Newcastle 1 - 3 AFC BournemouthSteve McClaren’s position weakened further as Bournemouth beat Newcastle
Home team scorersAyoze Perez 80
Away team scorersSteven Taylor 28 o.g.
Joshua King 70
Charlie Daniels 90 +1:21
With talented but under-achieving home players including, most notably, Gini Wijnaldum and Moussa Sissoko once again failing to make the desired impact it was left to the outstanding Matt Ritchie and his Bournemouth team-mates to leave McClaren’s immediate future shrouded in considerable uncertainty.
While Bournemouth are all but safe from relegation, Newcastle remain deep in trouble with Mike Ashley, their owner, now surely left with little option but to sack the former England coach and hope someone else can somehow keep the club out of the Championship.
There was a definite sense of end game as, at the final whistle, McClaren stood on the edge of the dug out, his gaze wandering to all four corners of the ground.
All too often this season, Newcastle have started games very slowly, only waking up when the points have already slipped from their grasp. Such tardiness was one thing they could not be accused of here. Almost straight from the kick off, Moussa Sissoko whipped in a wonderful cross which Emmanuel Rivière – preferred to Aleksandar Mitrovic at centre forward – could not quite connect with.
As Jonjo Shelvey – home captain in the injured Fabricio Coloccini’s absence – whipped in a shot which flashed marginally wide Bournemouth looked set for a sustained rearguard action.
It was to prove a slightly deceptive impression. Once they had gathered their breath, Howe’s players began passing in a manner almost as attractive as their bright pink shirts and socks.
Collecting the fall out from a corner, Max Gradel unleashed a shot which might well have beaten Rob Elliot had it not deflected wide off Andrew Surman. Then Adam Smith advanced from right back and was permitted to direct a cross towards the hovering Benik Afobe. While Afobe did well to chest it down he will perhaps have been disappointed that his subsequent volley flashed over the bar rather than testing Elliot.
The chemistry between the impressive Smith and the excellent Matt Ritchie – who, although Max Gradel, too, had some stellar moments, frequently looked the best individual on view – was to prove a key factor in the afternoon and perhaps explains why Wijnaldum proved so ineffective on the left of Newcastle’s midfield.
In Daryl Janmaat and Sissoko, McClaren had a potentially powerful right sided axis of his own though. Indeed after Janmaat crossed incisively to Rivière, it took a quite brilliant block on Simon Francis’s part to prevent the centre forward from opening the scoring by shooting beyond Artur Boruc.
If Newcastle’s right back could claim he had very nearly created a goal, Janmaat would soon fail to help prevent Bournemouth registering one. When Josh King drifted out wide to the left and collect Gradel’s characteristically intelligent ball, the forward was allowed to dispatch a cross which the stretching Steven Taylor attempted to clear but instead ended up diverting beyond his wrong-footed goalkeeper.
As Taylor cursed, McClaren wasted no time in embarking on a tactical re-jig. Off went Paul Dummett – who did not seem injured – and on came the midfielder Vurnon Anita in a switch which saw Jack Colback re-located to Dummett’s old left back station.
Across in the adjacent technical area, Howe must have sensed his team had their hosts on the ropes. The visiting manager looked almost as disappointed as Taylor after Afobe tumbled in the area under Colback’s challenge but the referee failed to buy the resultant penalty appeals. Granted there appeared a degree of contact but Afobe’s am-dram response probably made Paul Tierney’s mind up.
No matter; Bournemouth had still done enough to ensure Newcastle were booed off – and loudly – at the interval. The second half began with Mitrovic on for Rivière but, before the Serbia striker, could make his presence felt Elliot was required to turn Smith’s low shot around a post.
Anita was trying his best to turn the midfield tide but with Ritchie continuing to create openings for Afobe and King, Newcastle struggled to escape their own half. The exhortations to “Attack, attack, attack, “ from the Gallowgate End seemed almost sarcastic.
Instead home fans watched another visiting penalty appeal waved away as Gradel went down under Ayoze Pérez’s challenge before, eventually, Mitrovic escaped to curl a shot wide.
By now Shelvey had become thoroughly frustrated and unwisely berated the disappointing Pérez whose confidence appeared shot.
It got worse for McClaren when Ritchie cleverly played King in and the forward swivelled smartly before lashing his shot high beyond Elliot and into the roof of the net. “Sacked in the morning,” sang the Bournemouth fans. “Steve McClaren, he’s taking us down,” replied their hosts.
Then Shelvey and Pérez finally connected to more productive effect as the former’s fine through ball enabled the Spanish forward to beat Boruc courtesy of subtly curved shot.
With Charlie Daniels tricking Janmaat to shoot a stoppage time third, left footed for Bournemouth that Pérez/Shelvey cameo was to prove an academic footnote. Not to mention a cruel chimera of what might have been for McClaren and this Newcastle team.
Guardian
