Score lines can be tricky in football, the two-nil score line in particular. If you’re up by two, you may feel on top of the world, like you own the game, like nothing can possibly go wrong – until the opposition pull one back. Once the score turns from that comfortable two-goal cushion on which you were just sitting luxuriously, to that eerie anything-can-now-happen one-goal advantage, the nerves start to kick in, and suddenly it can feel like your team has just been put on the back foot. The impact of the two-goal lead is fascinating; if you’re the one to surrender that lead, and come out with nothing but a draw, it will feel like a tough loss. Conversely, if your team is the one to pull the comeback from two-nil down, the hero status will be granted and all of a sudden that draw turns into a hard earned victory.
Such was the case in the Northeast on the weekend, in the Tyne-Wear derby between a Newcastle side that has been in very poor form, and a revamped Hull team looking to pull one over on one of their most bitter rivals. The second half was when all the drama took place; with the visitors, Hull, sitting comfortably on that two-nil lead that they took with only 20 minutes to go. After thoroughly dominating the match, however, Newcastle were looking down and out, and the fans were turning on Alan Pardew very quickly (if any of you watched, there were some very clever signs made up, ready to be shown at the slightest hint of a Newcastle hiccup).
What happened in those last 20 minutes, however, is what may just turn this season around for the Toon Army. With a stroke of what turned out to be tactical genius, Pardew threw Papiss Demba Cisse, the striker who only found the back of the net twice in all of last season, onto the field. Onlookers may have been a bit surprised to see that he was still in the Newcastle setup – I know I was at the start of the year – but he quickly put all doubts to rest as he scored the two goals that would earn Newcastle a point by the end of the match, and quite possibly save Alan Pardew’s job in the process.
Sometimes things just go wrong for you in football; you can dominate the match anyway you can – possession, shots, corners, even throw-ins, but at the end of the day, if the fans are not on your side, all they will see is the result. Newcastle certainly did control all aspects of Saturday’s game, and it was justified in their denying Hull of all three points, but what changed for the fans? Why did they suddenly turn the corner and put down those ‘Pardew Out’ signs by the end? The result had little to do with it; I believe, firmly, that the fans would have come around even if Cisse hadn’t scored that second goal. Here’s why:
Attitude is everything in a game of football; how you carry yourself on the field, and how you choose to view your chances in a match, can truly be the difference between winning and losing. At Saint Mary’s in the game against Southampton during the last round of fixtures, Newcastle looked like a group of individuals who had just run out of ideas, and thus made Southampton look like Barcelona.
Fast-forward a week later and the tables have completely turned. Newcastle looked much more organised defensively, (bar a couple of blunders, but what team is perfect?) they were far more creative, and utilised the attacking talents of Rémy Cabella and Yoan Gouffran in their respective central and wide forward positions. But probably the most important change that I noticed upon watching the match against Hull as opposed to the match against Southampton was a complete turnaround in belief. In any sport, once your belief is gone, confidence falls hand in hand with it, and the way back to victory becomes long and incredibly difficult to attain.
Newcastle handled it wonderfully. I think that, among other things, the opposition played a massive part in Newcastle’s mind-set. Derby matches should never be anything less than the most important games of a team’s season, and the Toon made that explicitly known against Hull. Going two-nil down with only 20 minutes to go, most teams in any ‘normal’ match would set up shop, take the loss, and try to hold off any further embarrassment by not conceding any more goals. Not Newcastle; they did that last week, and it turned out painfully wrong for them.
They picked themselves up, and gave the fans something, finally, to cheer about. And it was very well received among the black and white faithful. By the end of the match the supporters were cheering and clapping, not booing and chanting for the immediate sacking of the manager. That, to me, was the most important thing that Newcastle needed to accomplish this past weekend. Forget the result – a point is by no means a bad result in a derby match – the support of the fans, newly recovered, along with a newfound belief, will see Newcastle’s season back on track in the coming weeks.
So the two-goal lead reared its ugly head once again in the league; it does so often, and often times, the three points are rewarded to the team with the advantage, but it is those times that the advantage is surrendered, when a lack of concentration, or perhaps a bit of complacency – already thinking of the celebrations at the final whistle – all kick in, that the cushion is no longer a cushion but a big, cold, concrete block that reads ‘Square One’. Hull didn’t play bad by any means, but perhaps they did lack that bit of concentration that is so crucial to guiding home a rival victory, that allowed Newcastle – by far the better team on the night – to capitalise, and take home a point, but what must feel like to them, a brilliant victory.