Newcastle 3-2 West Ham
by Harry De Cosemo

NEWCASTLE UNITED took another giant stride towards Premier League survival while denting 10-man West Ham United’s unlikely Champions League hopes with a 3-2 victory at St James’ Park.

The result hardly told the story as the Hammers clawed themselves level from 2-0 down after Craig Dawson’s red card, before Joe Willock came off the bench and clinched victory with a superb header.

It was the second time Willock had made such an impact in as many home games, and Bruce has admitted he would like to make the midfielder’s loan move from Arsenal permanent in the summer.

“He has got three vitally important goals for us,” Bruce told reporters on Zoom.

“The reason we brought him to the club is his ability to get forward and score a goal. Thankfully he has done it again. He’s obviously disappointed he didn’t start and he was right in my thoughts because he had trained so well.

“I’m delighted he’s got the winner for us. He had a really good impact. We’d love to keep him here, that’s for sure. He’s the type of player you’d love to build your club around. Whether that is possible, I’m not so sure.”

West Ham started by exerting early pressure, but it was Newcastle who had the first sight of goal.

Sean Longstaff struck from the edge of the box after good link-up play with Miguel Almiron and the hero at Turf Moor last week, Allan Saint-Maximin, which was deflected wide.

With half time on the horizon, Newcastle went ahead when Saint-Maximin picked up a loose ball and drove into the area.

His shot was weak but deflected in off Issa Diop after an initial save by Lukasz Fabianski.

Dawson, already on a yellow card, was sent off for a foul on Joelinton in the build-up.

That momentum swing proved crucial and more calamity at the back for the visitors resulted in a second soon after.

Fabianski flapped at a corner and Joelinton prodded home in a yard out.

Unsurprisingly, West Ham picked up the pace as they searched for a recovery after the break.

Ben Johnson and Jesse Lingard were much more heavily involved down the left, but nothing was sticking, while Newcastle continued to carry a threat on the counter-attack.

Martin Dubravka was called into action to smother Vladimir Coufal’s header after the Czech fullback stole a march on Matt Ritchie to meet Johnson’s cross at the back post.

Coufal got the better of Ritchie again moments later, but with just over 20 minutes remaining, his cross was cut out by Ciaran Clark. The pendulum was beginning to swing with Newcastle on the ropes.

Diop finally made them pay for their passivity with a powerful header, and things got even better for the visitors when Kevin Friend gave a penalty for handball against Ciaran Clark. Lingard stepped up and duly restored parity.

Suddenly, Newcastle were chasing again, and they almost took the lead instantly when substitute Callum Wilson crossed and Jacob Murphy saw a shot cleared off the line by Johnson after Almiron’s miss kick.

Willock, another late introduction, repeated his trick from against Tottenham two weeks ago to save Newcastle’s blushes again.