Welcome to the Newcastle-Everton preview.
Saturday, February 28, starting at 3 p.m.
Newcastle play host to Everton this weekend in a rare non-televised match for Eddie Howe’s Magpies.
The Toon have had success in matches in three competitions of late, but will be aware that putting together a run of wins in the league is perhaps the main objective at the moment.
Three of the next four home league games against Everton, Man United and the Mackems will hopefully give the Toon nine hugely satisfying points.
However, Everton will look to bounce back from back-to-back league defeats with a second successive win at St James’ Park.
They have the added incentive to get revenge after getting the turnaround earlier in the season when the Toon visited the Hill Dickinson Stadium and thumped the Toffees in a brilliant 4-1 victory.
Form
Newcastle have won once, drawn once and lost four of their past six league matches. We were well worth our win at Tottenham, but suffered a very disappointing goalless draw at Wolves. Newcastle have lost to Aston Villa, Liverpool, Brentford and Man City, meaning we are in poor league form at the moment. We have scored six goals and conceded twelve goals in these games. The four points won put us eleventh in the league, and any results that go our way this weekend could see us eighth.
Everton have won two, drawn two and lost two of their past six league matches. There have been wins over Aston Villa and Fulham with draws against Leeds and Brighton. They have lost their last two games against Bournemouth and Man United. They scored six goals and conceded six. With eight points they are in ninth place and with a big win they could be seventh on goal difference.
Last time out
Newcastle hosted Qarabag in the Champions League play-off round on Tuesday, scoring twice in the opening six minutes through Tonali and Joelinton to make the scoreline 8-1. Anyone who thought we would do it all our way was wrong as the Azerbaijan champions took the game back to the Toon and scored a well taken goal to reduce the deficit somewhat. Sven Botman soon headed in a header to restore the seven-goal lead, but it was Qarabag who would have the final say as he rounded off the scoring with a rebound from a saved penalty.
Everton hosted Man United on Monday evening and put in a fairly toothless performance in a 1-0 defeat. In a match with few chances, the Toffees went into halftime in the second half, meaning it went seven home games without a win for David Moyes’ team.
State attack!
-Newcastle have won four and drawn one of their past seven matches with Everton.
-The Toon scored at least three goals at home against Everton seven times in the Premier League.
-NUFC have hosted Everton 30 times in the Premier League, winning 16, drawing five and losing nine.
Memorable match
In March 2002, Sir Bobby Robson masterminded a return to the Champions League for NUFC for the first time in five seasons. When Everton visited over the Easter weekend, a brilliant win for the Toon made for a very good Friday! Despite the large margin of victory, Newcastle didn’t have things going their way and were actually behind early on when former striker Duncan Ferguson swung a boot at a loose ball from outside the area and his miss-hit went over Shay Given to put the Toffees ahead. NUFC had taken just one point from their past three league games and this wobble was starting to raise concerns about whether or not we could hold on to a top four spot. Luckily it only took a few minutes for Alan Shearer to level the scores and shortly afterwards Carl Cort scored an incredible goal, smashing into the Gallowgate End with the outside of his foot to put United ahead. With the Toon on the rise and looking to extend their lead, it was a shock to the system when Everton scored a soft goal to level the scores at half-time.
Fortunately, the second half would see an absolute goal-fest at Leazes End, started by Andy O’Brien, who was able to squeeze the ball home after scrambling from a corner. Solano then made sure of the points when he scored twice in two minutes after fantastic work from Dyer for the first and Jenas for the second. There was just enough time for some trickery from Lua Lua to prompt Olivier Bernard to smash in our fourth of the second half and ensure a phenomenal win for the Magpies. Sir Bobby’s team would take twelve points from their remaining seven league games to secure a fourth place in the league and a place in the play-off rounds of the money-spinning Champions League. Newcastle 6-2 Everton.
Played for both
Steve Watson joined NUFC through the youth team and spent eight years with the Toon before moving on to Aston Villa. He was a defender by trade, had an eye for goal and often came forward with good results. He scored our last winning goal at Anfield in 1995, with a fine effort to win a cup match. He played for Everton for five years from 2000 and scored a memorable hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Leeds.
Gary Speed was a lifelong Everton fan and signed for the Toffees from Leeds in 1996, scoring on his debut against the Toon in a 2-0 win that put a damper on Alan Shearer’s first start for the Black and Whites. The attacking midfielder made fifty-eight appearances at Goodison in two years, scoring sixteen goals, before signing for Kenny Dalglish in February 1998. He scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 win over Barnsley in the FA Cup quarter-final as we progressed to the Wembley final. He spent six years at Newcastle, playing under three different managers and making three separate appearances for the Toon at the old Wembley Stadium. Highlights from his time at NUFC include the winning goal in a UEFA Cup quarter-final against PSV, an absolutely convincing volley in a win against Bradford and a header equalizer in a crucial Champions League win over Dynamo Kiev. A true contemporary legend.
Tragically, Gary Speed took his own life in 2011. If you or someone you know is going through a hard time, call the Samaritans for free on 116 123. Never feel like you have to face things alone.
Duncan Ferguson was an Everton legend in two different spells with the Toffees either side of playing for Newcastle United. Unfortunately, his time at St James’ was overshadowed by a complete lack of form and fitness. His two-year spell with the Toon started well enough with two goals on his debut at home to Wimbledon, but things went downhill soon after. There weren’t many fond memories of his time on Tyneside, but a fantastic turn and volley in a 3-0 win over Man United was wildly celebrated on a day when everything went right for the real United as the Premier League champions were blown away.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 3-2 win over Qarabag in the Champions League, making progress after a 9-3 aggregate win:
“It’s a huge achievement for us to get to the last 16. I enjoyed the new format, I think it’s a really good thing. I really enjoyed it. In the pressure games and the double-headers we came through that really well. I don’t think it was a great achievement but I’m very happy that we won. This was our target at the start of the season. We discussed different things and reaching the knockout stages was there for us and we felt we could achieve it.” with the players we have. It has been a very exciting phase of this competition. We really enjoyed the different challenges. The knockout stages will be another challenge for us against elite teams, so everything to look forward to. But in the back of my mind we need to get our Premier League form back to where we want it to be and that will give us the best chance of doing well in this competition too.
David Moyes after a 1-0 home defeat against Man United:
“I’m certainly not happy with the score. You have to win games if you want to keep going. We haven’t done that as much as we would like, especially here at home. We narrowly lost to United, we narrowly beat them at Old Trafford earlier in the season. I thought we did well in many ways, we were ready on the counter and they scored one goal. We did our best to score but lacked the quality to score the goal. Their goalkeeper did a great job, he made a great save from Michael Keane, it looked like he could take every corner. I thought there was a goal in it for us, but it didn’t quite work out.”
Good cause
The Newcastle United Fan Food Bank will once again be raising money across the Gallowgate, gratefully receiving food, cash and toiletries for those in need. Of particular importance are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, liquor, long-life milk, etc.) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give what you can, any donation is greatly appreciated.
For more information and/or to donate online, visit Newcastle Food Bank
Prediction
This is a huge match for both teams as they look to get their league form back on track in the nick of time if they are to build good form and climb into the European places. Newcastle may have only won one of the last six league games, but we have also beaten Villa and Qarabag (twice) in cup competitions, and we also put in a great display against Manchester City. Hopefully this is a sign of confidence returning and I’m excited for Toon to get a nail-biting win ahead of crucial tests against both Manchester clubs next week. Newcastle 1-0 Everton.
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