Watford 1-1 Newcastle United
An away point against a strong Watford side should feel better than this!
But an 82nd minute Doucoure equaliser, a result of some shoddy defending from Rafa’s men, made it feel just so. The man at fault it seemed, Shelvey, had only been on the pitch for seconds. And that lapse in concentration cost the black and whites dear, cancelling out a fantastic headed effort from Rondon scored just before the half hour mark.
STARTING XI: Dubravka, Yedlin, Fernandez (Schar, 45), Lascelles, Dummett, Ritchie, Perez, Hayden (Shelvey, 79), Diame, Atsu, Rondon
And it was yet another great display from Rondon that had the Newcastle fans purring. Strong with the ball, a bully off it, and clinical in front of goal. His sixth goal of the season was a cracker. Great work from the impressive Atsu, rejuvenated in recent weeks, ended with a Ritchie cross that Rondon would power to leap and head past Foster in the Watford goal.
Having stated his team would need a miracle to stay up, his comments after the game were at least a rallying call once more. ‘It was very clear today with the way the team was performing is the way we can get the miracle done’ he said.
He will, of course be disappointed with the final score given how close the three points was.
Perhaps more so with Rondon scoring two more, both ruled off-side, with one of them appearing to be wrongly ruled out with Janmaat playing the Newcastle United striker on.
The point was snatched through Doucoure heading in a Deulofeu cross with 8 minutes left on the clock.
Another point then. Just the small matter of Manchester United up next.