many.

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  13. That said… The standard of analysis and commentary is shocking. Especially from Owen, who cant even accurately describe a replay that he is watching. Bloody awful.

    Opinion on NUFC is also very scathing, from owner to fan base.

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  14. shamrock:
    Murphy is pretty decent most of the time.

    Aye don’t mind him,normally tells it how it is,Winterburn wasn’t bad,always though he should have been big Al side kick when he took toon job instead of the dummy that did

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  15. Murphy ex-Liverpool, or do you mean Danny Murphy. Savage was on Man Us books at one time.

    Sham: I know I was exaggerating a bit to make a point. There are a lot of the Scottish co-commentators but there are an overwhelming number of studio pundits who have ties to Liverpool, Arsenal and Man U. It is not surprising since they were the best teams. But if you take those 3 teams they account for more pundits than all of the rest of the leagues put together and it shows in their opinions.

    I know Shearer is biased as well.

    Pards actually seems NOT to be biased against NUFC, so far 🙂

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  16. It says a lot that when Gary Neville first came onto the scene as a commentator that people were shocked that he was not an idiot. It turned out that he actually knew what he was talking about when standing in front of a giant iPad – not so much when it came to real life at Valencia and England. His brother Phil IS a fcking idiot though. I think he gets the gig because he is Gary’s brother.

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  17. It is also funny that Savage says he is not the same person away from the limelight and that he is rather shy and reserved. He is asking us to believe that he is not a ****, that he only plays one on TV. Pull the other one.

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  18. Anyway, I just thought I would have a rant because I truly believe there is an agenda against NUFC, even amongst some of our ex-players and managers. Lawro for example. Souness hates everybody so he doesn’t count 🙂

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  19. AND, I only listed a few and Shamrock listed a few others but it is absolutely amazing how many ex-footballers get these pundit, newspaper columns, soccer Saturday, talk-sport, co-commentator jobs. There must be at least a couple of hundred of them nationally. That is no exaggeration, there must be a couple of hundred !!!!

    And that is without the local papers where people like McDonald, Rob Lee and Don Hutchison who do not have national gigs, have their say. I assume it is the same with other clubs and ex-players.

    People ask what ex-footballers do when they hang their boots. They stay on the gravy train, man.

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  20. Stuart79:
    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/how-rafa-benitez-built-band-13645018.amp

    A quite brilliant piece about Rafa and his player requirements

    Yeah Stuart, Mark Douglas writes a good article about once a month and does a little research. I wish it would happen more often as the good stuff in is often buried by the 5 things we learned drivel/clickbait.

    It was interesting to see that he identified the defeats by 3 or more as key. It was a stick that I used to beat Troysta with when he was saying Pardew was average and the best we could get. It was also on the list of stats that sackpardew.com pointed to.

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  21. There has been a bit of a change in the attitude of some of the punditocracy recently. It is almost like they just realized that NUFC have a 2 time La Liga and Champions League winning manager in charge.

    We will know the world has changed when both Lawro and Merse predict an away win in the same week.

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  22. Ice: next time Keys is on have a look at his face. He always looks like my Granddad when he had his false teeth out. I swear the man has no teeth.

    You watch Bein Sports. Keys doesn’t only suck up to Gray, they both suck up to every guest they have on like they are interviewing the Queen or Winston Churchill. They treat Pardew like he is Pep Guardiola.

    I never saw them when they were on Sky and cannot believe such sycophants lasted so long. It gives me the thought that Sky used that sexist comments stuff as an excuse to get rid of people who had past their sell by date.

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  23. Eric Sykes:
    Ice: next time Keys is on have a look at his face. He always looks like my Granddad when he had his false teeth out. I swear the man has no teeth.

    You watch Bein Sports. Keys doesn’t only suck up to Gray, they both suck up to every guest they have on like they are interviewing the Queen or Winston Churchill. They treat Pardew like he is Pep Guardiola.

    I never saw them when they were on Sky and cannot believe such sycophants lasted so long. It gives me the thought that Sky used that sexist comments stuff as an excuse to get rid of people who had past their sell by date.

    Yes I watch Bein sports there is so much to chose from,you can watch one game and show the goals going in live from the other games even from Spain Germany,Italy ect,aye Keys has a funny gob now you mention it,I now put them on mute until the game comes back on

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  24. There is sometimes a lot made of Rafa’s “history” with Jonjo Shelvey. Well, if truth be told there really isn’t one. Here are the facts:

    May 2010 – Rafa signs Jonjo as a raw 18 year old.

    June 3, 2010 – Rafa leaves Liverpool Football Club

    July 3, 2013 – Shelvey, still only 21 is sold to Swansea for 5 million. That was quite a lot back then for someone of his age.

    It is not even clear if Rafa had any part in Jonjo’s recruitment as he was fighting with Hicks and Gillett at the time and was out of the door a couple of weeks later.

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  25. You know, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Rafa had never met Shelvey at Liverpool. It was the summer break when an 18 year old prospect was signed and then a couple of weeks later Rafa was gone. There wouldn’t have been any training sessions and obviously no matches.

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  26. The thing I don’t get is how Paul Merson still has his place on that panel. He cannot pronounce hardly any of the foreign players names . Jeff and the ‘lads ‘ all laugh at his attempts and make light of it but actually it’s quite insulting that he doesn’t take the time to practice the correct pronunciation of players names. Commentators and newsreaders do this as a matter of course and that he’s too bloody lazy or unable to master names is damning on sky as a professional company/broadcaster . On Saturday he referred to Slimani as salami and they all roared at it !
    Let’s not forget the total condemnation by the press toward JK for saying insomnia instead of N’zogbia which was a slip of the tongue by a very fuddled mind. How would the public react to a newsreader mispronouncing peoples names ? you can either do the job or you can’t. There is lots of players names I can’t pronounce but I don’t put myself in front of a tv camera expecting to be taken seriously.

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