Eight score for Newcastle in Sheff Utd drubbing
Newcastle United ruthlessly put Sheffield United to the sword with a dazzling 8-0 victory at Bramall Lane on Sunday, with eight different players scoring to leave the home side bottom of the Premier League standings.
The victory was Newcastle’s biggest away from home and the Blades’ largest defeat. Eddie Howe’s side also became the first team in Premier League history to have eight different goal scorers in one game as they moved up to eighth in the standings.
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Newcastle showed no signs of a hangover from midweek after their first Champions League game in 20 years — a goalless draw at AC Milan — and they took a 3-0 lead by halftime before switching gears in the second half to go into the record books.
“We shared them [goals] around a bit today. I thought we were really good from the start and when the goals came I felt the confidence in the team returned,” Howe told Sky Sports.
“The big thing for us was that we really wanted to score and we weren’t content with three. I want that mentality to run through the team.”
The Blades started on a positive note to give the home fans some optimism, but Newcastle went in front when early substitute Anthony Gordon kept the ball in play on the goal line and found Sean Longstaff, who fired home.
Newcastle doubled their lead at the half-hour mark from a corner when Dan Burn peeled away from his marker despite having his shirt tugged and headed in Kieran Trippier‘s cross at the far post.
Four minutes later, Trippier turned provider again from another set piece, this time from a free kick, as Sven Botman directed a glancing header into the back of the net.
The English fullback then got his third assist of the game and his first from open play when he found space on the right wing and crossed the ball for Callum Wilson to head home from close range.
Gordon curled in Newcastle’s fifth from outside the box, which prompted Blades fans to head for the exits just after the hour mark, before Miguel Almirón ran circles around the defence to net Newcastle’s sixth with help from Bruno Guimarães.
Guimaraes then got on the scoresheet himself when the ball fell kindly to him in the box from a rebound and he fired home, before substitute Alexander Isak completed the rout with a late goal.
Blades boss Paul Heckingbottom said his team needed to learn from the defeat.
“It’s the nature of the performance that we’re upset about… We can’t afford to put ourselves behind in that fashion if we want to compete,” Heckingbottom said.
“It’s the second half that I’m upset with. Regardless of the errors which led to goals, we need to make sure we learn from that. A lot of things I saw in the second half, I’ve never seen here.
“These games are not going to define our season. It’s about accumulating points. While there are huge things we have to learn from, we also have to keep a calm head about this sort of game.”
