Steve McClaren admitted “huge relief” after Georginio Wijnaldum scored four goals to lead Newcastle United to a 6-2 victory over Norwich City.
As a city, Newcastle does not really do understatement and its football team proved no different on a day when McClaren’s players emerged from an early-season crisis to record their first Premier League win of the season in thoroughly bewitching fashion.
The outstanding Wijnaldum was the inspiration behind an extraordinarily entertaining victory that eased the pressure on McClaren as he prepared for next Sunday’s all-important derby at Sunderland. Not that the former England coach was getting carried away. “It’s Newcastle, it’s impossible to make any sense of things,” he joked on a day when Moussa Sissoko emerged from apparent hibernation to create four goals.
McClaren had the grace to acknowledge there were moments when Newcastle were not in control of a game from which Norwich briefly threatened to secure at least a point, but no one could argue the result was undeserved.
“It’s a huge relief and we rode our luck at times but it was our reward for staying calm and not getting too down,” he said. “It was great to see Gini get the rewards but Moussa, too, showed what he can do. He wants to play for a top-four club and he will if he keeps playing like that. I’m so pleased for the players and the fans. There’s a long way to go and lots of work to do but this showed our potential. It showed what we’re capable of doing. We have to get more control of games – neither team had control of this one – but, going forward, we’ve shown our supporters we can be a threat.
“And Gini showed what he’s capable of doing. It’s why we brought him here [from PSV Eindhoven in July for £14.4m]. He can and will be a top Premier League player but we need a little more consistency from him. We needed a little more consistency from everyone, it’s one of the reasons why we won’t get too high after this. We won’t get carried away.”
It marked the perfect end to the 52-year career of Kath Cassidy as Newcastle’s tea-lady. The 88-year-old has seen countless managers come and go since her first day in 1963 but, for the moment at least, McClaren has a little breathing space in which to get his head around an often bewildering afternoon.
Alex Neil shared similar sentiments. “Everyone has learnt a lesson from this,” said Norwich’s manager. “It was a real good match both teams had chances to win. But what happened in the end has happened; we’ve got to deal with it and put it to bed.
“We’ve overcome setbacks before. It’s about getting everything into perspective. Offensively we were very good but, defensively, we let ourselves down. There was a lot that was good about our performance but we’ve conceded six goals.”
