The Good, The Bad, and The Average #24: NUFC player ratings vs. Spurs (a) [PL20]

Newcastle United made it six in a row with a hard-fought 2-1 victory away at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday afternoon, the Magpies moving level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea.

In what was quite a bizarre and chaotic contest, Eddie Howe and his players deserve huge credit for just about keeping their heads to bring another valuable three points home to Tyneside.

Goals from Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak (who else?) were enough to see off Ange Postecoglou's depleted Cockerels, who had taken an early lead through former Toon target Dominic Solanke.

While the result wasn't as comfortable as many of us had hoped pre-match, there were still a few really good displays from those in maroon and blue hoops.

Here's how we rated everyone involved at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with highs of 8 for three of our lot, and a low of 4 for the wally with the whistle.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Good

Tino Livramento took our Man of the Match award thanks to a brilliant defensive display that made Werner look even worse than usual. While we'd love to see more from our right-back in the final third, he does pretty much everything else excellently. He was second only to Botman for defensive interventions today.

Ahead of him, Bruno Guimarães was our most important player in an attacking respect. It was he who got the assist for Gordon's early equaliser and he was also heavily involved in our next major chance when slotting Murphy in behind Spurs' backline with a lovely through ball. It wasn't vintage Bruno, but he did well.

Another tip of the cap to Martin Dúbravka, too, who didn't have as quiet a match as he has done recently and still came out looking good. His distribution was almost perfect, he made some crucial saves, and he stood no chance for the goal. Our only criticism would be his lack of authority on crosses.

Up front, Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon, and Jacob Murphy all contributed enormously to the victory without being at their sparkling best. Isak scored one of his two big chances but was quite sloppy otherwise. Gordon got a goal but missed a further two openings. Murphy got a good assist but was poor in open play.

Eddie Howe has led his Magpies to six successive wins in a feat not seen since the Alan Pardew days. This was the poorest display of the six in the circumstances, but getting the three points was all that mattered. We can't have taken maximum returns from Man Utd and Spurs (a) too many times in the league!

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Bad

This was an afternoon to forget for referee Andy Madeley, who infuriated supporters on both sides with his bizarre decision-making. His choices regarding what merited a free kick or yellow card were inconsistent, and he and his assistants made at least three wrong calls on goal kicks/corners.

Sean Longstaff never does well when coming off the bench late in games, and this was no different. There was one moment in particular where he got the ball in a promising position in Spurs' box, took far too many touches, and we ended up back on the halfway line.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Average

Joelinton and Sandro Tonali have been brilliant lately but found it tough against the high-energy pressing of Spurs' young midfield. Joelinton seemed a yard slow to every tackle he attempted and was lucky to evade a yellow for as long as he did, while Sandro barely got a sniff of the ball and ended up with just 44 touches.

This was a harsh reintroduction to life in the first team for Sven Botman, who was to blame for Solanke's opening goal. The Dutchman did make some amends with a good block soon after, thankfully, and grew into the game as time went on. We hope he was only suffering from a cramp at the end when substituted!

Beside him, Dan Burn looked unsettled due to the change to our back four and was especially shaky in the first half. Like Botman, he got to grips with things as the contest wore on and played a big part in the victory with his aerial dominance and aggression.

Lewis Hall wasn't able to influence the match as much as he would've liked to, with just 54 touches of the ball compared to his usual 100+. He kept a lid on Johnson throughout, however, which is no mean feat, but could've done with more support from Gordon and Joelinton to limit Porro's influence on proceedings.

From the bench, Harvey Barnes and Joe Willock did their part to help see us over the line, with Willock deployed as an auxiliary striker. Barnes perhaps should've done better with the one sight of goal he had, but that's nit-picking on our part. Lloyd Kelly was introduced very late and did okay in the circumstances.

For all of their issues, it's hard to knock Tottenham Hotspur for their performance today. They were the better team in the second half and Bergvall caught the eye in central midfield. It's worth noting that they did only manage to score when we had 10-men on the pitch due to Livramento's injury, mind!

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Breakdown

The sea of 8s and 9s is no more, but we still went back to Tyneside with all three points!

The XI

Martin Dúbravka – 8

Tino Livramento – 8 ⭐️

Sven Botman – 6 (off 90+3')

Dan Burn – 6

Lewis Hall – 6

Bruno Guimarães (c) – 8

Sandro Tonali – 6

Joelinton – 6

Jacob Murphy – 7 (off 86')

Alexander Isak – 7 (off 86')

Anthony Gordon – 7 (off 78')

The Subs

Harvey Barnes – 6 (on 78')

Joe Willock – 6 (on 86')

Sean Longstaff – 5 (on 86')

Lloyd Kelly – 6 (on 90+3')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 7

The Opposition

Tottenham Hotspur – 6

The Ref

Andy Madeley – 3

Getty Images

The Next

It's a big one: the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final with Arsenal on Tuesday night at The Emirates Stadium.

We'll be without Bruno and Schär due to suspension for the 8 p.m. (GMT) kick-off that will be shown live on both ITV and Sky.

Howay the lads!