We’d been doing our research prior to Tuesday night’s eventual comeback against West Brom, and stumbled across quite a striking stat which highlights a slightly concerning trend across the vast majority of our games this season . When we have conceded first, we very rarely score.
This was not the case on Tuesday of course, with our two second half goals completing the comeback to earn at point at West Brom, however this is only the second time we’ve even scored in a game that we’ve conceded first in this season..
Prior to West Brom, we had scored just ONCE and taken just one point in games we’ve conceded first in, highlighting the importance of the first goal as shown below:
Spurs (H) 0-2 X
Huddersfield (A) 0-1 X
Brighton (A) 0-1 X
Liverpool (H) 1-1 (Joselu)
Burnley (A) 0-1 X
Bournemouth (A) 0-1 X
Watford (H) 0-3 X
As you can see, when we’ve conceded first this season, Joselu’s equaliser against Liverpool was the ONLY time (prior to Tuesday’s game) that we’ve scored or got any result from a game this season after conceding the first goal!
With this in mind, Tuesday’s comeback at the Hawthorns came as a welcome shock, bucking the trend that we don’t respond in games when we go a goal (or two!) behind.
It’s a cause for concern, and highlights our lack of firepower in the side, however this week’s response at West Brom is a positive sign, showing the clear fight that still very much exists within this Newcastle squad.
On the flip side, we’ve taken 13 out of a possible 18 points when we’ve scored first (P6, W4, D1, L1):
West Ham (H) 3-0 (Joselu)
Swansea (A) 1-0 (Lascelles)
Stoke (H) 2-1 (Astu)
Southampton (A) 2-2 (Hayden)
Crystal Palace (H) 1-0 (Merino)
Man Utd (A) 1-4 (Gayle)
The first goal is always key in games, and although it’s a bit of a cliche, it seems it’s particularly important for us this season – however Tuesday’s comeback against West Brom could be a sign of a much needed response to a recent slump at NUFC.
Hopefully we can continue to buck this trend when conceding first.
