Newcastle United pile misery on Ange Postecoglou with a routine win at St James' Park over Nottingham Forest
It will be of no consolation to Ange Postecoglou and the Nottingham Forest fans, but they should count themselves very lucky that Newcastle United only scored two this afternoon.
To say that the Forest goal led a charmed life would be putting it mildly. Once again, the man who was arguably Newcastle's worst goalkeeper in the Premier League era turned into prime Gigi Buffon, making save after save, helped at times by some excellent blocks from his defence.
Fortunately, Newcastle kept applying the pressure, and their breakthrough eventually came just before the hour mark via the right foot of Bruno Guimaraes.
Just like in midweek, half of today's goals came from the penalty spot, with the award of this one coming after Anthony Gordon had gone off, which meant Nick Woltemade got to show why he feels he should be taking penalties for the Magpies.
Bruno Guimaraes was instrumental in both goals for Newcastle
Bruno Guimaraes was involved in both goals, robbing the ball back from Forest, and with a bit of assistance from Dan Burn, he found the ball at his feet 20 yards out from goal, where he launched a superb curling effort into the top right corner to finally breach the Forest defence.
Newcastle were made to wait for their second despite having many, many efforts. In the end, it was thanks to Agent Elliot Anderson chopping down Bruno Guimaraes in the box that caused referee Peter Bankes to point to the spot.
With Gordon having been replaced by Harvey Barnes, Nick Woltemade wasted no time scooping up the ball and holding onto it for dear life. Given that Matz Sels had just made two superb saves to keep the score at 1-0, we wouldn't have been surprised to see him stop Woltemade's penalty, but the German confidently stepped up and gave the Belgian keeper no chance, firing the ball into the top left corner via the roof of the net.
Who was your Player of the Match against Nottingham Forest?
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Nick Pope1%
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Kieran Trippier2%
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Sven Botman1%
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Malick Thiaw10%
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Dan Burn0%
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Bruno Guimaraes48%
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Sandro Tonali29%
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Joelinton1%
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Anthony Elanga0%
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Anthony Gordon0%
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Nick Woltemade6%
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Harvey Barnes0%
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Jacob Murphy1%
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Will Osula0%
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Lewis Miley0%
The international break could be very handy for Newcastle to get injured players back
That's three goals in three games at St James' Park for the German striker, his fourth goal of the season, and we have to wonder if all those bitter Germans at Bayern Munich still think we're 'idiots'.
The bigger question is, will Ange Postecoglou still have a job in the morning? That's eight games as Nottingham Forest manager and no wins.
In all honesty, I hope they give him a bit of time to turn things around. Having Ange in the Premier League is always good for a laugh with his no-nonsense attitude to interviews, so he's worth keeping in the job for that alone.
As for Newcastle, we need this international break to get some of our players back to fitness, with it being confirmed before kick-off that Lewis Hall now has a hamstring issue. However, in terms of momentum, this break couldn't have come at a worse time.
We're on the march now, though. Heading back where we belong.
