Ahead of a packed December fixture list, three points against Everton on Saturday night was an absolute necessity and the big away win we desperately needed.

Stringing some good results together in December will be huge heading into 2026, and after our resounding win at the Hill Dickinson stadium, we’re all hoping that will be a big turning point as we big to push up the league table.

Everton manager David Moyes was full of praise for us in his post-match interview, revealing what impressed him most about Newcastle in our dominant win on Merseyside…

Moyes hails Toon power

David Moyes has labelled Newcastle  “the most powerful team” in the division as we romped to a 4-1 away win; our first in the league since April.

While some managers find excuses or struggle to praise the opposition after a defeat, Moyes admitted his Everton side struggled to contain a ‘Champions League’ Newcastle team who thoroughly deserved the win.

Discussing our performance and presence as a team in a classy post-match interview, the Toffees boss said:

“They were far too powerful for us. Maybe the strongest, maybe the most powerful team in the Premier League.

“They are a strong team, big, every player big, physical, hard to play against. We couldn’t stop them.

“We were beaten by the better team, there’s no doubt about that. You mustn’t underestimate, these are a Champions League team.

“We go into it knowing that they’re making sure they’re going to try and get something out of the game. They got off to a great start, we didn’t. Something really to hang on to as well.”

Going through our team from Saturday, we had a 6ft 6″ striker up top, two midfielders well over 6ft in Lewis Miley and Joelinton, a 6ft 7″ Dan Burn and 6ft 4″ Malick Thiaw alongside him. Mixing that height with quality deliveries from Miley and Hall, it really did work a treat.

Saturday night felt for the first time in a long time that the squad played exactly how Howe envisioned it would with his signings: Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento being everywhere, Anthony Elanga and Harvey Barnes constantly charging at fullbacks, and Woltemade dropping deep whilst still operating as the no.9.

Without  tough tackling midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye, Everton simply had no response to our play, with Joelinton delivering a strong showing alongside Miley and Bruno.

Set piece coach starting to come good?

The standout player from Saturday night was without a doubt Malick Thiaw: the German international grabbed his first and second goals for us with two excellently placed headers past Jordan Pickford.

It may be too soon to say, but are there now signs of dedicated set-piece coach Martin Mark finally seeing some success with our approach to corners? Our threat in the air against a big Everton side certainly went up a notch on Saturday.

A rotating cast of stars have assume the role of set-piece taker: Kieran Trippier and Sandro Tonali have each been on corners, whilst Dan Burn (bizarrely) has been the go-to man on long throws.

But Lewis Hall and Lewis Miley looked a class above against Everton, picture-perfect crosses meeting the head of Thiaw precisely. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the nod by Mark and Howe once Tonali returns to the starting XI and Trippier comes back from his hamstring injury.