Golfer Lee Westwood delivered his verdict on Newcastle after they lost 3-1 to Nottingham Forest in the league cup last night, tagging in Alan Shearer and saying it was “nearly as bad as 5&4”.
Shearer responded, saying “we were poor” although he also made reference to the penalty that Newcastle should have been awarded in injury time.
At 2-1 that could have taken the game to penalties, but instead Forest swept up the field and scored a third to consign Newcastle to their third defeat in four games this season. They are yet to win a game.
Agreed!!! We were poor despite a terrible decision go against us!!! https://t.co/bNbA6ZdiXx
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) August 30, 2018
OPINON
Newcastle fans will be annoyed by the penalty decision – it was pretty blatant – but that won’t take away from a performance that was disjointed and, as Shearer said, poor. Nottingham Forest looked the better side for a lot of the game and perhaps the only real positive is that Newcastle won’t have the distraction of a pretty meaningless cup in a season when their Premier League survival could be in threat. There were other things that Newcastle fans could take from the game. Sean Longstaff put in a decent debut and Salomon Rondon took his chance superbly, which should give him a boost. Why he didn’t start is anyone’s guess – it would surely have been the perfect game for him to build up his match fitness. However, he scored and it was a great goal, and now Newcastle have two strikers who are showing form, with Joselu having scored two goals in four games. They might not be needed on Saturday though as Newcastle travel to play Man City. It’s tough to see Benitez opting for anything other than the park-the-bus tactics that almost worked against Chelsea last weekend.