A round-up of how the national media reported on Everton's 3-2 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park
Everton’s impressive form on the road continued as they defeated Newcastle United 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at St James’ Park. Twice the Blues recovered from deflected equalisers from the Magpies to quickly retake the lead and hold out for a precious three points.
Here’s how the national media reported on the action...
In the Daily Mail, Craig Hope observed how both Jordan Pickford and Jarrad Branthwaite showed their class while Newcastle United were left feeling sick – both on and off the pitch.
When Jacob Ramsey was sick on the pitch before the start of the second half, it was grimly symbolic of what had gone before and what was to follow for Newcastle - a nauseating performance regurgitated, just when they thought a cure had been found.
This was a third straight defeat in the Premier League at St James’ Park. Last time, against Brentford three weeks ago, there were home boos and a dressing-room inquest.
Eddie Howe and his team responded with three wins on the road, leading to talk of a corner turned. Here, they stumbled back down a dark alley.
Just when it felt like a glimmer of light had appeared at the death, and with Sandro Tonali’s booming volley headed for the back of the Gallowgate End net in salvation of a point, Jordan Pickford somehow flicked the ball onto the crossbar. The home fans applauded in recognition of Tonali’s 20-yard blast, but the appreciation could easily have been for the save, had it not been the former Sunderland goalkeeper, pantomime villain turned Everton’s hero.
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Pickford’s intervention preserved what was a deserved win for David Moyes’ side, who led in the 20th minute when Jarrad Branthwaite headed in from a corner. He was outstanding at the other end, too, making a strong case for starting at centre-back in front of Pickford at the World Cup this summer.
Ramsey levelled on 33 minutes but, 105 seconds later, Beto punished a Nick Pope spill for 2-1. There was another equaliser in the 82nd minute, Jacob Murphy’s volley taking a nick beyond Pickford, but again Newcastle proved allergic to parity.
Anthony Gordon surrendered the ball in midfield seconds after the restart and substitute Thierno Barry slid in at the far post to convert from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s low centre.
The substitute turned in with his buttock but it was Newcastle again making the proverbial backside of their defending. Leeds, Bournemouth, Brentford and now Everton have all scored three times on Tyneside in 2026.
Howe looked sick on full-time. He’s been fighting the same symptoms for too long.
Martin Hardy of the Times, remarked how Everton did a job stifling the hosts’ big money signing of last summer, Nick Woltemade, who had tormented them in the reverse fixture at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
It was not quite Bob Stokoe at Wembley in 1973, racing to hug Jimmy Montgomery, but David Moyes still knew where he was heading, when a dramatic victory had finally concluded after seven minutes of added time. Moyes did his handshaking duties with a devastated-looking Eddie Howe before making his way to Jordan Pickford, and the two men then embraced.
It is always an emotional rollercoaster for the England goalkeeper at St James’ Park, given he is a boyhood Sunderland fan. There have been times when he has played the occasion and not the game, but in the 94th minute he produced an incredible save to deny Sandro Tonali, ensuring the three points that move his side four points above Newcastle United in the Premier League table.
It was Moyes who said in November, after a 4-1 loss to Newcastle at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, that Everton were not on the same level as Howe’s side. It is impossible to say what level that now is.
This was Newcastle’s third successive defeat in the Premier League, after losses to Aston Villa and Brentford, their worst run since 2021, when Steve Bruce was in charge.
Whenever Newcastle thought they had a foothold back in the game through each of their two equalisers, Everton responded almost immediately.
St James’ Park was not a good ground on Saturday if you were called Nick. It was the 19th minute when Jarrad Branthwaite lost Tonali at a corner fired over by James Garner and glanced his header into the corner of the Newcastle goal to open the scoring.
The Nick Woltemade experiment of being played in midfield as a No8 surely is at an end. It was a painful day for Newcastle’s record signing of £69million.
The cut and thrust of coming up against a fired up Moyes side was not for him. There were turns when he lost possession and failed to press with pace, much to the frustration of Joelinton, who rather than rolling up his sleeve for a scrap, was forced into a wide-left forward area. Woltemade did not last the hour before he was withdrawn, looking forlorn. He had been moved up front before then, with no impact at all.
Newcastle’s first equaliser came in the 32nd minute, Tonali moving the ball to Jacob Ramsey and his shot from 20 yards deflected off Branthwaite to beat Pickford. Ramsey went off at the start of the second half because of sickness.
Within a minute of their first goal, Newcastle’s other Nick, Pope deflected a shot from Dwight McNeil into the path of Beto and the forward scored from close range. Newcastle dominated the second half, but their second equaliser did not come until the 82nd minute, when Joelinton crossed for Jacob Murphy and his shot ricocheted on its way to beating Pickford.
Within a minute, Gordon, the former Everton player who played centre forward, left wing, centre forward again, and then right wing, lost possession in his own half. Iliman Ndiaye threaded in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and when he crossed along the Newcastle six-yard box, Lewis Hall bundled Thierno Barry in the back, the ball striking his body as he tumbled, and ending up in the back of the Newcastle goal.
What glee followed for the 3,300 travelling Everton fans.
It was the fourth minute of added time when Tonali smashed his superb, goalbound volley. Pickford was its equal, however, and Everton had their win.
In the Guardian, Louise Taylor explained how we saw both the rough with the smooth when it came to Beto.
As rain fell, incessantly, Eddie Howe wandered around the pitch alone. The final whistle had just gone and, with Everton celebrating a deserved win, Newcastle’s lingering hopes of a top-six finish were also blown.
Newcastle look shattered, mentally as much as physically, by a Champions League campaign that will soon pit them against Barcelona and their Premier League form is suffering accordingly.
Admittedly it took a stunning stoppage-time save from Jordan Pickford to deny Sandro Tonali a late equaliser, but Newcastle’s players have forgotten how to defend, are far too careless in possession and seem alarmingly low on creativity.
Newcastle were slapdash from the start and swiftly paid the price at a set piece. Jarrad Branthwaite’s expertly flicked header from James Garner’s corner was dispatched from the tightest of angles, brushing the unguarded far post en route into the back of the net.
Branthwaite excelled in central defence, not something that can be said of his Newcastle counterparts. They have not kept a clean sheet in the 11 games since they beat PSV Eindhoven 3-0 here on 21 January, conceding 23 goals along the way. Small wonder cries of “Wake up!” echoed around the ground.
Howe once again began with the England winger Anthony Gordon at centre-forward and his ineffective £69m Germany striker, Nick Woltemade, in an attacking midfield role. With Gordon struggling to make an impact against his former club, Howe quickly shifted Woltemade to No 9 and Gordon to the left.
A slightly improved Newcastle equalised when Jacob Ramsey’s shot took a hefty deflection off Branthwaite, wrong-footing Pickford.
A bad error on Nick Pope’s part enabled Everton to regain the lead after the keeper spilt a fairly routine shot from the impressive Dwight McNeil straight into Beto’s path. Everton’s No 9 gleefully accepted the invitation to stroke the ball into the empty net.
Beto is often criticised for a perceived litany of shortcomings and would later miss a glorious chance, but he reacted with alacrity, moving far more rapidly than any of the defenders.
He later left Malick Thiaw for dust and found himself clean through with only Pope to beat. A third Everton goal beckoned, but his shot hit the bar and left Beto standing in isolation, his hands covering his face.
Home spirits revived, albeit briefly, when Murphy’s slightly deflected volley from Joelinton’s cross flew past Pickford, but Everton recaptured the lead in barely a minute. Gordon’s concession of possession prefaced Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall squaring for Barry to bundle the ball across the line.
In stoppage time, Pickford reminded everyone why he is England’s goalkeeper. Tonali let fly on the volley and an equaliser seemed inevitable but Pickford tipped the ball over the bar.
Luke Edwards of the Telegraph spotted how the sarcastic applause from the home fans – who also booed Anthony Gordon – when Newcastle keeper Nick Pope made a routine stop, contrasted sharply with Jordan Pickford’s “magnificent save.”
Newcastle United keep coming up with new ways to shoot themselves in the foot as Nick Pope’s howler helped Everton pull off a smash-and-grab victory. A miserable afternoon was capped by a magnificent save from former Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in stoppage time as he made an outstanding fingertip leap to deny Sandro Tonali a stunning goal in front of the Gallowgate End.
The defeat has surely ended Newcastle’s chances of securing a top-five finish in the league and means a pivotal month in their campaign has got off to the worst possible start. Everton had three touches in their opponents penalty area in the first half and scored two goals, the first a header from a corner by Jarrad Branthwaite and the second a tap-in by Beto after Pope failed to gather a simple shot from Dwight McNeil.
It was not the first high-profile blunder from the England international this season and took the wind out of Newcastle’s sails just two minutes after Jacob Ramsey’s deflected shot had pulled them level. Eddie Howe’s side dominated the second half but struggled to create chances until Jacob Murphy volleyed them level again with eight minutes remaining.
Just as they did against Brentford in their last league game here, the home crowd thought that was going to be the springboard for a late winner. Instead, Newcastle conceded a third almost immediately.
This time it was Anthony Gordon who was fault, dwelling on the ball, turning into trouble and gifting Everton possession with the defence out of shape. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall drove to the byline and his cut-back was bundled in at the far post by Thierno Barry.
There was less than a minute between Murphy’s equaliser and Everton’s winner and capped a miserable afternoon for the hosts. Pope was sarcastically cheered when he made a routine save in the second half and there appeared to be some boos for Gordon when he was replaced shortly after his mistake.
And our own Joe Thomas of the ECHO, stated what David Moyes did in the 89th minute spoke volumes as an Everton heartbeat emerges.
David Moyes followed Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall towards the dugout to continue his praise for the playmaker. The credit continued as he took his seat on the bench and, had this performance been at home, 50,000 Everton supporters would have been on their feet to applaud him.
Instead, there was a job that still needed to be completed and the priority of the 3,000 supporters in the away end, of Moyes, and of his staff, remained to fight the nerves, the momentum and the Gallowgate end to hold on for victory. Eight minutes and one fine, flying save from Jordan Pickford later they were all celebrating a seventh win on the road this season.
That they had that opportunity was down to the work of so many of those in Royal Blue on Saturday afternoon, not least that completed by Pickford behind enemy lines. But Dewsbury-Hall was at the centre of everything. He has become the heartbeat of Moyes’ Everton.
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