The Good, The Bad, and The Average #26: NUFC player ratings vs. Bromley (h) [FAC3]

 · January 13 2025, 10:29
The Good, The Bad, and The Average #26: NUFC player ratings vs. Bromley (h) [FAC3]
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
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Well that was a proper FA Cup tie, wasn't it? Newcastle United survived an early scare to run out 3-1 winners against Bromley, setting up a fourth-round match away at Birmingham City.

The visitors, backed by over 3,000 hardy travellers, scored a cracking goal to take the lead before a bullet from Lewis Miley, a penalty from Anthony Gordon, and a wonder strike from Will Osula turned things around.

A much-changed home side got the job done, thankfully, but it took a half-time intervention from Eddie Howe to make certain of the result. Gordon and Bruno Guimarães were called upon and delivered, as per usual.

Here's how we rated everyone, with lows of 5 for a few in black and white, and a high of 9 for one of the most assured all-round midfield displays we've seen in our time following the club.

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02 Bruno Gordon
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
These two were very handy options to have on the bench and made a big difference in the second half

The Good

Lewis Miley ran the show in central midfield and scored a superb equaliser, making him an easy choice for Man of the Match. He looks like a unit these days and had an enormous 133 touches, completing 110/117 passes, making two big chances, and five key passes in all. He also led the way on defensive numbers, though was probably at fault for Bromley's goal.

Called upon by Howe at half-time, Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimarães unsurprisingly made a huge difference to our performance. Gordon took the penalty excellently and tortured Bromley's hapless right-back, while Bruno seemed to enjoy himself in the middle of the park without doing anything amazing. Lewis Hall came on much later but also looked a cut above most others on the pitch.

Will Osula was starved of service for the majority of the contest but never stopped running and got his reward with the third goal. In the stadium we described it as 'Isak-esque', but we can't recall our mercurial Swede ever hitting a shot that sweetly with his swinger. This kid has a massive future if he stays grounded.

What a delight it was to see the perenially underrated Matt Targett back in the starting XI after over a year of injuries and bench appearances. While he was somewhat rusty in the attacking third, his contribution to winning the penalty was a big turning point in the game and he was rarely troubled defensively.

Martin Dúbravka, Kieran Trippier, and Fabian Schär also put in solid shifts in the back five, though Dúbravka didn't have much to do yet again. There was a nice moment in the second half where he was serenaded for a good few minutes by The Corner and the Gallowgate, which he seemed to appreciate.

Joelinton probably wouldn't have started if it wasn't for yet another injury to Joe Willock and he only played the first half. He was easily one of our best players though, and seemed to delight in bullying his less gym-obsessed opponents.

He had to get busy at half-time to secure the result, but Eddie Howe deserves yet more credit for making this many changes and earning a relatively comfortable win. It wasn't so long ago that progression in the cups was a fantasy. It's now become the norm and that's largely down to the mentality of our head coach.

The man in the middle for this one was Will Finnie, apparently, and he was surprisingly competent! There were a few poor calls here and there but he got all of the big decisions right. You genuinely can't ask for much more than that from a Premier League referee, let alone a Football League referee.

Our final word in this section has to be reserved for Bromley, though. We're no lovers of Andy Woodman, but he's getting his players to play above the sum of their parts. They made this a proper third round tie with their wonderful opening goal and we hope all of their supporters had a great weekend in the Toon.

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03 Osula
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
He's clearly as mad as a box of frogs but what a goal that was from Osula; who led the line pretty well

The Bad

Why oh why is Miguel Almirón still here? That's all we can be bothered to write about him.

We're not far away from saying the same about Sean Longstaff, unfortunately. The difference between him and Miley was night and day.

And for all the hype, Trevan Sanusi looked like a poor Allan Saint-Maximin cosplay artist to us. Yes, he's 17, and yes he was probably trying too hard to impress, but he did himself no favours with his showing.

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04 Miley
Serena Taylor/Newcastle United
Lewis Miley's goal was one of the best we've ever seen scored at the Gallowgate End; it was a rocket

The Average

Lloyd Kelly just about recovered to appear in this section after a passive first half that had us wondering if paying nothing for him was too much. He's tidy in possession, but he needs to be more aggressive when attacking aerial balls. He let Bromley have a base to build attacks from here, winning just 3/7 aerial duels.

Although he was supposedly withdrawn at half-time due to a muscle tweak, we wouldn't have been surprised if Harvey Barnes was hooked because of his poor body language and lack of effort. Gordon put him to shame with his impact in the second half. Barnes is an impact sub and nothing more, unfortunately.

Sandro Tonali didn't appear until the final few minutes and was able to just stroll around the pitch looking like the majestic Italian stallion that he is.

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05
Getty Images
Our much-changed XI didn't pull up any trees but got the job done with a bit of bench augmentation

The Breakdown

We could get used to this winning every single game we play Malarky...

The XI

Martin Dúbravka – 7

Kieran Trippier (c) – 7

Fabian Schär – 7

Lloyd Kelly – 6

Matt Targett – 8 (off 69')

Sean Longstaff – 5

Lewis Miley – 9 ⭐️

Joelinton – 7 (off 46')

Miguel Almirón – 4 (off 84')

Will Osula – 8 (off 69')

Harvey Barnes – 6 (off 46')

The Subs

Anthony Gordon – 8 (on 46')

Bruno Guimarães – 7 (on 46')

Lewis Hall – 7 (on 69')

Trevan Sanusi – 5 (on 69')

Sandro Tonali – 6 (on 84')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 7

The Opposition

Bromley – 7

The Ref

Will Finnie – 7

06 Woodman
Getty Images
Andy Woodman, his team, and their supporters did themselves proud and hopefully enjoyed their weekend

The Next

The Newcastle United express train will remain stationed at St James' Park for the foreseeable, with Wolves visiting Gallowgate on Wednesday evening for a 7.30 p.m. (GMT) kick-off that'll be shown live on TNT.

Now managed by Vítor Pereira rather than the hapless Gary O'Neil, they've won three of their last five matches, with a notable 2-2 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in their previous away league game.

Still, you'd be brave to bet against a ninth successive victory for Eddie Howe's Mags.

Howay the lads!

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