Magpies swoop for three points against Liverpool

Newcastle ease into match

The visitors’ majority of possession and territory restricted McClaren’s men to operating on the counter-attack and while they offered plenty of resistance they found it hard to carve out openings.

When Papiss Cisse seemed certain to score after pulling away from Nathaniel Clyne in the area, his delightful juggling display was redundant after flashing wide on the volley, though mainly because he was penalised for a push on the right back.

The best effort of the half for Newcastle was Chancel Mbemba’s header over the bar just before the interval, though Reds winger Jordan Ibe responded arrowing his effort just over as the whistle blew.

Wonderful Wijnaldum

Despite this being pantomime season, Newcastle clearly hadn’t read the script. Many predicted a thrashing by Liverpool at St James’ Park, though with Georginio Wijnaldum deciding to ‘ad lib’, this certainly wasn’t the case.

Although Klopp’s men, 10/1 with Coral to win the Premier League, kept up their retention of possession, they couldn’t do anything with it and Benteke looked more and more sluggish as the game progressed.

Newcastle by contrast, seemed to be countering with purpose, and Wijnaldum’s late run into the area saw him connect with a cross, sidestep his marker and cannon a strike off Martin Skrtel and into the net.

Liverpool’s best chance to go level was when substitute Daniel Sturridge broke free from his marker, though isolating the goalkeeper, he could only drag his shot wide with it looking increasingly likely that it wouldn’t be the Reds’ day.

This was confirmed on the third minute of injury time, when Newcastle countered again and Wijnaldum latched onto a through ball to dink deliciously over Simon Mignolet into the net to seal the result.

An ideal early Christmas present for Newcastle fans and it probably won’t be long before they’re singing “Walking in Wijnaldum’s wonderland” on Tyneside.

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