Newcash United (Away) 02.12.2025

On a chillier than usual night on Tyneside, Thomas Frank made five changes that saw Micky van de Ven and Richarlison drop to the bench, with Cristian Romero returning after a one match ban and Brennan Johnson getting a start. 

Tottenham’s worries since Saturday’s loss at home to Fulham had been about the crowd’s reaction towards then for the defeat.  With three minutes gone, it was clear to see their uneasiness on the ball when Hall won the ball high up in the Spurs half, getting forward to the D and dragged his shot wide of Vicario’s left hand post, then Woltemade put a header over the bar from six yards out.  Spurs broke away from a Newcash corner in the fifth minute and Johnson put the ball across from the left but Hall slid in to intercept, with the ball looking like it had gone out for a corner, but the ref played on, allowing Newcash to take the ball away.

Porro tried a back-heel in the right back position that hit a Newcash player and it gave then the opportunity to work the ball around before crossing into the box, with Pedro making up for his error by making the header to put the ball out for a corner.  The home team had a better chance in the 17th minute, when a run by Barnes saw him play the ball square, but Romero got a touch on it that took it into the path of Miley and his low shot lacked enough power to test Vicario, who flopped behind it.  Shortly afterwards, Cristian was booked for a tackle on Joelinton and picked up his first booking after his suspension for collecting five before today, however referee Bramall was letting the game be reffed by the crowd, giving a succession of free-kicks to the home side.

Ten minutes before the break, a ball down the inside of the right of the box sent Joelinton in against Romero and he didn’t wait for the tackle, getting a shot off, but his an angled shot across Vicario, with the ball rebounding off the foot of the post. A minute later, Mohammed Kudus did well to engineer a yard to put a low ball across the box and Lucas Bergvall invented a flick behind his standing leg, but the ball went up and narrowly over the angle at the far side of the goal.  This brought a spell of Tottenham control of the ball, without hitting the target, but the ball was mainly at the end away from our  goal, which was good.

Just before half-time there was a stoppage in play when Vic brought to the attention of the ref that he had twice been hit by objects thrown from the home section of the crowd.  It was reported to the security officer, but who knows what he did with that information.

The home team had been restricted to only one moment of threat on the Tottenham goal, but it had come at the expense of having no shots on target on the Newcash goal throughout the first half.

At the start of the second half, Burn made contact with Randal Kolo Muani’s face with an elbow and while it might not have been intentional, the referee stopped play as it was a head injury and then made Randal go off even though he hadn’t received treatment.  While that was going on, a run by Barnes ended with a shot from the left that Vicario blocked with his legs, diverting it up into the air in front of goal, where Woltemade headed at goal only to find that Kevin Danso was well-positioned on the line to head away.  Not quite as spectacular as Micky in Bilbao, but equally as effective. 

Porro then blocked a shot when the ball was played from the right to the far post and from the corner, the second ball was played back into the goalmouth, with Bergvall clearing for another corner.  This one was pushed over as it was swung in just under the bar, but Spurs defended the next one away.  

Rodrigo Bentancur was booked for a foul on Hall that saw the Newcash defender go down weakly.  For long periods of the match the noise was coming from our supporters high in the Leazes end, with the home crowd reduced to groans and moans about not getting decisions going their way.  In the 64th minute, Spurs were having a decent spell of possession in the Newcash half, but from a Tottenham corner, Newcash broke, switching the ball to the left,  where Murphy looked to take on Porro, but he stood his ground and blocked the shot.  The corner was punched out by Vicario to Livramento twenty yards out and he drove it low back at goal, but Johnson was inside the six-yard box to block the effort.  Three minutes later, the boot was on the other foot as Spurs broke forward after a home attack was defended, with Lucas Bergvall and Kolo Muani working the ball up the left, with Lucas putting a low ball across the face of goal with Brennan too far behind it to make up ground to reach it.

Gordon went down the left, put in a low ball into the box and it was cleared by Danso, but it went to Guimaraes, who drilled it low into the bottom left corner of Vic’s goal.  Holding out to the 71st minute was good work, but it was hard to see how things were going to change for us when we had done so little attacking.

Miley swung a left foot at a ball that ran to him inside the left corner of the box, but it again didn’t have enough behind it to test the Spurs keeper, who fell behind it to gather it in.

Having won a corner, Randal was one of three players to make way before it could be taken.  Johnson and Bergvall also made way for Xavi Simons, Richarlison and Mathys Tel.  The corner was cleared, but Spurs recycled the ball, moving it to the right, where Kudus played a cross into the near post.  It was knee high and Cristian Romero dived in to head it past Ramsdale to make it 1-1.  His determination to beat Burn to the ball was typical of the Spurs skipper and Tottenham had scored with their first effort on target.

A couple of minutes after the equaliser, following a Newcash corner, the referee went to the monitor when Bentancur and Burn were falling onto each other in the box and VAR had intervened to give Newcash the chance of a penalty.  It was a massive joke, as you see worse holding every game.  So, then Richarlison was booked for dissent and Gordon stepped up and the ball was sent past Vicario as it looked like Newcash had been gifted three points.

Nine added minutes were to be played, so substitute Wilson Odobert flung in a cross with Richarlison being knocked to the floor, but surprise surprise, nothing was given, so it was just a corner.  It was played to the back of the goal, Ramsdale punched the ball straight up in the air and Cristian Romero performed an overhead kick to bumble the ball through the players in the box and into the back of the net.  The away section went mad while the home fans were as silent as they had been for much of the game apart from the goals.  I hadn’t realised that the Barcodes were sponsored by the Newcastle Central Library !  Romero celebrated in front of the Spurs fans high up behind the goal, with a cupped hands behind his ears celeb.  I wasn’t sure whether this was a reference to the boos that came last Saturday or if it was a mickey take of the Newcash midfielder’s celebration.

In the ninth minute of added time, Simons lifted the ball over the defence for Destiny and his ball in was blocked for a corner, with the last kick of the match, it was floated into the hands of the home keeper.  After the final whistle, Guimaraes and Joelinton (there’s a surprise) wanted to start a fight with Romero and then they both were pulled away, with the Newcash captain spitting in Richarlison’s direction.  It appears that they were wound up by Cristian’s goal celebration, but I don’t remember Guimaraes trademarking it and players have done that for years.  Petty behaviour from the home players that shows that they might have money, but no class.

It was a shinner from Cristian that ended up getting Tottenham a draw, but frankly, the penalty decision was so weak that it was nothing more than we deserved.  Once more the intervention of VAR and weak refereeing (not wanting to go against his colleagues in a box hundreds of miles away) almost spoiled the game and hopefully, this will mean about five penalties in each match if this is the baseline for fouls from pushing, shoving and falling over from corners.  Of course, Howard Webb and all other ex-officials will back Bramall, but putting an inexperienced referee in these positions is putting the game at risk of being a farce.  He (and he is not the only one) is led by the nose by the VAR team, who come to a different opinion to the man in the middle thus making it a ‘clear and obvious error’, when in fact it is just two referees seeing things differently.

Ironically, the match ended with Tottenham on the attack and having scored from our only two shots on target, you could say that we are very efficient in converting our chances, but in reality the fact is that it was only some good defending and some wasteful finishing by the home side that cost them two points and allowed us to bring one home.  While it was another first half without a shot on target, the one thing Spurs were most guilty of tonight was giving the ball away with careless passes.  Against a better side than Newcash, that might cost us, so it needs to be improved in the coming weeks.

While the performance was far from perfect, there did seem a determination in the side from the start to get something out of the match.  That was nearly undone by some farcical officiating, but a point from a trip back to the North-East is better than some visits there in the last few years.  We used to have a decent record at St. James’ Park and that is what we need to be aiming to establish, not only against them, but other teams.  Although it would be nice, we are not going to beat them all, but if the team give it a go and can start to play some more attacking football, that is a start.

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