Newcastle Utd V Leeds Utd Match Thread - Llorente starts, Klich on the bench

[whiteswan]

Lovely Marcelo goes up to Bruce and talks so warmly to him, hand on his shoulders. What a man....

[danhirons]

not pretty but its 3 points

[Lumiukko]

That was a hard watch but 3 points in the bag for a run of tricky games coming up. Defo think we need to rethink that need for a CM and a (loan) defender to see the season out.

[John in Louisiana]

Halfway through the season sitting 12th and 14 points clear of relegation.

Don't know that we could have asked for more.

[mothbanquet]

Scruffy win but a win all the same. 14 points from the relegation zone halfway through the season? I'll take it.

[whiteswan]

A win is a win, against 12 men......

There were a few dodgy decisions I have to say

[Chilli D]

Thank god for that.
We've got away with one tonight.
Awful defensively second half, we just cannot defend corners.
On the plus side, two very well taken goals.
Finally we're off 23 points.

[Mick Jones shoulder]

Take a ground out win......

[HarryofOz]

Good result and hopefully a lesson learned. Start Klich, maybe start Roberts....

Roberts did play well when he came on. Bamford's form has dropped in the last few games. I've never expected lots of goals from him but his general contribution has been off.

[YorkshireSquare]

And breathe.

Phhhhheeeeewwwww

Bloody hell, that was difficult from about 35 minutes on!

[Cumbriarents]

One win down four more to go

[Carrick Dave]

I still think we are flattering to deceive at the moment, but happy to take the points - only 12 more needed for safety.

[Lumiukko]

Scruffy win but a win all the same. 14 points from the relegation zone halfway through the season? I'll take it.

And 14 points (5 wins) away from guaranteed safety.

[whiteswan]

And breathe.

You can say that again. Had it have been a later game I'd have been on the wine on 80 mins

[HarryofOz]

Lovely Marcelo goes up to Bruce and talks so warmly to him, hand on his shoulders. What a man....

Marcello is pure class as a human being.

[Leeds1000]

I didn't think it could get much worse second half, oh boy it did. Woeful, disjointed, sloppy, hapless and that was just Newcastle, we were much worse. I hate to say it folks but 16 other clubs put 5 past us again today we were that poor second half, Newcastle fans won't take any comfort from that but they should have got something from that game.

Honestly if we don't improve quickly it could be the 20th of March before we see another chance of a point. We won the game but we are in a rut. Awful performance for me.

[YorkshireSquare]

Roberts did play well when he came on. Bamford's form has dropped in the last few games. I've never expected lots of goals from him but his general contribution has been off.

He offers something very different to Bamford but he links up well with Raph and seems to open up space in the defensive lines when we've struggled in recent games. He's played well. Shooting as woeful as Bamford though!

[Carrick Dave]

Lovely Marcelo goes up to Bruce and talks so warmly to him, hand on his shoulders. What a man....

Yeah, liked that too.

[Velotrax]

There were a few dodgy decisions I have to say

A few, bit of an understatement ! They were dirty all game and had 2 booked, we had 3 booked for nothing....plus a pen not given , well if it had been our defender it would have been

[Finnatic]

Harrison Rodrigo and Raphinha all very good tonight.
Harrison’s work rate in most games cannot be faulted - yes, he’s frustrating at times, but that’s why Bielsa starts him.