When Man City have to resort to this you know you're doing something right

It wasn't all that long ago when Newcastle United were reviled by the rest of the Premier League for partaking in 'the dark arts' to win games.

Every media outlet with an anti-Newcastle agenda who wanted their precious "Big Six" to remain untouched would run a piece showing how much time Newcastle wasted in order to see out games back during the Champions League season.

We're not going to sit here and deny that's what we were doing, of course we were. We had Nick Pope sitting on the deck for a broken toe nail while Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall would relay messages to the outfield players. We'd take an age over goal kicks and throw-ins to kill a bit of time, and it worked.

However, we weren't the only teams doing it, just the only team that everyone was mad at for doing it.

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Newcastle reduced Man City to timewasting tactics

After such a big deal was made about it, we stopped it, but other teams have taken over the mantle with Arsenal current masters of the dark arts, which is hugely ironic as they were the ones who cried the most when we did it.

Today, though, it was Manchester City's turn. Pep Guardiola's side hate it when they can't dictate the pace of the game and for the longest time, Newcastle's high press and quick passing had the champions chasing their tails, so when they did get the ball, their aim was to slow things down.

That was never more evident than from goal kicks and throw-ins, especially when they were 1-0 up. All urgency was gone while they had the advantage, but for me, that was just a sign that we were doing something right.

Eddie Howe will analyse the snot out of this performance

We had reduced Manchester City to dodgy tactics because they couldn't play the way they wanted to, the way they were used to.

Eddie Howe might set himself a new record for the number of times he watches a game back after this because his lads did so much right in this game, he's going to want to be sure he can get them to repeat it.

If Newcastle can absolutely batter AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday then the confidence within the dressing room will be back to where it should be. The season starts now!