It wasn’t pretty and we’ve picked up plenty of knocks in the process, but Newcastle are into the third round of the Carabao Cup – where we will face Crystal Palace at St James’ Park – after coming from behind to beat Tranmere.
Elliot Nevitt opened the scoring out of nowhere on the 20 minute mark, but an equaliser from Jamaal Lascelles just before the break and second half header from Chris Wood got us over the line on a night where Emil Krafth was stretchered off.
With Wilson, Fraser, Burn and Shelvey all ruled out, Eddie Howe made 10 changes from the side that drew 3-3 with Manchester City on Sunday, seeing Darlow, Targett, Dummett, Lascelles, Krafth, S Longstaff, Anderson, Murphy, Wood and Ritchie replace Pope, Burn, Botman, Schar, Trippier, Guimaraes, Joelinton, Almiron, Wilson and Saint-Maximin.
It was great to see Elliot Anderson make his first competitive start for the club, coming up against a Tranmere side he actually scored against during his loan spell at Bristol Rovers last season.
Our first chance fell to Murphy after he was picked out nicely by Longstaff, but the winger’s poor first touch was followed by a tame toe-poke straight at the goalkeeper. He was also wasteful moments later, curling an effort high and wide when he had to pick out Targett; who’d made a great overlapping run.
Anderson was looking bright, taking the ball on the half turn and attempting to drive us forward, but he too dragged a shot wide after doing well to find space on the edge of the box.
Against the run of play, Tranmere then opened the scoring. Dummett and Targett got sucked out and a simple ball over the top was then squared for Elliot Nevitt, who fired in off the onrushing Karl Darlow.
A poor goal to concede and an early wake up call, only for things to go from bad to worse as Emil Krafth was then stretchered off with what looks like a potentially serious knee injury.
Kieran Trippier replaced the Swede but we also had Jamaal Lascelles in the wars, as he was trying to manage a broken and bleeding nose after being caught by Nevitt’s flailing arm moments earlier.
The skipper then got revenge five minutes before the break, latching into a Trippier corner and scoring at the second attempt after his initial back post header was cleared off the line. 1-1.
Tranmere should’ve gone down to 10 in first half stoppage time, as an under hit pass back from Paul Dummett – who had been sloppy on the ball all half – allowed Kane Hemmings to go in for an awkward 50/50 with Karl Darlow, leaving the goalkeeper in a heap after a high and full blooded lunge into his knee.
Howe made one change at the break, bringing Jamal Lewis on for Matt Targett and it didn’t take long for us to go in front after the restart, as another quality corner from Kieran Trippier was smashed home via the head of Chris Wood. 2-1!
Other chances then came our way thanks to more classy passing from Trippier, who played two lovely balls in behind for Willock and Wood. Neither were able to capitalise, but we’d taken full control of the game at this point and looked far more likely to score than the tiring Tranmere.
Two more changes then came as Botman replaced a blood-soaked Lascelles and big Joe came on for Joe Willock; who was clearly being managed starting two games in four days.
After long periods of possession, sloppiness set in and we allowed Tranmere to come back into it, as loose touches, poor passing and a failure to win those second balls gave the hosts and home crowd something to cling onto as we approached the final 20 minutes.
We survived that mini blip and got back on the front foot over the final 10 minutes, with Sven Botman’s powerful header almost making it 3-1 after yet another Trippier cross.
Bruno came on for the final five minutes, replacing the eye-catching Elliot Anderson, however there were more in navy and yellow shirts going to ground soon after, as Paul Dummett, Sean Longstaff and Karl Darlow all received treatment in the six minutes of added time.
Trippier showed his quality and creativity – he was by far the best player on the pitch – Lascelles stood strong after breaking his nose and Anderson enjoyed glimpses of class, but Dummett, Ritchie and Murphy failed to take their chance, reminding us of the gap between our new wave of first-team stars and fringe men.
Nevertheless, we got the job done – despite not creating enough in open play and conceding a poor goal – and will face Crystal Palace on home turf in the third round, with Wolves up next in the Premier League on Sunday!
STARTING XI: Darlow – Krafth, Lascelles, Dummett, Targett – Willock, S Longstaff, Anderson – Ritchie, Wood, Murphy.
SUBS: Gillespie Trippier, Botman, Joelinton, Lewis, Fernandez, Manquillo, Almiron, Guimaraes.
It’s ironic to see a new narrative creeping into the media around nufc.
Putting aside the usual bile around fans selling our collective souls .. puhlease 🙄🙄 .. now we see the attempts to belittle us by suggesting they ain’t that good as none of the the European giants have been picking up our signings. I don’t follow European footy to know these lads well so can only judge on how they perform for nufc and trust nufc to know what they’re doing. So far so good.
Spend big .. we’re trying to buy the league. Spend prudently we’re overpaying for 2nd rate players.Such is life I guess
The media really don’t seem to get what is going on at nufc with the owners , Howe and his team, ashworth and eales behind an impressively well thought out operation. Or maybe it’s easier to trot out trite little tropes
Anyhow enough musing .. I’m enjoying the anticipation instead of resignation that a weekend brings and looking forward to another 3 points on Sunday
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
Also Sharpy: as long as they start, my yellow card list is McTom, Casimiro and Anthony Gordon. I dont think ten Hag likes Mcguire so he is off my list 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
That’s a shame, I was hoping for a draw
PremAndUp(Quote)
Go West: our game starts at 8 am here so I think that is 6 am for you? I am trying to figure out if I want to go to the pub or not. My main problem is that if I am in a pub I start drinking and 8am is an early start 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I’m EST so 9am for me.
No pub for me tomorrow.. quick endurance ride in the relative cool and then a smoothie watching the lads.
It’s live on peacock.
Can’t argue with $5 pcm for every PL game with bonus of no pundit BS
GoWest!Mag(Quote)
I hope Liverpool got all of that goalscoring out of their system and didnt save any for us 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Mitro is a beast. Now has scored 100 goals for Fulham. 4 so far this season. What “World Class” manager, as Ed Harrison always called him, sold not only Mitro but also Ivan Toney
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I never understood the lovefest for Rafa. Our football under him in the PL was not really that much better than Brucie-ball.
Eric Sykes(Quote)