Final score: Newcastle 2-2 West Ham
90+5 mins: It’s all over! West Ham lead twice but never for long, and must make do with a point. Still, they’re four points clear of the bottom three and the way that lot are playing it might be enough.
90+4 mins: Andy Carroll is wasting time near the corner flag (badly).
90+1 mins: There will be about four minutes of stoppage time. West Ham, stoppage-time scorers in midweek, are ending the game well.
90ish mins: Sky have taken down their scoreline and match clock, unhelpfully.
88 mins: Sky appear to think that Newcastle’s substitute striker is called Andy Carrollagainsthisformerclub, and are saying it in full every time they refer to him.
87 mins: Not much guile but decent intent from West Ham, who get numbers into the area, send the ball in after them, and Soucek turns it over the bar.
84 mins: Blammo! Yarmolenko’s backheel flick to Soucek is good, but his hammered left-footed goalbound drive when he gets the ball back is better. Dubravka does well to turn it behind.
81 mins: Yarmolenko crosses from the right, and Soucek’s diving header is really quite good, but he sends the ball straight at Dubravka.
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80 mins: Joelinton’s race is run. He was the least impressive of Newcastle’s attacking players, outperformed by the likes of Amiron, Saint-Maximin and Gayle. Carroll comes on.
76 mins: Newcastle work space for Ritchie on the left, but his cross is rubbish, and rolls harmlessly and safely to Fabianski. Joelinton flaps his arms in frustration.
74 mins: Bentaleb hammers a left-footed shot wide from range, and West Ham bring Yarmolenko, Wednesday’s matchwinner, on for Fornals.
71 mins: The ball goes through towards Almiron, and Fabianski comes out without a hope of reaching it first, but Almiron’s shot bounces harmlessly wide, and he was anyway offside.
69 mins: The assist is Gayle’s final touch of the afternoon. The players take a drinks break, during which Ritchie replaces him, and Lazaro comes on for Saint-Maximin.
68 mins: Turns out that Fornals, having covered Krafth’s run on the right, was playing Gayle offside by a margin of several yards. Shelvey takes Joelinton’s pass outside the area, plays a one-two with Gayle and sidefoots past Fabianski!
GOAL! Newcastle 2-2 West Ham (Shelvey, 67 mins)
The defenders turn to the linesman after Gayle gets involved, but the flag stays down and Shelvey tucks it away!
Newcastle United’s Jonjo Shelvey scores their second goal. Photograph: Michael Regan/Reuters
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GOAL! Newcastle 1-2 West Ham (Soucek, 66 mins)
And they score from the corner! It’s a great delivery, which Rice meets beyond the far post, thumping a header against the bar! It rebounds to Soucek, who has the ball in the back of the net from a corner for the third time in a week (one disallowed)!
Tomas Soucek of West Ham United celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal. Photograph: 2020 Pool
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65 mins: Rice pings a long, diagonal pass to Cresswell on the left, but his cross is headed clear. Then Fredericks bursts down the right and to the byline, but his cross is turned behind.
62 mins: Saint-Maximin executes a silken 360 on the right wing. Sure, it doesn’t really achiever very much, but still, yeah.
59 mins: Newcastle get the ball into the West Ham penalty area, through a series of not-really-controlled passes that nevertheless somehow work out, but Almiron’s left-foot half-volley doesn’t work out.
57 mins: Noble comes on, replacing Manuel Lanzini.
54 mins: Imminent substitution alert: Mark Noble is being briefed on the sidelines.
52 mins: It’s fair to say that the start to the second half hasn’t been as exciting as the start to the first. Still, the tempo is good.
48 mins: Amiron fizzes a left-footer wide from 20 yards or so.
47 mins: Krafth and Almiron combine on the right, and the right-back tries a low cross similar to the one that led to Newcastle’s first. This time though Gayle runs away from the near post rather than towards it, and it’s cut out.
Steve Bruce, manager of Newcastle United, barks instructions. Photograph: Ian Hodgson/Ian Hodgson NMC Pool
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46 mins: West Ham get the second half started. No breaktime changes to report.
The players have had a rest and are on their way back out. West Ham started the first half like a runaway train before sitting back to protect their swiftly-won advantage, a tactic that seemed to continue even after they lost it.
Newcastle United’s players walk out onto the pitch for the second half. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Reuters
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Half time: Newcastle 1-1 West Ham
45+4 mins: And a few seconds later the whistle sounds. It’s been a promising half, but with too many set pieces and stoppages.
45+4 mins: Fornals brings down Lascelles, as bookable a challenge as you’ll ever see. The referee however has his mind on his half-time digestives, so he gets away with it.
45+2 mins: Saint-Maximin is down now, having run into a defender and fallen awkwardly. He eventually rises gingerly to his feet, and the physio aims a thumbs up at the bench.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be about three minutes.
43 mins: Hayden has sustained some kind of minor muscleknack, and Bentaleb is coming on to replace him.
39 mins: Saint-Maximin is such a lovely, fluid runner with the ball. But he keeps undoing his good work with completely rubbish right-foot sidefooted shots and passes.
37 mins: Gayle mistimes a sliding challenge on Antonio so badly that he eventually clips his trailing foot with his chest. He’s booked, a bit harshly given the very slight contact.
36 mins: Excellent interchange between Fornals and Fredericks, disappointing cross.
32 mins: Save! Cresswell has a pretty poor shot from outside the area, but Bowen throws a foot at it and gets a slight deflection, but the ball goes straight to Dubravka’s left boot, and he does really well to shift his weight and kick it clear.
31 mins: An, um, unconvincing challenge from Joelinton gives West Ham a free kick on the right, and Bowen delivers an excellent dipping, curling cross, but Dubravka deals with it well.
28 mins: Which leads to another corner. Shelvey sends this one towards Fabianski as well, and this time the keeper punches clear.
27 mins: Saint-Maximin gets the ball and starts running. He shimmies left, he jinks right, and then Declan Rice comes along and kicks him. Free kick.
Newcastle United’s Allan Saint-Maximin has his shirt pulled by West Ham United’s Declan Rice. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/NMC Pool/PA Wire/PA
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23 mins: The drinks break comes with Newcastle very much on top. Shelvey and Saint-Maximin in particular are looking sharp, and Krafth overlapping well on the right.
20 mins: Newcastle are pushing for more. They win a corner on the left, which Shelvey curls towards Fabianski, who panics, flaps at it and falls over. Luckily for the Hammers the ball falls to Fredericks, who clears.
GOAL! Newcastle 1-1 West Ham (Almiron, 17 mins)
The equaliser! Saint-Maximin gets the ball and starts running, the entire West Ham defence quivers, he sucks in Cresswell and then passes to the overlapping and completely untracked Krafth, and his low cross is turned in at the near post by Almiron!
Miguel Almiron scores for Newcastle. Photograph: Richard Lee/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
Miguel Almiron of Newcastle United celebrates scoring to make it 1-1. Photograph: Richard Lee/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
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13 mins: The ball falls to Gayle, about 12 yards from goal, but he’s facing away from goal and can’t turn so lays off to Almiron, who is closed down, and the ball squirts behind for a corner.
11 mins: Antonio does excellently to control a stretching volley from beyond the far post and conjure an effort on goal, but Dubravka stops it.
10 mins: Gayle wins a free kick not far outside the area, dusts himself down and takes it himself. It deflects off the ball and wrongfoots the keeper, but it wasn’t going very quickly to start with and the deflection slowed it further, so Fabianski makes an easy save.
8 mins: Shelvey shimmies nicely before shooting from 25 yards. The ball hits Ogbonna’s right arm, prompting loud penalty appeals, but the defender’s arm was hanging by his side and there was no hand-to-ball movement, so no dice.
7 mins: Since the goal Newcastle have had the ball pretty much all the time, but haven’t done anything much with it.
GOAL! Newcastle 0-1 West Ham (Antonio, 4 mins)
Early breakthrough bonanza! Bowen gets down the right, and his low cross runs straight to Lascelles, but he gets his feet in a middle, makes a horrible hash of things and barely touches the ball, which runs to Antonio at the far post, who controls and smashes into the net!
West Ham United’s Michail Antonio scores the first goal. Photograph: Michael Regan/Reuters
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1 min: Four seconds and one aimless punt forward later, it’s a West Ham goal kick.
1 min: Fornals was in their half when they did so, so they get to do it again.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Newcastle have kicked off!
The players are out! Newcastle have taken an admirably different approach to the covering up of empty seats that elsewhere in the Premier League has largely been achieved by the production of large banners, just leaving them empty and open.
Newcastle United’s Joelinton kneels in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign before the match. Photograph: Laurence Griffiths/Reuters
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The two managers have spoken to Sky. Here’s Steve Bruce:
I think all of us probably are in a situation where you have to use your squad. Bournemouth was something like our fourth game in 11 games so we switch it around and it works. So when it works it’s not too bad, it’s when it doesn’t work and you think, have I picked the right team? That’s got to be the challenge for us all. Our first objective was to stay in the Premier League, and if you look around a club like ours it’s only fair that we’re in it. So the challenge to all of us is now, we’ve got five or six games left, can we maintain the form we’re on and see if we can finish in the top 10? That’s got to be the challenge.
And here’s David Moyes:
Obviously we’ve tried to get a good bit of stability and momentum going. We actually think we weren’t so bad in the earlier games but we had tough opposition. Newcastle are tough opposition because they’ve started this period really well. So I hope we can get the same from the players. If you win your own games you don’t need to bother about anybody else, so ultimately that’s what we have to do. We’re aware of that. We’re in a batch of games now that gives us opportunities to pick up points and we have to do that. We start today, we go again, and try to get another result.
So two changes for Newcastle, for whom Isaac Hayden and Miguel Almiron come in, and Sean Longstaff and Nabil Bentaleb drop out. West Ham stick with the side that started the win over Chelsea in midweek.
Newcastle United players warm up. Photograph: Ian Hodgson/Ian Hodgson NMC Pool
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The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in (very carefully, and subject to appropriate social distancing), and these were the names upon them:
Newcastle: Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Fernandez, Manquillo, Shelvey, Hayden, Saint-Maximin, Almiron, Joelinton, Gayle. Subs: Schar, Carroll, Ritchie, Yedlin, Lazaro, Darlow, Rose, Bentaleb, Matthew Longstaff.
West Ham: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Fornals, Lanzini, Antonio. Subs: Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Noble, Wilshere, Masuaku, Ajeti, Xande Silva, Randolph, Johnson.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Newcastle United FC
(@NUFC)TEAM-NEWS 🚨
Two changes from our midweek win at Bournemouth as Isaac Hayden and Miguel Almirón come in for Nabil Bentaleb and Sean Longstaff.
HWTL! ⚫️⚪️
SUBS: K. Darlow, F. Schär, A. Carroll, M. Ritchie, D. Yedlin, V. Lazaro, D. Rose, N. Bentaleb, M. Longstaff. pic.twitter.com/B3YJOgmIB6
West Ham United
(@WestHam)Today’s line-up… ⚒#NEWWHU pic.twitter.com/f06RljsgW5
Hello world!
The two teams who between them are deciding, if not currently occupying, the relegation spaces meet at St James’ Park. Since the restart Newcastle have already played two of the bottom six and have three more to go, starting this afternoon, with only Norwich (who have taken four points off them this season, 19% of their total) not among their post-pause fixtures. West Ham, meanwhile, play three of the current bottom four in their last four games, and are only three points off the relegation spaces themselves.
That slender cushion came courtesy of their dramatic last-gasp win over Chelsea on Wednesday, and given the abysmal form of their relegation rivals another six points will probably be enough to save them – though despite their promising display in midweek having lost eight and won only two of their last 12 league games even that moderate level of achievement can’t be taken for granted.
Newcastle meanwhile are among the teams of the restart, attacking with a fluency that they rarely seemed capable of before lockdown, unbeaten in the league, and smashing three past Sheffield United and most recently four past Bournemouth.
I have a sneaking suspicion this might be a doozy.
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