David Moyes looks miserable and Richard Keys laughs in a round overlay
(Credit Imago/beIN Sports)
George Overhill
Sat 29 November 2025 20:10, UK
Richard Keys couldn’t contain his amusement at Everton’s terrible first half at home against Newcastle.
Hopes were high on Merseyside after Everton beat Man United 1-0 at Old Trafford on Monday night, fighting for the victory despite Idrissa Gueye’s red card for slapping Michael Keane.
But the first 45 minutes back at the Hill Dickinson Stadium could hardly have drained that optimism more efficiently as Eddie Howe’s men strolled to a 3-0 lead at the break.
Newcastle had won once away from home all season in all competitions, and had lost their previous three in a row, but scored the fastest goal in the Premier League this term and never looked back.
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Malik Thiaw’s header went in after 55 seconds, and Lewis Miley doubled the lead after 25 minutes with a shot that Jordan Pickford made an embarrassing mess of.
Nick Woltemade added a third just before the half-time whistle while Everton did next to nothing going forward, and Gueye’s replacement Tim Iroegbunam was particularly woeful in midfield before being replaced at the half.
As beIN Sports headed back to the studio at half time ex-Everton forward Andy Gray stood in stunned silence, speechless at what he had just witnessed.
Keys, meanwhile, was in hysterics at his outraged co-host and the dismal first-half showing from the Toffees.
“I had high hopes today. I had high hopes. Anyway, it’s not all about Everton,” Gray managed to offer with his arms crossed.
Keys, laughing even more, replied: “That’s really not very good is it? 3-0 to the Toon at half time.”
Gueye and Keane clash may have been more than claimed
It was roundly asserted in the aftermath of the win at Old Trafford that Gueye and Keane had made peace and everyone was in support of the commitment it showed, and that may well be true.
But there has to be something to explain why the Hill Dickinson was rapidly emptying inside an hour when Thiaw headed the fourth home to compound one of the worst Everton showings in recent years, which when the latter throws of the Farhad Moshiri era is included is really saying something.
There was absolutely none of the fight shown in Manchester and David Moyes will have been absolutely furious at the regression, while the fact that Pickford and Keane seemed to be having words more than once may have indicated why nobody seemed that annoyed at Gueye for losing it with the defender.
Not that Pickford, so often the star, can complain this time after a really poor error to parry Miley’s shot down and through his own legs.
It’s hard to blame any supporter that left early when there really was so little at all positive until Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s well-taken consolation on 69 minutes once Newcastle seemingly had their feet up, with even Thierno Barry’s first for the club ruled out for an accidental handball.
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