Jitters Before The Cup Final
Newcastle have some issues to solve on the run in to their League Cup final with Liverpool - but doing so is vital if this season is to become one of legend.
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That 2nd Half!
It was a relief that only 3 minutes of injury time remained when Nottingham Forest’s Ryan Yates passed the ball into the Gallowgate net to make the score 4-3 on Sunday. The second half had been bad enough as it was, but imagine if Forest had managed to score that particular goal 10 minutes earlier, it’s debatable whether Newcastle could have stuck it out such was their apparent desire to throw the lead away in the second half.
During his post-match interviews, even Eddie Howe seemed perplexed by the second-half display. However, the proverbial ‘game of two halves’ ended with many people declaring ‘the 3 points were all that mattered’ to borrow another tired football cliche.
And those people are correct, unto a point. Football at the elite level is of course a results business, as we’re often told. Newcastle United, on the face of it, are doing very well. A League Cup Final in a couple of weeks time, one game away from an FA Cup quarter final and sitting in 6th place in the Premier League, just 3 points behind 3rd place with a fairly reasonable run of fixtures towards the end of the season.
If the cards fall kindly for Newcastle United, this really could turn into one of the greatest ever seasons for the club.
Feeling Fragile
So why is it that everything also feels a bit fragile, a bit precarious as if it’s all built on shifting sands? Despite being in a great position in three competitions (with the cup final looming) it would be naive to bury our heads in that sand, and ignore the concerns that exist.
This season continues to be a mixed bag of good and bad. So many fun moments, great goals and excellent wins coupled with unfathomably bad performances and disappointing results. While Newcastle are in a strong position, the season remains a tightrope walk. Defensive lapses, moments of complacency in possession and unpredictable form threaten to undermine what could be a defining campaign. For every 2-0 cup win over Arsenal, there has been a disappointing home defeat to a West Ham or Brighton. For every history defying win at Old Trafford, there’s been a humiliation at the likes of Brentford. For every comfortable home win over Aston Villa or Spurs, there’s the reality that Fulham have done the league double over us this season.
Thankfully the good is still outweighing the bad, but that cup final looms large and is weighing heavily on our collective conscious right now. We’ve seen how this game plays out before and we don’t like it. Supporting Newcastle demands a deep-rooted defence mechanism, forged through years of crushing disappointment. It’s there to cushion the blow of disappointment when the team, inevitably, fall a little short.
Aiming For A Strong Finish
But perhaps I’m wrong to feel this way.
Things may not be perfect - PSR has a lot to answer for in that regard - but one thing you can rarely fault about the current crop of Newcastle United players is their never-say-die attitude. When the big moments arrive, the players tend to step up and perform. The win against Forest was important for many reasons; valuable Premier League points in a close league, but also to begin building some much needed momentum ahead of March 16th.
I’m hopeful that Howe’s obvious concern displayed after the match, plus the similar feelings of relief most supporters had when leaving St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon, act as a wake up call to the team and coaches to ensure they tighten up defensively, improve ball retention and try to cut out the silly errors that have seen them concede 16 goals in the last 7 matches.
Newcastle face Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night - a daunting task and one that will be repeated soon after at Wembley Stadium. If Newcastle want to make history, they must prove they can handle the biggest moments.
With Wembley on the horizon, there’s no more time for excuses—the teams’ frailties must be fixed, or the dream will slip away once again.