Some Newcastle United fans have been reacting to a tweet that was recently posted by Toon fan @jchaytor16, who has quote tweeted a post from Championship side Middlesbrough which shares footage of the five goals that they scored against the Toon in a recent pre-season friendly clash.
As per Newcastle United’s official website, goals from Marcus Tavernier, Grant Hall, Stephen Walker and two goals from Britt Assombalonga helped Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough side to earn a 5-1 victory over the Toon in this recent pre-season friendly.
Allan Saint-Maximin was the only player to get on the scoresheet for the Toon in this game.
Following the match, Middlesbrough posted footage of their five goals on Twitter and this footage was quote tweeted by Toon fan @jchaytor16, who criticised Newcastle defender Florian Lejeune, stating that he was ‘at fault for four of those goals.’
Plenty of other Newcastle supporters subsequently replied to his post to react to this footage and the result of this pre-season match.
https://twitter.com/jchaytor16/status/1300823912683536391?s=21
Some of the Toon fans who replied to this post slated their side for the goals that they conceded to Middlesbrough.
State of that
— freddie (@fhoy79) September 2, 2020
Absolutely disgraceful
— HWTL ?? (@NUFCChazo) September 1, 2020
Meanwhile, other Newcastle supporters opted to point the finger of blame at Toon manager Steve Bruce for their side’s poor defending.
Manager and manager only is at fault! These are same players that had great defence under Rafa… only thing that’s changed is manager and tactics (or lack of tactics)
— Rich (@stan1420) September 1, 2020
a lot of players losing a lot of value. I wonder what the true cost of chasing Rafa away is going to add up to?
— Jail for Ashley (@AshleyJail) September 1, 2020
However, some Newcastle fans responded more positively to this tweet, suggesting that this heavy defeat may help their team to prepare for the start of the competitive season.
Pre season make the mistakes now instead of when it really matters….. No doubt we will get some beatings this year but it’s a long slog and sometimes a kick now can help….
— mr1234 (@onmyshoe) September 1, 2020
It’s just a friendly. Much rather lose 5-1 in a friendly to spot the weaknesses.
— Phill (@WorPhill) September 1, 2020
Is this a concerning result?
YES, DEFINITELY
NO, IT'S JUST PRE-SEASON
Considering that the Toon suffered a 5-1 defeat to a team playing one division lower than them in the English football pyramid, it’s not too surprising that some Newcastle supporters have been critical of their club’s defending in that pre-season game.
However, as some other Toon fans suggested, this was just a friendly and with that in mind, it may be a bit of an overreaction to criticise the team too harshly over the result of a pre-season game.