Newcastle United: A season of poor performances at St. James’ Park
By Durim Halimi
Newcastle United failed to utilize the support and atmosphere of St. James’ Park to their advantage this season.
St. James’ Park is one of the most unique stadiums in England and Europe because of its size and architectural design. With a seating capacity of just over 52,000, St. James’ Park is one of the largest and most intimidating grounds in the Premier League. Despite these attributes, Newcastle United have displayed poor form at home in the 2017/18 campaign as the Magpies have dropped too many points in front of their home supporters.
Thus far, the Magpies have played 14 of their 27 Premier League matches at St. James’ Park. From the 42 points available in those home matches, the Magpies were only able to take 16 points.
The high number of points dropped at home this season is a major reason why Newcastle United find themselves in a tight relegation battle.
With that being said, one must be realistic and accept the fact that Newcastle United are not expected to have a perfect record at home in the most competitive league in the world. However, the Magpies are expected to feed off their supporters’ energy to take three points against other bottom-half clubs.
Wasted Opportunities
The Magpies have hosted some notable opponents in their 14 matches at St. James’ Park, such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham.
Surprisingly, Newcastle United held their own against each of these opponents by earning a win and a draw from these four matches.
The truly wasted opportunities this season came against clubs that Newcastle United were capable of defeating, but either lacked sufficient energy to compete or did not close out the match.
Had the Magpies not dropped points in at least two matches, specifically against Brighton and Swansea City, then maybe, just maybe, Newcastle United would not be involved in the relegation battle.
Here are the matches Newcastle United wish they could play again for a different outcome:
Unlucky Performances
Not all losses are bad, some are simply unlucky. Unfortunately, the unlucky performances for Newcastle United both occurred at St. James’ Park. Everton came to Tyneside with superior placement in the table, but they did not instill any fear among the Magpies.
Newcastle struck the post from distance on two occasions and outplayed Everton for the majority of the match. However, Karl Darlow did a poor job of handling a weak shot that gifted Wayne Rooney with the easiest goal of his career. That goal made the difference as Everton won 1-0.
The second unlucky performance came in the thrilling match against Leicester City. Both teams took turns attacking the other and maintained a high level of energy. Going into the 86th minute, the match was 2-2, but in an attempt to block a shot, Ayoze Perez placed the ball past Darlow for an own-goal to give Leicester City a 3-2 victory.
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Looking Ahead
Newcastle United will play at St. James’ Park five more times before the conclusion of the season. Every match will present its own challenges as the Magpies need results to survive. Here are the five remaining home matches and my predictions for each match:
March 10 – Newcastle vs. Southampton; Prediction: Newcastle 2-0 Southampton
March 31 – Newcastle vs. Huddersfield Town; Prediction: Newcastle 2-1 Huddersfield Town
April 14 – Newcastle vs. Arsenal; Prediction: Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal
April 28 – Newcastle vs. West Brom; Prediction: Newcastle 3-0 West Brom
May 13 – Newcastle vs. Chelsea; Prediction: Newcastle 0-1 Chelsea