Callum Wilson’s quickfire double gives Newcastle the edge over Burnley
Callum Wilson #CallumWilson
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Steve Bruce says he is “insulted” by suggestions he is a “lucky” manager destined to soon be “found out”. If, privately, Newcastle’s manager must surely acknowledge his team have been fortunate at times this season but there was nothing remotely flukey about this ultimately comfortable deconstruction of Burnley.
Indeed on a night when Allan Saint-Maximin shone, the only caveat was that Sean Dyche’s team were generally so disappointing it was easy to see why they are still without a point.
There had been murmurings that Saint-Maximin and Bruce have not always exactly seen eye to eye this season so it seemed significant that no sooner had the Frenchman scored than he raced to embrace Newcastle’s manager in the technical area before hugging three of his backroom staff.
There is nothing like a goal to restore harmony and Saint-Maximin’s was a good one. When Callum Wilson flicked Karl Darlow’s 14th-minute punt into his path, the former Nice winger embarked on a slaloming run to the heart of Burnley’s defence involving the bypassing of five would-be tacklers. It concluded with the expert dodging of Dale Stephens and the unleashing of a low drive which Nick Pope touched but could not hold.
If Saint-Maximin’s serpentine advances down the left at times left Dyche’s defence in a terrible twist, they did not always enjoy coping with Jeff Hendrick’s right-wing presence either. The Ireland midfielder joined Newcastle from Burnley as a free agent this summer in a move dubbed “unnecessary” by Dyche and which perhaps proved emblematic of the tensions between the Burnley manager and the Turf Moor board surrounding contract renewals and new signings.
It appears that the toxicity in the corridors of power is exerting a debilitating effect on the pitch. Indeed it was surely indicative that the move which prefaced Ashley Barnes having a goal disallowed – correctly – for offside, represented a rare first-half fright for Newcastle. Burnley were alarmingly poor and could hardly have complained had Joelinton managed to convert a couple of half-chances to put the home side further ahead.
Both teams were configured in matching 4-4-2 formations but only Bruce’s version seemed to be functioning anything like effectively in an often scrappy, scratchy, attritional contest.
Whereas Charlie Taylor often did quite well against Hendrick, only being let down by a lack of support from colleagues, Phil Bardsley struggled horribly against Saint-Maximin until he finally succeeded in clattering his nemesis. As the winger limped off at half-time there was a sense that the gloomiest, and dampest, of Tyneside evenings might be set to become even darker but, bolstered by a pair of woolly gloves, he doubtless disappointed Burnley’s right back by appearing for the second half.
Shortly after the restart, Darlow was finally required to make a save, the goalkeeper palming Chris Wood’s angled header to safety after the New Zealand striker’s connection with Barnes’s cross.
That cameo emphasised Burnley’s radical, and quite startling, improvement, indicating that they had endured something of a pep talk from Dyche during the interval.
It was rewarded by Ashley Westwood’s superbly volleyed equaliser in the wake of Newcastle’s failure to clear the fall out from a corner Westwood had taken himself, allowing Bardsley to deliver the goal creating cross.
Wilson subsequently revelled in scoring Newcastle’s third from the penalty spot. It arrived after Pope miscontrolled a backpass and Ryan Fraser, newly on for Saint-Maximin, pounced on that poor touch before being hauled down by the goalkeeper.
Another cross, low and from Saint-Maximin, permitted Callum Wilson to restore Newcastle’s lead from close range after the man of the match had embarked on another coruscating run with Dwight McNeil and Taylor left thoroughly disorientated after being given the slip.