Newcastle hopes of getting back on track sunk by Watford’s Odion Ighalo
Newcastle 1 - 2 WatfordHome team scorers
Daryl Janmaat 62
Away team scorers
Odion Jude Ighalo 10
Odion Jude Ighalo 28
Steve McClaren likened last Monday’s defeat at West Ham United to a car crash but remained cautiously optimistic that, back behind the wheel again, his Newcastle United players would safely negotiate the hazards strewn across the road by Watford.
The former England coach had clearly not bargained for his team once again forgetting to keep checking their wing and rear-view mirrors. It left the excellent Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney free to enjoy themselves as Quique Sánchez Flores’s side continued their promising start to Premier League life.
Newcastle, meanwhile, ended the afternoon stuck in a metaphorical ditch. Forced embarrassingly, off the road by their newly promoted visitors they are still to win a League game this term, have scored only three goals and are only being kept off the bottom of the table by virtue of having a marginally better goal difference than Sunderland.
Exhilarating to watch throughout, Ighalo had dragged two extremely inviting chances wide before enjoying a little more luck with his third attempt. When Massadio Haïdara, Newcastle’s left-back, forfeited posession to Almen Abdi, Watford manoeuvred the ball intelligently into area where, this time, Ighalo made no mistake with a shot squeezed just inside an upright. It was the Nigerian striker’s third goal of the season and 19th in 24 League games during 2015.
If Ighalo is on a hot streak, Papisse Cissé continues to endure a distinctly chilly one. McClaren’s Senegal striker missed three excellent first-half openings, the last of which was gloriously created by Moussa Sissoko’s fine through ball.
It did not take too long to realise both defences were vulnerable with Newcastle’s the wobblier in the face of Ighalo and Deeney as Flores’s decision to switch to good old 4-4-2 looked increasingly inspired.
Very quick and extremely athletic, Watford revelled in finding the flaws in McClaren’s remodelled 4-1-4-1 system featuring Jack Colback in a semi-sweeping, anchoring midfield role. It is a job Gus Poyet, his old manager at Sunderland, claimed the undoubtedly talented midfielder was unsuited to and, on this evidence at least, the Uruguayan was not entirely wrong.
In mitigation, Colback’s cause hardly appeared helped by the reality that, in front of him, Gini Wijnaldum, the team’s marquee £14.5m summer signing, drifted through prolonged periods without even touching the ball.
Further back, Fabricio Coloccini was not having one of his better days at centre half and could only watch in horror as Ighalo rounded Tim Krul before directing a right footed shot into the empty net. Watford’s speed of thought and foot was such that Newcastle’s fading captain played like a man wearing blinkers.
It was created by Deeney who demonstrated impressive control in chesting down Sebastian Prödl’s long ball before seamlessly cueing his partner up for yet another goal. Once again, Newcastle had been pulled all out of shape and, down in the home dug-out, McClaren was spotted making an urgent seeming telephone call .
The interval beckoned when Heurelho Gomes made his first save, the Watford goalkeeper doing well to repel Florian Thauvin’s stinging first time shot. It was definitely not enough to prevent Newcastle being booed off at the end of the first 45 minutes. Or the Watford fans perched high in the Leazes End serenading McClaren with “sacked in the morning”.
Few were surprised to see Cissé replaced by Siem de Jong for the second period in a re-shuffle featuring Ayoze Pérez’s re-location from the left wing to a central striking role and De Jong assuming the “No10” position.
Another Dutchman, Daryl Janmaat is one of the best players in this team and sure enough the right back got back into things. Overlapping down the right, Janmaat picked out Sissoko before running beyond the midfelder, collecting his cross and shooting unerringly beyond Gomes. It was the first League goal Newcastle had scored since the season’s opening day.
Watford should really have restored their advantage when Ighalo and Denney combined adroitly but Chancel Mbemba’s splendid late intervention as Deeney shaped to shoot ensured renwed hope continued to flicker around St James’.
Playing like a man possessed, Janmaat forced Gomes into a good save, the keeper reacting well to not only tip his left-footed, 25 yard-shot round a post but confirm it was Ighalo’s day.