Newcastle throw away lead as Joao Pedro's late header rescues draw for Watford
This was the story of Newcastle United’s season. Another lead taken and not held on to. Another two points dropped in a game they supposedly had to win and a draw that keeps them in the relegation zone.
The Magpies are in terrible danger and the pressure is building on everyone. The new owners have still not signed a centre-back, the position that was supposed to be the priority in this window. Manager Eddie Howe has won just one of the 10 games he has had in charge and the players look mentally fragile as well as technically limited.
The Magpies simply just cannot win games and it is just one victory in 22 games. “We have lost the habit of winning,” said Howe. “There is no point screaming and shouting at the players, we have to show them why we haven’t won the game on the training pitch.
“It’s really disappointing, we made three mistakes in the build-up to their goal. We will have to see how damaging this result is but it hurts so much because we have failed to beat one of our relegation rivals.”
It is now 21 points dropped from winning positions under three different managers. Relegation looks more likely each time it happens.
This is a team that has kept one clean sheet and until that glaring weakness is addressed, there is only so much Howe can do. For the first time, though, he is starting to feel the heat. There were boos after the final whistle, just as there were in the 1-0 FA Cup defeat to Cambridge United the week before.
He has inherited a midfield that lacks pace and power and a defence that will concede goals whenever it is put under pressure. These issues haunted his predecessor Steve Bruce and are undermining Howe as well.
The harsh truth is, Newcastle cannot complain. They were the better side until they took the lead through Allan Saint-Maximin, but Watford outplayed them for the last half an hour.
The visitors should have scored long before Joao Pedro got a running jump inside the area to beat both Jamaal Lascelles and Fabian Schar with three minutes remaining.
Draws are not enough and Newcastle deserve to be where they are. They have signed two players in this transfer window, a right-back in Kieran Trippier and a centre-forward, Chris Wood, but have still not landed a centre-back, the position they most urgently needed to improve. That is the owners' mistake and must be rectified before they travel to Leeds United next weekend.
Whatever centre-back partnership they use, they make mistakes that lead to goals. This time it cost them a win against a Watford side that had lost seven games in a row. Claudio Ranieri celebrated as though his side had won.
It was a match where Newcastle had plenty of nearly moments; those flashes in games when you think something telling is going to happen. Every time, something went wrong. A poor connection with a shot, a ball spinning just out of reach or a cross hit too high.
It was a game where the home crowd were never quite out of their seat, getting halfway up, before slumping back down again. It was irritating and although they tried to stay with the players, the groans and moans got louder and more frequent. The tension rose.
Newcastle created half-chances rather than clear ones. They hit the crossbar when Joelinton got the outside of his boot to Ryan Fraser’s deflected cross, but did not actually manage a shot on target before the break and only one in the 90.
As for new striker Wood, he looked like a player who had only been given two training sessions with his new teammates before his debut. There was little chemistry between him and the two wingers, Fraser and Saint-Maximin. There was even less link-up play.
Worryingly, Watford’s equaliser came when the former Burnley man lost the ball on the halfway line, before it was worked out wide for substitute Kiko Femenia to cross for Joao Pedro.
The goal had been coming from the moment Newcastle scored, Josh King denied by a good save from Martin Dubravka after Lascelles had been caught out of position by Edo Kayemba’s pass in behind, before the former Newcastle midfielder Moussa Sissoko fired wide when he should have hit the target.
For all the talk from Newcastle’s players that they are fitter than they were under former manager Bruce, they looked exhausted after an hour, mentally and physically. The two points dropped here will drain them even more.
“The point was the least we deserved,” said Ranieri. “We created two or three really good chances before we scored and we showed really good character after conceding.”
