If you tuned in with a bingo sheet full of potential flashpoints in front of you, then Newcastle United’s 4-3 triumph over West Ham in an instant Premier League classic on Saturday lunchtime would surely have left you celebrating a full house.
There were seven goals, injuries galore, subs being substituted, a stunning comeback, two penalties, VAR drama, a red card, and – to top it all off – a 90th minute wondergoal.
Dean Ashton, the former West Ham striker could not hide his excitement, even as his old employers were left stunned by stirring second-half display from a Newcastle side who could almost have been forgiven for letting their heads drop as the visitors cruised into a 3-1 lead and Eddie Howe’s treatment room threatened to reach London underground at rush hour levels of packed.
Newcastle beat West Ham 4-3 in Tyneside classic
“Honesty, this league, it is just magnificent. You just think the game is done, West Ham look comfortable, there is Newcastle players dropping like flies,” ex-England forward Ashton tells talkSPORT (30 March, 2.30pm).
“And then to be able to muster the character, the energy, with a makeshift back four, I think says everything about what Eddie Howe has built. The connection between the players and the supporters, you could feel it. You could just sense it.
“There is something special here and it’s very difficult to stop.”
It felt fitting, somewhat, that in a day in which Jamaal Lascelles, Emil Kraft and Miguel Almiron were forced off, it was a man who had only recently returned from his own injury issues who dragged Newcastle to within one point of West Ham in seventh. One who was also linked with West Ham before ending up on Tyneside.
Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon shine
“We know he’s a top-class player,” Ashton says of Harvey Barnes, who levelled the scores at 3-3 following a(nother) sublime Alexander Isak assist and then completed the comeback with a long-range curler as the clock struck 90.
“When they signed him from Leicester City, we thought; ‘What a good signing this could be’. Really unfortunate that he’s had the injures but, when fit, this is a top, top level elite player, and he showed it straight away.
“To score the winner the way he did, taking it on hte back foot and whipping it into the back corner… They’ve got a great player there. Can they keep him fit?
Barnes, however, still did not do enough to earn him talkSPORT’s Man of the Match award. That honour went to the man who could yet find himself starting for England at Euro 2024, Gordon winning a pair of penalties and even playing through a suspected muscle injury before his late red card.
“I thought Gordon was brilliant,” says an awe-struck Ashton. “He was so good. He was crucial in the second half, he even looked injured but he carried on.
“Terrific player and a terrific performance.”
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