Newcastle escape with the points

We suffered another disappointing night in N17 on Tuesday as Newcastle United inflicted our seventh home league defeat of the season.

After having a Joe Willock goal ruled out for offside, the visitors went ahead in first-half stoppage time through Malick Thiaw, although we responded after the break with Archie Gray scoring his first goal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But we were unable to push on from there and instead, conceded shortly after as Jacob Ramsey gave Newcastle the lead and the three points as we couldn’t find a way back into the game in the final stages.

We made three changes from the weekend's defeat at Manchester United as Radu Dragusin, Djed Spence and Yves Bissouma came in for the suspended Cristian Romero, injured Destiny Udogie and Joao Palhinha.

We were on the back foot right from the start with the Magpies’ first corner on three minutes hitting Bissouma facing his own goal and looping over the bar for another corner, this one was recycled and from Willock’s dangerous cross, Dominic Solanke managed to hook the ball away and it bounced off Sven Botman and over at the far post. We responded with a couple of breakaways down our right which we couldn’t make the most of with Xavi Simons firing into the side-netting on the second one, before Willock went close at the other end, his right-foot shot just fading away from Guglielmo Vicario’s far post.

That was the start of a sustained spell of pressure from the visitors, who forced six corners in the opening 20 minutes, although they only managed a couple of shots on target in that time and nothing that unduly troubled Vicario. They did go close on 29 minutes when Ramsey controlled and hit a volley that nicked off Bissouma and flew just wide.

With a long injury list already, the one thing we didn’t want was another one but it didn’t look good when Wilson Odobert went down after a challenge with Harvey Barnes and had lengthy treatment before limping off to be replaced by Mathys Tel in the 35th minute.

The Magpies thought they’d gone in front just before half-time when Ramsey released Willock who advanced into the area and curled right-footed into the bottom corner, only for a VAR check to rule it out for the narrowest of offsides. Five minutes into first-half stoppage time though, they did take the lead, Vicario making a good save to deny Thiaw’s header from Willock’s cross but the Newcastle defender was quickest to the rebound to slide the ball home. We almost responded immediately, Xavi with a cross which Solanke got to but was denied by an excellent block from Botman.

We needed an early response after the break but instead, it was the visitors with the early chances, Ramsey seeing a shot and a header blocked in two different attacks. But we were soon on the front foot as we searched for the equaliser, half-time substitute Palhinha doing well in midfield to create space for Tel, whose final effort was high over the bar and he was also unable to keep the ball down after great play down the right flank from Gray.

Our first shot on target came moments later, in the 54th minute, Pape Matar Sarr hitting a 30-yard drive which Nick Pope parried away before our first corner of the game on 68 minutes yielded the equaliser. Xavi’s deep cross was headed back across goal by Sarr and Gray was on hand to touch home from close range.

But, having worked hard to drew level, we fell behind again four minutes later. Micky van de Ven had already produced a superb block to deny Barnes when Newcastle swept forward again, Anthony Gordon sliding the ball into the box for Ramsey to guide it into the bottom corner.

It was fairly end-to-end for the closing stages despite neither goalkeeper really being worked, while we had a great chance to level three minutes into stoppage time at the end of the game. Solanke had the first effort, a blocked bicycle kick with the ball eventually falling to van de Ven just inside the area but he blazed over and with it went any hopes of getting something from the game.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Gray 64; Newcastle – Thiaw 45+6, Ramsey 68.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Sarr, Spence, Xavi; Newcastle – Burn, Guimaraes.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Light rain, light winds, nine degrees.

Attendance: 59,773.