Everton claim another win over toothless Newcastle

Newcastle United’s dismal home form continued, as they lost to Everton for the second time in the space of a few days.

The Magpies looked lost in all departments against an Everton side who were not brilliant themselves, but did enough.

The away side’s goal, scored by Thierno Barry never looked like receiving a reply from the home side – a damming reflection of the state of ‘Newcastle 2.0’ at present.

Newcastle’s alarming lack of structure was apparent from the first whistle. Everton in comparison, looked relatively competent and organised; they simply lacked their shooting boots.

Even when Newcastle did have a brief spell towards the end of the first 45, as soon as they approached the final third, they became frenzied – as if they simply did not know what to do.

Everton’s goal came shortly after the interval. Tyrique George was left unmarked from a set piece, and took aim towards goal. His low shot went straight under Lukas Hornicek, allowing Thierno Barry to tap home on the line.

The Czech goalkeeper will not want to watch that back in a hurry.

That error was par for the course for Newcastle and the heavens opened and the boos rang out in the cold November air.

It was hard from a Newcastle perspective, for things to have been much worse than the first half, but they made a good go of it.

They continued to lack any invention, any creativity, any patterns of play, simply anything.

The St. James’ Park crowd is a forgiving one, but it felt as if sections began to turn on this evening – worrying for Matthias Jaissle.

Only he will know if he is capable of finding the solutions to Newcastle’s many problems. Whatever they are, he must find them fast, and ultimately show some adaptability.