After a slow start to the season, Newcastle needed a boost in the league cup tonight against Championship opposition Nottingham Forest.
They didn’t get it – losing 3-1 after a dramatic end to the game – and fans were left fuming by the performance of Ciaran Clark, who was playing at left-back rather than in the centre tonight.
Newcastle were in trouble from the start when Daryl Murphy put the home side ahead after just two minutes.
The only bright side for Newcastle is that their former player didn’t celebrate hard.
Salomon Rondon thought he’d taken the game to penalties when he equalised in injury time but there were two shocks in store as Forest won it at the death.
And fans poured onto Twitter to berate Clark who looked exposed at left-back as he struggled to get a handle on the game and his side failed to break down the Forest defence.
Concentrate on the league? Well that’s one way of looking at going out of the cup tonight but it looks set to be a long old season.
Here are the best reactions to Clark’s display in black & white tonight:
Dear me Ciaran Clark is having an absolute Kenedy this evening #NUFC
— Shaun Watson (@ShaunWatson86) August 29, 2018
I really don't want to see Clark on the pitch ever again. #NUFC
— Eddie Mackalicious (@eddiemack5) August 29, 2018
https://twitter.com/BenHolden_/status/1034892377721368576
https://twitter.com/ajdixon1992/status/1034892218266472448
Clark has been abysmal tonight. #NUFC
— Ryan Blythe (@ryanNUFCmad1986) August 29, 2018
Get Clark off jesus christ #NUFC
— Jarryd Vasey (@DembaBaSyrup) August 29, 2018
Kenedy and Clark need to come off. We've been awful #NUFC
— Adam (@AdamLittle99) August 29, 2018
Pretty dreadful. Not a single decent performance amongst that 11. Kenedy looks disinterested, Clark out of his depth at left back, Muto off the pace, Schar got beat too easily for the goal #NUFC
— Jake Oliver (@jolivernyc) August 29, 2018
https://twitter.com/theinsidernufc/status/1034886922806722563
OPINION
Well that didn’t work then. Ciaran Clark at left-back is an experiment that needs to stop after tonight. Fans could see he was hopelessly out of his depth and he was switched around towards the end of the game with Kenedy dropping back into the left-back position. To be fair to Clark, he wasn’t the only poor player out on the pitch in black & white tonight, maybe just the one that stood out the most. Forest were good and they’ve got some players that wouldn’t look out of place in the Premier League, but Newcastle needed to show more tonight. It was a tough watch for the fans and Rafa Benitez needs to get some confidence instilled into his players quickly. The defensive tactics against Chelsea at the weekend might have been necessary but this isn’t what Newcastle fans want to see, or deserve to see. It is, though, what Mike Ashley has delivered.