Everton 2-2 Newcastle: Injury time double earns NUFC the most unbelievable draw

We’ve seen a lot over the years at Newcastle United, but I have NEVER seen anything quite like that.

With a minute left we were 2-0 down (honestly, you read that right!), but TWO stoppage time goals from Florian Lejeune has somehow earned us a point in a game we played awfully in for 93 of the 94 minutes. You couldn’t make it up!

The irony of it all is that we hadn’t had a shot on target up until Lejeune’s late double – a player who hadn’t score a single goal for Newcastle United in 44 appearances until tonight.

We were pretty awful all over the pitch and looked set to give Everton arguably their easiest 3 points of the season – but 90 seconds of utter madness has changed all of that, keeping our unbeaten run going in the most unlikely of fashions.

Here are the two goals:

The first half was a frustrating watch. Everton were pressing in numbers, meaning we had the chance to counter and get in behind midfield with a bit of quality and composure, but both Matty and Sean Longstaff were struggling to find our front three.

Almiron was lively and by far our best player and biggest threat in the first 45, but Atsu was anonymous and the ball wasn’t sticking to Joelinton.

Then, Everton’s opener arrived. The ball fell to Bernard 30 yards out, Fernandez got dragged out, lost his man Moise Kean and saw the Italian striker latch on to a clever lobbed through ball as a result. The 19-year-old’s first touch wasn’t great, but we didn’t react quick enough. His shot was straight at Dubravka, but the Slovakian got under it, with Hayden’s attempt to block appearing to leave him unsighted.

1-0 to Everton at the break and a scoreline we deserved for a shoddy first half display that lacked spark in attack or security at the back.

In the second half, the trend continued. Everton were in control and creating all of the openings while we struggled to string more than a few passes together – never mind emerge into the final third.

Then, Everton’s second arrived. Lascelles tried to intercept a Digne pass but overcommitted, allowing Dominic Calvert-Lewin to roll him and fire past Dubravka.

At this point the game felt over and, in truth, we showed no sign of coming back into it.

Bruce brought on THREE defenders (Krafth, Schar, Lejeune) for Joelinton, Atsu and Clark (who had been booked) – a move that baffled many as if we were accepting defeat – but little did we know what was about to unfold.

Lejeune’s first was an impressive overhead kick, although it felt like nothing but a consolation at the time. I’d say Everton then got twitchy, but I don’t think many inside Goodison believed there was time for another – especially when we’d looked so unlikely to score for the entire 90 up until this point.

Then, with us quickly regaining possession from the restart and lumping the ball forward, a goal mouth scramble saw Lejeune bundle it over the line once again!

The referee signalled that the ball had gone over the line and the away end erupted, leaving Everton fans gobsmacked and Jordan Pickford furious – although I don’t know what he was doing trying to save Lejeune’s effort from well behind the line!

A result our performance did not deserve, but it’s a brilliant point and one of the most bonkers finishes to a football match I’ve ever witnessed!

It must be said that we were VERY poor all over the pitch tonight, badly missing Carroll’s presence, Saint-Maximin’s spark and Shelvey’s creativity, yet we’ve managed to come away with another precious result.

The draw sends us up to 30 points and 7 clear of the drop zone, maintaining our unbeaten ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup clash at St James’ Park

Next up, Oxford United!

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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.

91 thoughts on “Everton 2-2 Newcastle: Injury time double earns NUFC the most unbelievable draw

  1. Half Time: this is the worst I have seen Liverpool play all season and they are still ahead. Salah having a bit of a ‘mare and Mane injured.

    I am sure Salah will score now 🙂

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  2. Danny Rose is only on £60k a week. Why not just get him on loan and pay his wages? I know Jabba won’t allow Brice to sign him permanently but a loan could be a option. Personally I’d sign him permanently as he’s a good player and how much money do you get back for a left back anyway. We’d get 3 or 4 good years from him.

    I personally think the lad from Inter and a cheap left back option will be the last deals we do. Reckon Bowen will be revisited in the summer unless Hull decide to cash in. But why would they? They’ll be in the same position in the summer as now.

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  3. Stuart79:
    Danny Rose is only on £60k a week. Why not just get him on loan and pay his wages? I know Jabba won’t allow Brice to sign him permanently but a loan could be a option. Personally I’d sign him permanently as he’s a good player and how much money do you get back for a left back anyway. We’d get 3 or 4 good years from him.

    I personally think the lad from Inter and a cheap left back option will be the last deals we do. Reckon Bowen will be revisited in the summer unless Hull decide to cash in. But why would they? They’ll be in the same position in the summer as now.

    Stu – is that right?! – I thought Rose was on at least double that!!.
    That one might come off after all. If we could get him for around £5m I reckon Ashley might just sanction the buy on that one as well.

    I’m happy for the Lazaro deal to be a short term loan if it meant buying Bowen in the summer. I actually think it would suit all parties involved as well.

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  4. “If Andy Carroll and Yoshinori Muto are going to be fit in the next two weeks what would be the point in bringing in somebody if they aren’t any better“?

    That’s Bruce’s reason for not bringing in a striker. Are we really to believe there aren’t strikers available who aren’t better than them? It really is rubbish.

    It does come back to the ambition thing again. We’re 4 points off 5th. Why aren’t we thinking “let’s give it a go”? Why aren’t we getting the striker who can score the goals to make the difference?

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  5. Eric Sykes:
    There are some strange things happening this season:

    1. How the hell do we have 30 points?

    2. How are Man U 5th? If you look at their team and ignore the shirt and fees you would say they are mid-table cloggers. Martial FFS. They paid double what McGuire is worth and that is giving him the benefit of the doubt.

    3. Everytime I watch Brighton or Norwich they play decent football but lose.

    4. Sometimes Man City look like a Pep team and other times they don’t. Has he overcoached them? Is he too intense and after a while you tune him out like a kid always seeking attention?

    5. How the hell did Arsenal and Man U get into the states they are in? I honestly don’t think I would take any of Arsenal’s defenders over what we have at NUFC.

    Eric, interesting points.
    Could it be that VAR is having an influence and the so called bigger teams are not getting away with soft goals and decisions anymore and that mid table teams are getting goals given that previously would of been ruled out ? That would certainly explain some of this season being so close.
    As for Man utd and Arsenal they are both very poor teams now and OGS hasn’t got what it takes to remedy it. It’s Liverpools time again now and they deserve it with the way they play, just as Man u and Arsenal did when they were at their peak under SAF and Arsene. Maybe now Gunners fans can see how well Arsene did with the squad.

    I think we have been quite tidy defensively overall considering which is why i was so peed off at our display defensively v Everton. If you factor in Dubravka as well that’s how we have amassed 30 points. I’m just glad we have defenders and mids who know how to score or we’d be well in the you know what by now.
    We need to address this injury thing too, it does seem like we are back to being the table toppers for injuries again.

    Brighton and Norwich are prettier to watch than us for sure but that doesn’t always win games as we have seen. Both Chelsea and Everton in the last two played us off the park yet where did it get them ?

    Have to say, i’ve had a warm glow this week knowing how totally sick Pickford must be feeling after that mad couple of minutes, the flapping t wat . Someone should tell him ,never believe in your own hype. 😆

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  6. Seems like Lazaro is having his medical right now, but it looks like he’s using this to get back into the Inter team, so maybe it won’t get made permanent… it also means he may well be plying his best to impress inter once again. Let’s see. I hope we still go for Bowen, get Rose in and go for broke and get Martinez. That would be some transfer window… ??? … I know, too much Shisha again… ?

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  7. More injuries. Lejeune and Krafth. We are also getting what we expected from Carroll – a few games, no goals and then an injury layoff.

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  8. We play Norwich next week then there is that new winter break thing. Having a rest for Miggy and letting the defenders recover should be good and it will help the new lads get integrated. Hopefully we will have a striker because with Carroll being Carroll we just don’t have any options.

    I am not that bothered about Rose. He has looked ordinary for Spurs for at least 2 seasons. I would be shocked if Fatty signs a 29 year old permanently.

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  9. Kimtoon: West Ham look to be in trouble as well. The pundits keep going on about the quality of their team but I just don’t see it. We are getting Sky Sports News now and they are promoting the West Ham/Liverpool game. They show pictures of the “star” player in each team. West Ham is Declan Rice. The most over-hyped player since Jack Wilshere – another of their players now (Part time as he is mainly on the treatment table – who could have predicted that eh:) )

    West Ham’s next 5 games:

    Liverpool
    Brighton
    Leicester
    Man City
    Liverpool

    If they are not in the bottom 3 after that lot I will be shocked. We will then probably see the Sunderland Dour Dave who talked them down every week beginning the 2nd week of the season.

    This is relevant to NUFC because we need 3 teams to be worse than us.

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  10. Just need Brighton to convert a few chances and West Ham could possibly get no points from those 5 games. I predict perhaps a shock draw or 2 leaving them on 25 points with 9 games to play.

    It could happen. They could conceivably be relegated even though none of their fan boys in the Southern Press would even consider it. They always rate the WHam squad as better than it is. Plus, there is crowd discontent again.

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  11. Lazaro is a no-lose deal as is Bentelab. Look before you buy and they both apparently have guaranteed buy-out clauses so we have first dibs if they do well. Seems Bruce now agrees with Gerogio that Atsu is useless. He has had about 2 decent games all season so I bow to Georgios greater foresight.

    The Brucie Delighted-O-Meter hardly got going today. I only counted 1 delighted in the press conference but I didn’t see the full transcript.

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  12. I am happy with the loan signings so far even though I really haven’t seen them play. I base this on the positions they play, the fact good teams spent 20 million each on them and it is a loan with a guaranteed option to buy.

    But, just to be realistic. Apart from the staunch defending we turned up for about 7 minutes of injury time in the last 2 games. We were battered both times and if they had better finishing we would have lost easily. They didn’t so I am happy.

    However, we cannot continue to play with 9 at the back. And it is not even just against the good teams. Everton are not a good team. Brighton are about 50/50 to be relegated. Hopefully these new players will get us out of our own 3rd of the pitch a bit more.

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