Newcastle 2-2 Man City: Magnificent Mags come back twice to earn well deserved draw

A point at home never felt so good!

Whether Man City were at it or not, that was an absolutely brilliant effort from all involved and a result we thoroughly deserved, with brilliant strikes from Jetro Willems and Jonjo Shelvey denying the champions; who took the lead twice.

The game started as you would expect. Man City had a huge amount of possession – it was as high as 90% early on – but they were surprisingly passive, slow to move the ball and lacking that killer instinct we’re so used to seeing them have in attack.

That said, we didn’t give them space, we pressed them well in midfield, tracked their runners and were first to every ball in and around the box, yet also carried a threat on the counter, with Saint-Maximin the driving force.

The Frenchman gave Kyle Walker an absolutely torrid time, running rings around the England international. His final product was lacking at times, but one player who finally delivered where it really matters today was Miguel Almiron. Here’s his clever assist to set up Willems’ first-half equaliser:

I never felt like City were banging down the door and about to score, but a moment of magic from Kevin De Bruyne stunned St James’ Park, giving the visitors what felt like the winner – but it wasn’t over.

Jonjo Shelvey – who shocked me for the right reasons with a surprisingly disciplined display – had the last laugh, and his superb late strike from the edge of the box was a moment he deserved after a much improved display in the middle of the park.

I’ve been critical of Shelvey and feared the worst when I say him starting, but today he did the ugly side brilliantly and produced that moment of magic we all know he’s capable of.

Fernandez was monstrous at the back, Dubravka made several game-changing saves, Hayden was everywhere, Willems showed his class once again and Saint-Maximin was a constant thorn in their side.

Joelinton was a handful, despite struggling to hold the ball up at times, while Almiron deserved his assist – his first for the club – and looked visibly more confident after that. Hats off to Manquillo too. The Spaniard has been frozen out at times this season, but he did a brilliant job on Raheem Sterling.

We needed a reaction after Monday’s pitiful effort at Aston Villa and we got one here.

Some will say this City side are a shadow of the side that won the title last season and far too much of a soft touch defensively, but we played a big part in them being so poor at both ends today, staying disciplined throughout while also putting them under pressure at both ends of the pitch.

Next up, Sheffield United on Thursday night!

(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.

52 thoughts on “Newcastle 2-2 Man City: Magnificent Mags come back twice to earn well deserved draw

  1. I looked at the player ratings and have a couple of comments for Olly:

    1. Nobody on here attacks Shelvey. Maybe it is your mates off the blog. I think everybody is in a agreement that he will run the show on his day but when he is off form we are also off form. How you deal with that I have no idea. It is what it is. I probably would have taken him off today on 70 mins and then he scores a great goal so what do I know. You have to hope one of the Longstaff’s are close to being as good as Jonjo on his good days and not as bad as him on his bad days.

    2. They are trying to convert a winger or inside forward (Joe) into a centre forward and the PL is very unforgiving. They overspent on a “PROJECT” but he might come good. It took Firmino and Son a year each to adjust.

    3. I thought Dubravka was outstanding today. That De Bruyne shot was past him in the blink of an eye and would have beaten most world class keepers. Certainly Lloris and Jordan Gaint **** Mackem.

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  2. Olly: none of what I wrote is meant as a criticism of you in any way. I know I can be a bit abrupt at times when I write.

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  3. Oh, and has anyone looked at the League 1 (3rd Division) table lately? Sunderland are 11th. I said Stewart Donald was a chancer from day 1.

    Are any Mackems getting an idea that he was always in it for the fame and fortune and never gave a **** about them? He was also **** at owning a non-league team when he had one. Maybe he can turn Sunderland into one now?!

    Seriously though, no promotion = administration for our cheesy chips friends.

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  4. Sunderland are 11th in the 3rd Division!!!!!! FFS. You have to see beyond the marketing **** that is “The Championship” and “League 1” and see it for what it is. THIRD DIVISION!

    Their season’s TV revenue is probably what we got paid by Sky today! Just think about that and who you could afford for players.

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  5. When I see the criticism of the Fatman I think there should be some perspective. He has tried, even if he is incompetent at football ownership. he got rid of Allardyce which was a welcomed by all. Hired Shearer and Keegan. Fcked them over a bit, but they were good gestures. Hired Rafa. Ed’s blog and The Mag never seem to see the dysfunction of saying Rafa was great and Ashley is ****.

    I really don’t think Ashley is this oppressive ogre that some think he is. I think he got into it to promote his first love, Sports Direct, and realized it wasn’t as easy as he thought. Now I think he is protecting his investment.

    Rafa was not God. People. Sharpy said he is 10th in the Chinese League.

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  6. We’ve had a fantastic result today and we’ve gone closer to the relegation zone! It’s ridiculous.

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  7. Stuart mate, I don’t think we are going down.

    Almiron ran his socks off for the whole 90+ minutes and St Max scared them to death.If they could just score a couple a month.

    Joe is not a centre forward for now.

    Gayle was not up to speed, but what would you expect for someone who had played about 6 minutes so far this season?

    I was happy with our performance.

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  8. Despite the 2 goals our defense was very good, nowt could stop KDB’s shot and Dubs actually had a very good game with some really nice saves. Hard to pick a man of the match as all played their part. I think they improved massively second half, first half both teams were poor and a hard slog of a watch.
    Agree it’s annoying to drop to 14th after a hard fought draw and it will mean nowt if we don’t do well against Shef utd and Saints.

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  9. Watching highlights. Bollocks! The old charming Mourinho seems to be back. He was talking to the kids/mascots in the tunnel at Spurs. They have always had a good firsteam but I was hoping Levy’s stinginess and Poch burnout would cause them to be about 7th. Seems like Jose has recharged his batteries and is not the misery he was at Man U. Was it living in a hotel for 3 years that did that?

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  10. There are some good storylines developing.

    Arsenal doing a Man U.

    Man U continuing to do a Man U and Ole’s friends now going missing.

    Silva and Pelligrini seem to be on weekly contracts and always one game away from the sack.

    The rejuvenation of the Special One.

    Moans about Pep even though he won the last 2 titles with record points.

    Hasslehutl might not be the Klopp mini-me the press made him out to be.

    And, of course the Mackems are 10th in the 3rd Division.

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  11. The groundsman should stop painting those white lines on the pitch , Joelinton seems to trip and fall over them.

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  12. Jonjo Shelvey had a good game because he is a good player. He has all the quality to warrant being a PL player and be in team. He has the quality to change or win games – he’s proved that in the past. So for me that shouldn’t be in doubt, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that he stayed in the team yesterday, because he’s played well in the last few games he came in.

    Shelveys biggest problem has been his consistency in effort. I think that has held him back in his career, coz let’s be right, if he had the same motivation and determination as say Jordan Henderson or James Milner – Shelvey would still be playing in Liverpool’s midfield now.

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  13. That was Jonjo’s first ever PL home goal for NUFC. That is what is so frustrating about him. You can see the talent, but it doesn’t always show. Starting to score a few goals now going back to Fulham last year.

    Maybe it is good for him to be pushed by Longstaff the Toothier and Longstaff the taller, as Sidekick said.

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  14. I know he scored a great goal but it was his first PL goal at SJP in 4 years! Longstaffs all day for me. Hayden isn’t performing anywhere near his standard of last season.

    Good point all the same.

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  15. Just watching the pictures of the Man U/Villa game now. For anybody in the US it is because of Arlo (I over-describe) White. I have tried to get used to him but his TMI drives me up the wall.

    6 years and done Arlo. This is divorce.

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  16. I have to turn the sound off every time with Arlo Muppet-heed looking White.

    Stupid haircut.

    Stupid glasses.

    Stupid stare into camera.

    Especially with Man U. He wets himself when they score.

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  17. Oh, in 1895 David De Gea’s grandfather would have been minus 50 years old and United scored 2 goals on that December 1st day! What do you think of that Lee Dixon?

    Ya What Arlo!!!!

    But I cant say nowt against you because you are the main man on here.

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  18. Yes, it was in 1994 when Andy McNeish left Villa and went on to coach Ferguson’s United to 3 League titles. His son went on to star on Strictly Come Dancing. Finishing second to Sid Little of Little and Large fame.

    (I made that up).

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  19. Over to you Lee Dixon.

    Ya what like?

    Didn’t Laurel and Hardy already do the funny Fatty and the dim skinny bit?

    Not quite, it was much more subtle than that.

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  20. Everton could well be the next managerless club by the end of the day – Everton beat in the last minute.

    I wonder if they long for Fat Sam yet?

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  21. I hopped on to Sky bet to see what odds Fat Sam was and burst out laughing to see Moyes as heavily odds on favourite – superb ?

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  22. I don’t know if anybody understood (or cares) what I was going on about and followed my train of thought? It was about the commentators becoming total boring tw@ts and making a lot of what we hear on football TV about them and not the game itself. About THEIR googling and research and what THEY know. Their notepad or ipad that they seem insistent on telling us every single Googled fact there is on it. AND NOT ABOUT THE GAME WE ARE WATCHING.

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  23. the over-describing and over-googling has got to the point of being an epidemic now. Especially with Martin Tyler and Arlo fcking White who I cannot listen to anymore, and should be shot.

    It is like going to the Sistine Chapel and having the guide tell you that Michelangelo was having an affair with the scaffold builder when he painted that masterpiece rather than telling you about the masterpiece.

    Once, OK. Every bloody week with the nonsense and drivel! They wont stop though. This is their THING now.

    At least Tyler will be dead soon. Arlo is only about 50 so he will infect my life for a while longer. I couldn’t even have the sound up for more than 2 seconds on the Man U game today. He is that bad.

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  24. ERIC the thing that really gets up my nose with these guys is they rabbit about a load of **** during the game i mute the sacklees sods,what about the poor blind folk who rely on them to talk about the the game they cannot follow it because of the **** they are rabbiting about,does my heed in

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  25. It is not only me then Icedog 🙂 The whole commentary thing has been taken over by a bunch of trainspotters who do not seem interested in the game but just want to tell you all of the facts they looked up on the internet.

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  26. Eric Sykes:
    It is not only me then Icedog ? The whole commentary thing has been taken over by a bunch of trainspotters who do not seem interested in the game but just want to tell you all of the facts they looked up on the internet.

    100% right mate

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  27. I don’t mind a few historical facts being thrown in, especially because I know that some of the commentary here is for a Yank audience some of whom are new to football. But do they have to fill up every bit of airspace? Sometimes they have the main commentator and 2 co-commentators over here all competing to fill up the airspace. It means there is never a gap in their yapping and what they think of as banter.

    To be sure, I could turn the sound down but then you lose the crowd noise which adds to the game. There has to be a happy medium. I would take their notepads and ipads away and let them tell us a bit about the action and a few of the facts they can remember – the interesting ones – not what sort of deodorant Dixie Dean used in 1922.

    It spoils the game when they go on and on and on. Like I am now 🙂

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  28. I know I am ranting but it all makes me long for the days of David Coleman when he would simply say ONE NIL at the first goal and not yell like a crazed chimpanzee when Man U score. I think a lot of them are closet Man U fans because they wet themselves when “United” score.

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  29. Eric – I really struggle with BT Sport and it’s commentators and pundits. I like Jake Humphrey’s because he dares to challenge and doesn’t just go along with popular opinion, or what some retired star like Owen or Rio has to said – he will call them out and disagree with them.

    But then – and I use the City game as an example – then you have Jenas and Joe Cole in the studio and Steve McManaman and a lad called Darren Fletcher (not the ex player) who commented through the game.
    You listen to Mc banging on that Newcastle need to get on the ball more – it’s City – and he spends the game just saying stupid thing. While Fletch is there blowing smoke up his ****.
    Then at half and full time, you cut back to the studio to hear Jenas and Cole – the latter who needed help to pronounce the would solidity. These people are utter morons and I don’t know how Humphrey’s manages to sit through it.

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  30. I think that GNev must have achieved God-like status as nobody seems to question his ridiculous assumption that Solskaer needs (and should get) 3 transfer windows to prove himself. He should never have been hired and is doing a pretty **** job.

    Nobody is really questioning the fact that someone else like Poch or Max Allegri would do a much better job with 3 transfer windows.

    But Gary Neville is now God.

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  31. There is also the false equivalency of Ferguson needing a few years at Man U to get things going. Lord Ferg had proved himself at Aberdeen by wining a title, breaking up the Rangers/Celtic duopoly and winning a European Trophy. OGS got relegated with Cardiff, and yet his Man U telly friends still stick up for him.

    They should be sacked well for their blinkered stupidity.

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  32. Plenty of empty seats at Burnley/Man City. Are they boycotting Mike Ashley ownership and sending message to Sky’s worldwide audience? That’s one of the stated reasons for the boycott at NUFC.

    What’s the other one again? Ah, yes. To hit him in the pocket. Good luck with that as well.

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  33. With us struggling for goals and Mario Balotelli being told he can leave on a free in January – would he be a good option or clutching at straws?.

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  34. Tomorrow could define the season. Even this early:

    1. If Jose is back to the old Jose then Ole is fcked.

    2. Leicester winning will doom Watford.

    3. Red bindippers could mean there is no silva lining for the blue bindippers and he will be out and the title will be Klopps.

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  35. shock 4-1 win for city i thought yes i thought they might win but not by that score Burnley have some big lads up top and city are a bit short on defenders,makes the toon result canny mind Pep made 4 changes

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  36. icedog:
    shock 4-1 win for city i thought yes i thought they might win but not by that score Burnley have some big lads up top and city are a bit short on defenders,makes the toon result canny mind Pep made 4 changes

    Yeah Ice, we were pretty solid defensively on saturday, first half was bit dire but a much improved second half. Think Steve deserves a bit of credit really now, we are still defending as the Rafa blueprint but attacking a bit more albeit our forwards are firing blanks. Thankfully we have defenders who know how to put them away.

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  37. Sharpy, the Balotelli question is interesting, he certainly knows how to score but age, wages and temperament will put off Jabba .

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  38. Maybe not Balotelli but we definitely need a proper striker. I’ve lost all patience with Joelinton. He doesn’t even show an intent to score. Whatever possessed Ashley to spend £40m and why it had to be on such a dud we’ll never know.

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  39. georgio:
    Maybe not Balotelli but we definitely need a proper striker. I’ve lost all patience with Joelinton. He doesn’t even show an intent to score. Whatever possessed Ashley to spend £40m and why it had to be on such a dud we’ll never know.

    Starting to think there is something dodgy about that deal mate .

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  40. Bob Willis died. He always sounded like he had taken half a sleeping pill but what he said was always insightful and interesting. I listened to his pod cast all summer. The man is a legend. Edgy but not nasty.

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  41. It is so weird how much my opinion of cricket commentators and football commentators differs. I don’t think it is an education thing. I loved Ritchie Benaud. Nasser Hussein and Ricky Ponting are brilliant, same with Gower. And Mikey Holding, just class.

    I could even take Shane Warne and Ian Botham. Up their own arses but are OK.

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  42. I can even put up with Bumble, even though every story has to be “a story”. An after-dinner speech. I bought a book of his a couple of years ago and could only get through 100 pages for the reason I just said. I still don’t mind him. He is not Phil Neville, who is an idiot !

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  43. Back to football. This should be good, whatever the results there will be a story and not just a Bumble anecdote. Man U/Spurs. Hard to write a script like that. And the Bindipper derby might see the end of Silva. Or a new twist in the title race, which I doubt.

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  44. ****** it. Here’s a summary of Bumble’s book. When I was a lad me Dad would take me for chip butty sandwiches and that lad Botham could drink and would wake up hungover and take 5 wickets in Trenchtown. I had fillet steak for me tea at Germino’s in Sydney last night ya know, fantastic. Never seen an Opera me like, but the view! Paul Hogan took me up there.

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  45. Good result. Man U are going nowhere with OGS so if he stays that will continue the comedy. I would have preferred a draw, but hey-ho.

    Watford and Norwich now in deep trouble.

    Blue bindippers will need a new manager. BFS. Oh, they already sacked him once.

    Pards 🙂

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  46. THE BAD NEW IS THAT IT IS GETTING TIGHT FOR US WITH ALL OF THESE RESULTS.

    I still don’t think we are going down.

    But, of course, if we lose to SheffUtd The Mag and Ed’s will say we are doomed. Doomed I say, Private Pike.

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