All of the players worked very hard.
Our defenders worked well together and were almost error free.
Our midfield was outstanding. It’s been a long time since we saw so much skill and short passes made in midfield and they did a great job smothering the Newcastle players and winning the ball back when lost. We had more possession than Newcastle. Arter and Camarasa had great debuts and fitted in well with Ralls, who also put in a great performance.
We showed pace and played some very quick long balls which found their target.
Murphy had a great game.

The disappointments were that Hoilett seemed a bit sidelined in the first half playing on the right and that he and Mendez Laing both wasted opportunities to put in great crosses, instead blasting them way beyond where they needed to go. The reports are saying that Zohore missed two good chances. The misses didn’t look as bad as that to me during the match but there is no hiding the fact that their keeper only had to make one save.

NW has commented that our dead ball delivery was poor leading to wasted chances from set pieces and some of Etheridge’s distribution was also poor. But his penalty save immense.

Overall, I thought it a really encouraging performance and a big step forward.

And big spending Fulham, Wolves and West Ham all lost.