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Newcastle United beat West Ham United 1-0 at the London Stadium on Monday night to get back to winning ways ahead of the Carabao Cup final.
Bruno Guimaraes scored the only goal of the game midway through the second half as he volleyed in Harvey Barnes’ edge-of-the-box cross. It was a first clean sheet for Newcastle in the Premier League for almost two months as they moved back up to sixth in the table having dropped to ninth after the weekend’s results.
Newcastle return to London on Sunday for the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley Stadium.
Reflecting on the match, Newcastle legend Alan Shearer tweeted: “A big win for the Toon ahead of Sunday’s final.”
And head coach Eddie Howe couldn’t agree more, labelling the win one of his side’s ‘best’ of the season.
“Massive win, massive, massive win,” Howe told The Gazette. “Not our best game, but one of our best games of the season for me, because it's always going to be a tight game, it's difficult grounds to play at, difficult team to play against, but I thought we dug in, we were disciplined, we were everything defensively we haven't been in recent weeks, really.
“I thought we defended our goal magnificently. Very, very pleased with the whole team, because we've had a challenging week. It was a brilliant response.
“We needed the players to empty the tank, to give everything to win this game, to show that we're still competitive, and to give ourselves belief.
“Because we've lost some key players, you only truly get belief from winning. You can prepare as well as you can, but the winning is the thing that is the final missing piece.
“And we did it today, and we defended much better, and we needed to after recent weeks.”
Carabao Cup confidence boost
After a stuttering run of form, Howe is hoping the scrappy away win will give his side a much-needed boost ahead of Sunday’s final. The Magpies boss made three changes to his side for the match with the goalscorer Guimaraes coming in for Lewis Miley.
“Bruno's been excellent for us this year,” Howe added. “I think he always stands up in the big moments, and today was a big moment for us, and he's found a way to win the game for us.
“I thought his overall performance, with that of Sandro and Joelinton in our midfield, was outstanding. But I'm pleased with all the players, our new-look left-hand side with Tino Livramento and Harvey Barnes, I thought they did really well together as well, so that should give us great confidence going into the weekend.”
Newcastle head into Sunday’s match without some key players but Howe was hopeful his side came through the game with a clean bill of health heading into the match against Liverpool. Anthony Gordon will miss the match due to suspension while Lewis Hall, Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles are out injured.
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