Newcastle United (A) 05/10/25

Newcastle United 2-0 Nottingham Forest

Guimaraes 58'

Woltemade 84' (Pen)

“You’re getting sacked in the morning”, the vast majority of the Forest fans started shouting at Ange Postecoglou as his side went 3-1 down in the Europa League in midweek. In his six-game reign so far, he is yet to lead the Reds to victory, making him the first Forest manager to go winless in his first six games in over 100 years.  The pressure was mounting from fans and the media but the question is: how long will Evangelos Marinakis give him?

The Australian made 4 changes to the side that started against Midtjylland. Club captain Ryan Yates was called back into midfield after a long spell out to make his 100^th Premier League appearance and Jair Cunha and Nicolo Savona were called upon for their first Premier League starts. Eddie Howe named the same side as he did in Newcastle’s Champions League adventure to Union Saint-Gilloise. Both sides are underperforming compared to last season’s standards. Forest are winless in eight games across all competitions and the Magpies are suffering their worst start to a season under Howe registering only 6 points from their first 6 games. However, Newcastle have won the last three meetings between the sides and St James’ Park is a place where the Reds usually struggle.

The hosts settled into the game better than Forest, who were struggling to get themselves up the pitch. Kieran Trippier whipped in a corner which was headed back across goal by an unmarked Botman to Joelinton at the back post. The Brazilian rose higher than Savona but his header was well saved by the hand of Sels. After being pinned back by some early Newcastle pressure, Forest found some joy, advancing into the Newcastle half. Gibbs-White fizzed a ball into the box from the right looking for Chris Wood at the back post but he couldn't bring it under control to miss a real opportunity.

After a first half with no real chances for either side, we were all hoping for a livelier second half. Newcastle started the second half just as they had the first, dominating the possession. Gordon crossed in the ball from the left but there was no black and white shirt in the area to put Forest under pressure. Morato’s loose touch landed in the path of Nick Woltemade who took the shot first time, but the defender recovered well to block the shot. At this point, the hosts had the last five attempts in the game as Forest’s first and last attempt was on the 20-minute mark. The lack of creation from the visitors then saw them a goal down. The Reds looked to break but Bruno Guimaraes challenged Gibbs-White to win the ball back for his team. Dan Burn picked up the ball and made 15 yards before passing to Guimaraes. The Brazilian took a touch before letting fly from the edge of the ‘d’ to find the back of the net. Forest complained to the referee that Gibbs-White had been fouled in the build-up, but Guimaraes looked to have won the ball before the contact.

Newcastle continued to dominate the game, creating more opportunities to double their lead. Trippier sprayed a pass out to the left, finding the run of Sandro Tonali. He hit the ball first time towards goal, hoping the ball would dip under Sels but the ‘keeper tipped it over the bar for a corner. From the resulting corner that Tonali whipped in, Malick Thaiw headed down towards goal. His effort landed at the feet of Woltemade around five yards from goal, but his effort was too high and crashed against the crossbar before Forest scrambled clear.

The chances kept falling for the hosts as they looked to increase their lead. Trippier played a throw-in to Joelinton deep into Forest’s half on the right. The Brazilian found Murphy who had the space to whip in a cross. Thiaw ran onto the cross and took the shot from 6 yards out, but Sels made a good save with an outstretched leg. The Reds’ ‘keeper was called into action just moments later as Murphy saw the run of Harvey Barnes who made himself one-on-one. The angle was against the winger, and Sels rushed out and made himself big to keep Forest in it.

Despite the efforts of Sels to keep his side in with a chance of stealing something, Newcastle doubled their lead to seal the three points. Burn looked for Woltemade near the left corner flag where Milenkovic seemed to have dealt with the danger. The Serbian played a short pass to Anderson who was in his own box but Guimaraes put the pressure on his loose touch to steal the ball. In an attempt to win it back, Anderson lunged in to give away a penalty. Woltemade took the spot kick and fired it right into the top left corner, leaving Sels rooted. The German has now scored in each of his first three appearances at St James’ Park which only Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand have done.

I feel as though we were quite unlucky in the game. Newcastle started the game well but we grew into it and I feel as though we were the better side in the first half. They did dominate the second half but we stayed resolute and defended well as well as Sels making some good saves. We also did manage to get ourselves in some good positions but once we do, the decision making is quite poor. I thought our crosses were poor, the wrong pass was played or we should be doing better with opportunities we get from outside the box especially from Gibbs-White. The two goals we conceded were from errors but apart from that I thought we dealt with most of the danger. My standouts were Jair Cunha and Morato who both defended really well. We saw Ange change and use a three at the back which he doesn’t usually do. It is difficult because our attacking stats are improving and we are playing some nice football at times but all fans want is to win games and ultimately that is not what we’re doing right now.

Newcastle: Pope; Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn; Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton (Miley 90’); Elanga (Murphy 70’), Woltemade (Osula 90’), Gordon (Barnes 70’)

Forest: Sels; Jair Cunha, Milenkovic, Morato (Bakwa 77’); Savona, Yates (Hudson-Odoi 64’), Anderson, Williams; Gibbs-White, Ndoye (Hutchinson 65’); Wood (Igor Jesus 64’)