Newcastle United 4-0 Spurs

Last April, the Magpies inflicted a crushing 6-1 reverse on us and, despite making a bright start on this occasion, we couldn’t stem the flow of goals again as Alexander Isak (2), Anthony Gordon and Fabian Schar all netted.

The result saw a hit to our goal difference and we dropped a place in the Premier League table as Aston Villa climbed above us without playing due to them now having a one goal advantage on us.

The game had a really open feel to it in the early stages, both sides looking to get on the attack quickly and, after Rodrigo Bentancur had a shot blocked after just 30 seconds, we had a great chance in the seventh minute but Timo Werner couldn’t keep his back-post volley down from Brennan Johnson’s fine cross.

Another half-chance fell Werner’s way on 16 minutes after great work from James Maddison but this time his side-footed effort went across goal and Newcastle cleared.

Last season we were 5-0 down after just 20 minutes but we were well in the contest with half an hour gone on this occasion, only for the game to change in a two-minute spell. First, an attack of ours floundered on the edge of the Newcastle area and one long ball out found Gordon, he shrugged off Destiny Udogie and fed Isak, who cut inside Micky van de Ven as he slipped and fired home.

Just 95 seconds later, Pedro Porro’s attempted back-pass fell to Gordon and again van de Ven slipped as he challenged the Newcastle player leaving Gordon free to drill past Guglielmo Vicario. It was almost 3-0 after 37 minutes but this time, Udogie made a great last-ditch challenge to deny Isak, who then headed just over from a corner four minutes before the break.

As has been the way in recent weeks, we needed a big second half to get back into the contest and had our first shot on target of the game in the 50^th minute, Werner drilling straight at Martin Dubravka from the edge of the area. However, just seconds later, we lost the ball deep inside the Newcastle half, Bruno Guimaraes played a ball over the top of our defence and Isak – running from inside his own half - strode forward and slotted past Vicario.

A strong hand from Vicario pushed away Elliott Anderson’s angled drive to prevent us going further behind before the game entered a phase where we had long spells of possession around the Newcastle box but lacked a cutting edge and Dubravka wasn’t tested.

At the other end, Emil Krafth hit the foot of the post with a half-volley and van de Ven got across well to block Gordon’s shot from 10 yards out but, from the resulting corner, Fabian Schar headed in Gordon’s cross for the Magpies' fourth goal, rounding off another disappointing day in the north-east.