That’s it from me – thanks for your company during what, in the end, was a pretty enjoyable game. Here’s Louise Taylor’s match report:
Elmohamady speaks: “It’s a big goal for us, we dominated the game especially in the first half, had some good chances. But we took a point away from home, we’ve been solid in the last few games on set pieces fingers crossed. We have eight more games to go and it’s a competition we don’t want to go out of.”
The other scores:
Norwich 0-1 Everton
Manchester United 3-0 Sheffield United
Wolves 1-1 Bournemouth
Full-time: Newcastle 1-1 Aston Villa
Quite exciting stuff in the end, with goals scored and made by subs. I make it a fair result.
90+6 min: One last, last, last free-kick for Villa. Hourihane scuffs it and that means ...
90+4 min: Villa are piling the late pressure on here but just can’t get a shot away. One last corner on that left side though ... and Hause bullets a header into the side-netting via a deflection! Dubravka catches the next, *actually* last I’m fairly sure, set-piece.
90+3 min: Newcastle will see this as a missed opportunity to stake an unlikely claim for a Europa League spot. Villa may well view it as a lifeline. They haven’t gone yet.
90+1 min: We will have five more minutes. Samatta misses the target from a decent position in the first of them.
90 min: Hause is booked for fouling Carroll, and Newcastle can gather themselves. A buccaneering Carroll heads the resulting set-piece over the top.
89 min: Elmohamady crosses tastily but it’s cleared frantically. Then Grealish makes space in the box and lays it into open space on the right ... straight to Lazaro.
88 min: Villa look keen now and win a corner on the very same left side that brought the goal. They try more or less the same near-post manoeuvre, but get another go when the ball is cleared. Shelvey makes rather more sure second time around.
86 min: Hayden can’t continue and Lazaro takes his place. Nabil Bentaleb is also on, Almiron coming off.
Updated
Goal! Newcastle 1-1 Aston Villa (Elmohamady 83)
They’ve levelled it! Hourihane whips it to the near post, the sub Elmohamady gets across and flicks a header on, and Dubravka seems to be behind it. But maybe he’s distracted by Shelvey wafting a leg in front of him, because the ball squirms beneath him and rolls in! That could be a big goal for Villa’s season.
Updated
83 min: Villa have a flag kick now. This half has been much quicker. They wait for Hayden to run off a knock when Hourihane outswings it and ...
81 min: Targett misses his, err, target with an attempted header back to Nyland. Corner to Newcastle, but Douglas Luiz heads it before Carroll can slam in a volley.
79 min: Saint-Maximin dances around Villa again. He’ll be my man of the match because, as soon as he started playing, Newcastle did. Carroll has been good since coming on, though, and whips a right-footer over now.
Updated
78 min: Another throw of the dice for Villa. Elmohamady is on for Konsa, and Nakamba replaces McGinn.
76 min: Then both Mings and Hause stretch, but again miss, a long, deep cross having stayed up. Villa aren’t done yet.
75 min: Fernandez is booked for scything Samatta out on the left. Hourihane can swing this over ... and it’s a delicious ball, but Mings misses it and then Konsa can’t react!
74 min: Carroll gets up to smack a header onto a deep Manquillo cross, and Nyland has to paw it away. But a foul is given, a touch harshly.
72 min: McGinn tries to slide one in from 22 yards but Fernandez blocks. Could he have whacked it?
70 min: Dean Smith now acts, bringing on Hourihane and Davis for El Ghazi and Trezeguet. Since those first 25 minutes Newcastle have just about deserved this. It was Gayle’s first goal of the season, you know!
Goal! Newcastle 1-0 Aston Villa (Gayle 68)
We do get to see Gayle! Wow. It comes from superb work from the other sub, Carroll, who makes room to receive a throw-in with a crafty nudge and then teases a fine ball around the defence from the right, sending Gayle through to finish low and clinically. What a pair of changes from Bruce!
Updated
67 min: Ritchie has to leave us – I didn’t see what the problem was. It means we get to see Dwight Gayle, though.
66 min: Ritchie is getting some treatment so this is an opportunity for more drinks.
64 min: No more heroics from Joelinton. He’s done OK, if not exactly showing any predatory instinct when balls have flashed across the box, and Andy Carroll takes over.
62 min: Danny Rose, of whom we have seen very little, makes a very well-timed tackle on Konsa in the Newcastle area. Clean as a whistle.
60 min: Grealish makes a driving run of his own and Lascelles is booked for stopping it. This game feels a little bit more promising now, even if Villa can’t do anything with McGinn’s free-kick.
58 min: It’s Saint-Maximin again, speeding past Mings and then lashing one just wide of the angle. He’s unplayable in this little period. A real treat to watch.
57 min: Saint-Maximin brilliantly sends Manquillo away and his delivery is *just* beyond Joelinton. Then Almiron, with a chance to score, delays and goes with his right foot but Mings makes another crucial block!
55 min: Saint-Maximin almost shifts the ball away from Douglas Luiz and finds a clear route to goal, but the Villa midfielder mops up adroitly and then wins a free-kick.
54 min: Now a corner at the other end. It’s a reasonably open start to the half. It’s very high to the back post from Grealish but nobody can attack it with any vigour.
53 min: A Newcastle corner, a delivery from Saint-Maximin, another header away by Hause.
50 min: Grealish sends El Ghazi skittering down the left, but El Ghazi sends the ball spewing into the stands.
48 min: Great stuff from Joelinton to evade two men and foray into the box, but then he stumbles and it all comes to nothing.
46 min: A welcome show of intent from Ritchie within 30 seconds. He at least forces Nyland to save a right-footed daisycutter low to his right, though it wasn’t a difficult stop.
Peeeeep! Second half underway
We will soon know if it does ...
The teams are coming back out in Newcastle. Let’s hope this one improves!
Let’s go around the grounds!! It’s:
Norwich 0-0 Everton
Manchester United 2-0 Sheffield United
Wolves 0-0 Bournemouth
Newcastle 0-0 Aston Villa
Chin up, everyone.
Half-time: Newcastle 0-0 Aston Villa
Douglas Luiz is booked via a lengthy VAR check for a possible red card after he seemed to stick a head out at Lascelles. And that, via a couple of Newcastle corners, is half-time. Not great stuff, really. Villa had the first 25 minutes, Newcastle the next 20. Trezeguet probably had the best chance. We go again in 15 (FIFTEEN) minutes!
44 min: Saint-Maximin does well in a tight space but sees is effort blocked, but Newcastle come again and Nyland is called into action, beating away a palm-stinger from Ritchie! It’s all coming through Saint-Maximin.
42 min: Douglas Luiz courts danger with a sneaky one on Almiron. No card. We are nearing half-time and it’s been ... errrm ... OK, but hardly a thrill a minute. Or a thrill every 42 minutes.
40 min: Newcastle will be buoyed by all that. They’ve perked up since those drinks!
38 min: They’re getting closer ... Joelinton gets beyond Mings but, just as he looks to pull the trigger, is thwarted by the defender’s fantastic recovery tackle!
37 min: Shelvey pings one wide to Saint-Maximin and the winger then does brilliantly, dribbling 35 yards to the right byline and then drilling in a fantastic cross that somebody *really* should be gobbling up. They aren’t, so it flies across goal. Newcastle’s best moment.
Updated
34 min: Douglas Luiz blocks importantly from Ritchie after good work from the scampering Saint-Maximin, who is Newcastle’s most likely source of fun.
32 min: Newcastle enjoy probably their best spell of attacking possession but Hause thuds another cross away with Joelinton nowhere very near.
31 min: Villa work space really well through Konsa and Grealish, but then Targett drags his 22-yard effort well wide both of goal and Dubravka’s token dive.
29 min: Grealish teases and tricks in from the left and flicks a nice near-post cross for the onrushing McGinn, but he gets too much on it, and off target it goes.
28 min: Newcastle look positively refreshed. But Mings nuts a swinging Almiron cross away from deep inside the box.
27 min: Back underway, thirsts slaked. But not too much sight of breaking the goal drought here, beyond those one-and-a-half good openings for Villa.
25 min: Into the wall from Trezeguet. I think I do need a drink after witnessing that. But now: water!
24 min: And now Shelvey cynically trips the very involved Grealish. Free-kick 25 yards out and central. The drinks can wait ...
22 min: Villa mount a nice little spell of pressure but Saint-Maximin gets back crucially to stop them carving space open on the right. Still assured stuff from the visitors as that drinks break nears.
20 min: Better from Newcastle now, Saint-Maximin skipping away from McGinn, but his attempt to clip in a clever low cross is bashed away.
18 min: It is fielded by Mings, who one senses isn’t too long for Villa.
17 min: Joelinton, hitherto unseen, bundles his way to a free-kick 40 yards out after doing well ...
14 min: Villa again create, El Ghazi whipping a lovely cross in from that right side and Samatta, about 10 yards out, just not getting enough on it. He glances well wide from a good position.
13 min: Now Trezeguet, very involved so far, receives treatment after a stray arm from Lascelles. Seems he’ll be OK. Newcastle could do with clearing their heads a little.
11 min: Dubravka slices a clearance straight up in the air but goes unpunished. Villa have, we can say now, Started Well. But should be ahead.
9 min: Villa earn a corner but McGinn scuffs it rather, and it’s squirrelled away at the near post.
7 min: Big chance for Villa! Konsa crosses tantalisingly from deep and, while it’s above Samatta’s head, it finds Trezequet doing as a winger should and stealing in beyond the back post. But he scuffs his effort into the ground and off target!
6 min: It’s a very hot day. Quite a few dissenting voices in football about the mid-half drinks breaks at the moment, and I see why, but they might be needed today.
4 min: Little to report yet, although Villa have started with some decent intent and are marginally dominating the territory. At least they were until Trezeguet dumped Saint-Maximin over and should probably have been booked.
Updated
2 min: “Watching from the wet coast of Canadian land working from Covid home office,” writes Andrew Brennan. “Nervous about the Villa team news – so 4-2-3-1. McGinn (still recovering from ankle boo-boo) and Luiz will be overrun in a two-man mid. Little base there. Also – surprised no sassy coach is using the extra subs to switch a game and really surprise.”
Updated
Peeeeeeep!
Via a taking of the knee, we are off! Villa kick off and shoot left to right.
The players are out. For Villa you sense this is *exactly* the sort of game that needs to start bringing results.
I’m watching this one with the “atmosphere” off by the way. Sorry but I just can’t ... players respond to their surroundings, whatever those are, and it’s a lot of what makes a game. Anything else is just a pretence. But look, I’m really boring, the only important thing at the moment is that people are watching, isn’t it?
Do get your emails and tweets in while they’re hot. Details above. The teams will be making their socially-distant entrance onto the St James’ Park turf any minute now.
Do you like football? I hope so. Because we can also treat you to these:
Manchester United v Sheffield United with Barry Glendenning.
Norwich City v Everton with Will Unwin
Wolves v Bournemouth with Ben Fisher
Make your choice. Or don’t – go multi-screen and keep yourself, and all of us, more than happy.
Newcastle are unchanged – so Joelinton has a chance to stay on the goal trail! Two changes for Villa though: Trezeguet and Samatta replace Hourihane and Davis.
Team news
Newcastle: Dubravka, Manquillo, Lascelles, Fernandez, Rose, Ritchie, Shelvey, Hayden, Saint-Maximin, Almiron, Joelinton. Subs: Schar, Carroll, Gayle, Muto, Krafth, Yedlin, Lazaro, Darlow, Bentaleb.
Aston Villa: Nyland, Konsa, Hause, Mings, Targett, Trezeguet, Douglas Luiz, McGinn, El Ghazi, Samatta, Grealish. Subs: Taylor, Nakamba, Hourihane, Borja Baston, Jota, Elmohamady, Reina, Vassilev, Davis.
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Back shortly to chew over all this ...
Hello
Back we come again. If you think you’ve seen more of Aston Villa than of your own family since Premier League football recommenced then you’re ... well ... probably right. They kicked us of a full seven days ago with that rather fortunate draw against Sheffield United, kept us further amused in not quite seeing out a result against Chelsea, and now stand to thrill us anew against a Newcastle side that outplayed the Blades last weekend.
Newcastle would, for now at least, overtake Arsenal with a win and you’d have to say Steve Bruce – however longer he remains there – has done a Pretty Good Job, all things considered. For Dean Smith and Villa the games are running out. But a win, far from impossible against such inconsistent opposition, would lever them out of the bottom three and really put the cat among those relegation pigeons.
We will soon find out plenty more about these sides’ respective places in the food chain. Join us!
