9 hours ago
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Eddie Howe accepts his Newcastle side are at their best when they create chaos and no one in black and white is better at conjuring it than Will Osula.
The maverick Denmark Under-21 striker is, to say the least, unpredictable. No one, least of all Osula himself, ever seems quite sure what he will do at any given moment. Here though he stepped off the substitutes’ bench to score a fabulous, virtuoso 90th-minute winner for a home team reduced to 10 men by Jacob Ramsey’s controversial 45th-minute sending off for a perceived dive.
Although Bruno Fernandes enjoyed a fine game in Michael Carrick’s midfield even he could not quite prevent Ruben Amorim’s interim successor suffering a first Premier League defeat in charge of Manchester United at the ground where he cheered Newcastle from the Gallowgate End as a child.
If it made a mockery of any title talk at Old Trafford, Manchester United remain third, 12 points clear of Howe’s 12th-placed team who ended a damaging run of three consecutive home league defeats.
“I’m bitterly disappointed,” said Carrick. “We’re not happy with the way we played. It hurts me to say that Newcastle deserved to win. We can’t make excuses. The quality wasn’t good enough.”
Howe did not demur. “Will’s delivered an amazing moment for the supporters here, let’s hope it’s a turning point for him,” said Newcastle’s manager who saw Osula struggle horribly against Qarabag in the Champions League here last week. “And it’s a big moment for us. We showed we’re competitive against any team. With both 11 and 10 men we deserved to win.”
Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko were three names that loomed large on Howe’s shopping list last summer but that trio appeared on Manchester United’s teamsheet here. Significantly they would all prove peripheral figures.
Indeed with Sandro Tonali at his best in Newcastle’s central midfield and Lewis Hall advancing seamlessly from left-back a visiting team that arrived having collected 19 of a possible 21 points with Carrick at the helm began on the back foot.
Nonetheless Fernandes had ensured that by the end of the first half, they had rallied to the point where Aaron Ramsdale – preferred to Nick Pope and impressing in the home goal – was required to save well from Kobbie Mainoo and then Cunha.
Senne Lammens though was beaten by Anthony Gordon’s latest penalty conversion in first-half stoppage time.
Gordon, Howe’s first-choice centre-forward these days, had been sent tumbling by a sneaky nudge on the back of his thigh from Fernandes’s knee. The England winger, hitherto well minded by Harry Maguire, revelled in striking his kick straight down the middle.
That penalty had been awarded in the aftermath of Ramsey being shown a second yellow card for simulation. “I thought it was incredibly harsh,” said Howe. “Jacob didn’t dive.”
Newcastle’s players have developed a horrible habit of conceding almost immediately after taking leads and they were at it again before Peter Bankes could blow for half-time. Sure enough in, contentiously, the ninth minute of added time, Fernandes curled a free-kick in and Casemiro’s glancing header proved too good for Ramsdale.
Howe, who, justifiably, believed nine extra minutes to be excessive, responded by instructing his players to make the game much more direct and force their guests to play long balls. Meanwhile Fernandes’s attempts to pick Newcastle’s defensive locks were being undermined by his at times unhelpful irritation with the apparent inability of Mbeumo and Cunha to operate on his wavelength.
Fernandes created virtually all the best visiting moments and from one of his prompts Leny Yoro’s header prefaced Ramsdale making an excellent save. An even better save, from Joshua Zirkzee this time, would follow before Osula replaced Gordon and promptly scored his first goal since September.
Howe’s wild card had barely stepped on to the pitch before he chased a long ball down in his own half, skilfully kept it in play before cutting inside, dodging Tyrell Malacia and sending a shot curving imperiously beyond Lammens.
With Maguire’s frame blocking his view, the goalkeeper saw it late but the finish was of such high calibre it was suddenly possible to see precisely why Eintracht Frankfurt bid £30m for Osula’s raw talent last year.
