Joe Willock heads in Newcastle winner to foil 10-man West Ham’s fightback

Earlier this month Allan Saint-Maximin donated more than 60 care packages filled with luxury French chocolates and high street shopping vouchers to NHS staff on Tyneside.

On his first start since February the former Nice winger seemed laden with on-pitch gifts for teammates, creating counterattacking chances virtually every time he dribbled at West Ham’s increasingly panic stricken defence.

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Saint-Maximin did more than anyone wearing black and white stripes to dent David Moyes’s hopes of leading the Londoners into the Champions League next season while also helping Newcastle open up a nine-point advantage over their principal relegation rivals, Fulham.

While Steve Bruce’s team rise to 15th, on 35 points, West Ham – reduced to 10 men here following Craig Dawson’s 37th dismissal for the collection of a second yellow card – remain fourth but will be acutely conscious that Chelsea and Liverpool, and to a slightly lesser extent Tottenham and Everton, are breathing down their neck.

Appropriately, Saint-Maximin also conjured Newcastle’s opening goal. When Craig Dawson felled Joelinton on the halfway line, the referee, Kevin Friend, played advantage, allowing the Frenchman to take the loose ball and accelerate into the area before unleashing a low shot. Although Lukasz Fabianski got a hand to it, Issa Diop was in the way and the ball rebounded off the West Ham defender’s leg before crossing the line.

As Newcastle celebrated, Dawson, already on a yellow card, was sent off and it was not long before his side conceded again. This time Fabianski fumbled what should have been a routine save from a corner and Joelinton swivelled sharply before tapping home from point-blank range.

Although Moyes’s side enjoyed a decent amount of first-half possession, they had done precious little with it on an afternoon when Bruce’s defence delighted in negating the danger from the visiting set-piece routines.

Even before Dawson’s sending off it was difficult to dispute Jonjo Shelvey’s pre-match assertion that Newcastle’s squad was “just as good as West Ham’s”. Judging by the way Moyes’s players failed to capitalise on the handful of occasions Shelvey lost concentration and permitted an opponent to intercept his passes, the Newcastle midfielder had arguably been a bit generous.

West Ham were much better with 10 men, improving significantly during a second half in which Newcastle turned worryingly slapdash and Saint-Maximin limped off to be replaced by Callum Wilson.

Given the home side’s loss of focus it was no real surprise when an unmarked Diop was able to connect with a cross, direct a downward header into the ground and watch its bounce deceive Martin Dubravka en route to a goal at the right. If the normally ultra-reliable central defender Federico Fern ández was culpable for leaving Diop unattended, Dubravka may not relish studying reruns of that header.

However, Newcastle’s goalkeeper had no chance with West Ham’s equaliser. When Ciaran Clark diverted a long throw with his forearm, a VAR check confirmed handball and Jesse Lingard gleefully whipped in an unstoppable penalty.

Belatedly, Bruce’s players woke up. Jacob Murphy saw a shot quite brilliantly blocked by Ben Johnson before, seconds after stepping off the home bench, the Arsenal loanee Joe Willock met Matt Ritchie’s stellar cross sent a header crashing beyond Fabianski after stealing in front of Johnson.

As Bruce celebrated taking a significant step towards Premier League survival Moyes’s European horizons contracted, with the West Ham manager’s woes exacerbated as Lingard limped off.