Our best performance of 2026 and a much-needed win that might just keep our Premier League season alive, as Newcastle United were great value for all three points at Tottenham Hotspur tonight.
We perhaps should’ve won more comfortably and it looked like we might’ve thrown it away in the second half as Archie Gray equalised, but goals either side from Malick Thiaw and Jacob Ramsey secured a huge three points for Eddie Howe’s Mags.
The result ends our run of five games without a win, sending us back into the top half on 36 points, and the performance was so much better in all departments, with the team reacting to last weekend’s stinker with a display full of energy, fight and intent.
Howe made FOUR changes from Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Brentford. The good news was Anthony Gordon’s return, the bad news was Lewis Miley’s absence, and the surprise news saw Dan Burn start at left-back, with Lewis Hall benched (fatigue?) and 35-year-old Kieran Trippier starting his fourth game in 10 days.
A far from ideal pairing at full-back, Ramsey returning in midfield, Elanga on the right and Gordon in the false nine role, with Tonali, Murphy and Wissa all dropping to the bench after poor displays last weekend.
Newcastle XI: Pope – Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn – Willock, Guimaraes, Ramsey – Elanga, Gordon, Barnes.
Substitutes: Ramsdale, Hall, Tonali, Wissa, Osula, J.Murphy, Woltemade, A.Murphy, Shahar
Spurs XI: Vicario – Gray, Dragusin, Van de Ven, Spence – Bissouma, Sarr, Gallagher – Odobert, Solanke, Simons.
Speaking to TNT before the game, Eddie Howe asked for a fast start, a show of intent, fight and enthusiasm from his team – and that’s what he got for much of the first 45.
We made uch a positive start, forcing early set pieces that saw Dragusin almost put through his own net and Botman header over, but we looked open at the other end, with Burn and Trippier’s lack of pace exposed early on by Odobert and Simons.
It was anything but tight and cagey, and soon went close again, as Willock fired a low shot inches wide after some neat passing before Elanga’s low cross was flicked on goal by Barnes; but too close to Vicario. Promising signs, but we had to make our bright start count.
Willock looked bright, Elanga was a constant out-ball down our right, we were committing men in the box and looked sharp and front-footed in possession, moving the ball quickly and wasting not time in getting at an out of sorts Spurs side who barely had a kick in the opening 15 minutes.
The next chance came Ramsey’s way, although his effort from Burn’s knockdown was not struck cleanly, deflecting out for our sixth corner of the game after 20 minutes. 7-0 was the corner count, we’d had 64% possession, five shots to their one, but the score remained 0-0 despite our total dominance.
The game went flat for a period after a long stoppage for Odobert’s injury, and just as we thought our breakthrough moment had come, a quick break, Ramsey through ball and emphatic Willock finish was chalked off by the most marginal of offside calls I’ve ever seen from VAR.
Five minutes of first half stoppage time was signalled and we didn’t let the offside setback deter us. Willock whipped in a cross, Thiaw had a thumping header saved, then reacted first to force home the rebound. 1-0 Newcastle and this one stood!
Newcastle are not to be denied, and it’s Malick Thiaw who gives them the lead! 💥
Vicario keeps out his 1st header, but can’t do anything to stop the rebound, and the Magpies go 1-0 up!
Live on @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/IGZgg7B0Hh
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 10, 2026
We started the second half like we ended the first; on top and the only side who looked like scoring. Ramsey had two openings blocked, a flurry of corners made it 11-0 Newcastle in that department and there were two penalty shouts waved away as both Elanga and Willock went down in the box.
For all of our good work, we should’ve been at least 3-0 up and still had so much work to do, with a reminder of our marginal lead coming as Tel fired over and Sarr forced Pope into his first save of the match with a wicked strike from range.
Then, with Spurs’ first corner (after our 11), we were pegged back. A corner to the back post, Pope was all at sea, Sarr headed back across goal and Gray fired into an unguarded goal. 1-1 and we were suddenly back level in a game we should’ve been winning by two or three. But we weren’t level for long!
Gordon twisted and turned, broke into the box and set up Ramsey, who guided a first-time finish into the far corner. His first goal at Newcastle United, a lovely finish, 2-1 Newcastle and pure bedlam in the away end as every outfield player celebrated in front of the travelling Toon Army.
WHAT AN ASSIST 🤩
Amazing feet from Anthony Gordon and he puts it on a plate for Jacob Ramsey who puts Newcastle back into the lead!
Live on @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/owdBl5VWID
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) February 10, 2026
Howe then made two changes with 75 minutes on the clock, seeing Jacob Murphy and Sandro Tonali replace summer signings Elanga and Ramsey; a pair who had been full of energy and intent all afternoon, with Ramsey particularly impressive after bags of great work on and off the ball.
No side in the league had conceded more goals this season in the last 15 minutes than Newcastle (14), and no side had dropped more points from a winning positions (19), making the closing stages tough to watch as we sat deep and invited pressure, giving a frankly awful Spurs side one last chance to put u under some late pressure.
Nick Woltemade and Will Osula came on to replace Gordon and Willock, giving us one last injection of energy up top heading into extra time, then Bruno Guimaraes was forced off after trying his best to play through a clear problem, taking a yellow card before Lewis Hall came on in the captain’s place.
Six minutes were added on, just as Spurs fans sang ‘sacked in the morning’ at Thomas Frank, and Newcastle just about hung on despite late chances for Solank and Van de Ven, securing a huge and well deserved three points in the first of four-straight away games.
Next up, an FA Cup trip to Aston Villa on Saturday before a Champions League play-off clash away to Qarabag next Wednesday as the fixtures continue to come thick and fast.
Keep the faith. Howay the lads!
Get in, we needed that win and wouldn’t it be funny if Spurs went down.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Great win but hard to say if we have turned a corner as it was a depleted Spurs, Villa a better test.
kimtoon(Quote)
At this rate we need Thiaw at centre forward he is strong and knows where the goal is because apart from Barnes we get very few goals from our forwards. A much needed win which we have to be grateful for, some of the passing from defence still leaves a lot to be desired. At least we showed some desire pleased for Ramsey tonight.
Joseph(Quote)
Been saying it for wks, Ramsey will be a real asset. He’s a good player, just settling in and had a bad injury which knocked him back. Biggest issue is he didn’t play in this system at villa but he’s picking it up now. I rate him, potential is definitely there
East Stand(Quote)
The fact they didn’t want rid of him speaks volumes
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
A really good solid performance, and a reminder that as much as I love many of our fans, they don’t necessarily know as much as they think they do. All the lads written off like willock, Ramsey and elanga especially done very well. Trips and Burn at fullback slated at kick off and yet had solid games. Surprised we didn’t sit deeper to be honest, saw the lineup and thought we would quite rightly set up deep but we still pressed high from the off and confused them with our aer up. Great performance and result.
Newkie(Quote)
Newcastle without Tonali was much more solid and aggressive. It was evident when he came on towards the end of the match, he didn’t go in with challenges, he didn’t tackle, and he didn’t want to create anything, just pass anyhow to other players, obviously play acting. Hope the manager and coaches saw what I saw and stopping putting him on the 1st team sheet until he had been reprimanded for his attitude and performance and shown improvement during training. We must stop risking out seasons because of this guy who had already lost his heart to play for Newcastle
Jordan(Quote)
No pleasing some folk .. we have Italy’s main man and coveted by all top clubs in world football ..
Mike(Quote)
One swallow does not a summer make …but thankfully that was much better and the relief in Eddie’s reaction was brilliant showed how much it means to him … now let’s hope this is the point we’re it builds ..
Mike(Quote)
Mike:-
One swallow doesn’t make a summer👍
We played well enough to win against Spurs reserves almost, it’s about context.
Pleased for the win, but against better opponents Trippier & Burn will be found wanting, and Howe is still not going to change his approach, it’s like he is falling back on what he sees as his safe crutch.
Joseph(Quote)
Was pleased for the win and happy Tripps had a better game but against better opposition we will see him targeted and he will struggle again. No one hates that more than me as he’s an OG of our revival but last night told us nothing other than the players are still playing for Eddie.
kimtoon(Quote)
Glad to see Elanga and Ramsey getting better with every game too. Like I said the other day, Eddie has had so little time with these players between games and no pre season thanks to our toss up of a summer .
kimtoon(Quote)
A much needed win, but it was not pretty watching. It was stressful as hell just waiting for us to give away yet another lead. Burn and Tripps were painfully slow and against better opposition we would’ve been punished.
What about this set piece coach? 11 corners and nothing to show for them. 🤷🏻♂️. We made hard work of that and the officials did their best to try and screw us again with the “offside” by Willocks eyebrows, but a win is a win.
I see Rayan, the young Brazilian we were supposedly after, scored again for Bournemouth. 2 goals and an assist in his first 3 games… curious as to why we didn’t go for him at £30m. 🤷🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️ he will be 3 times that figure soon, most likely.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Spurs were awful last night, but we were definitely improved on the Brentford game.
I have to be honest, seeing Trips in worried me – and Gordon as CF 🤯. Howe rolled the dice with his team selection last night. If it went wrong he’d have got slaughtered for leaving 3 forwards on the bench.
But the boys turned up for him last night. It was a good first half performance and we should have bagged a couple of goals with the chances we created.
Another pathetic offside ruling to disallow Willocks goal. I know it’s been said millions of times over, but they are killing football.
The players fought for Eddie last night.
It was great to see Trips pushing Howe out to the away fans to allow them to support him & for him to see the majority still back him.
Nobody is disputing it hasn’t been a great season – I haven’t read anyone saying that – not even Howe or the players.
I’m one of those who think that despite it not being pretty, it hasn’t been all that bad – and the fact we are 3 points off top 6 backs that up.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Think the players really gave a go for Howe imo
More good news ime very happy with Keys and Gray are getting finished by
Bein sports at end of season,I hate both of them
Icedog(Quote)
Me too, couple of sexist dinosaurs
kimtoon(Quote)
Dyche has been sacked by Forest 🙄😳
That’s 2 PL managers sacked in 24 hours.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I watching big Ange chatting with GNev and his cronies about all things Spurs.
I think the expectation on them is slightly greater than on us – they have always been seen as part of the big 6.
But what he was saying sounded eerily similar to our plight.
He was saying they don’t pay the wages that the top clubs do – I don’t know if that they can’t or won’t, but it means they can’t get the players they want or need.
We currently find ourselves in that position now because we can’t afford to – and we still only bring in around half of the likes of the Manchester clubs.
Our CEO says we will be competing for the league by 2030 – but with the rebuild our squad needs, and the difficulty we had landing players last summer, I think it’s unrealistically optimistic.
Sharpy17(Quote)
If he wants us winning the league and competing by 2030, he needs to get his finger out and get us a new stadium with at least 75k I’d say. He needs that started now as it will take a good few years to build. I’m not holding my breath.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I mention the stadium as we need a significant increase in revenue to compete.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Gilly – I agree mate. But I’d rather an expansion to 65k – I don’t want it to be that big it loses its atmosphere.
But the stadium was always going to be difficult.
What bothers me is that they still haven’t broken ground on the new training facility yet.
That would still come with naming rights & sponsorships.
Sharpy17(Quote)