What price Keith Andrews for manager of the season? Thomas Frank’s surprise successor certainly added to his fanclub as he choreographed Brentford’s fourth win in six Premier League games to leave Eddie Howe even gloomier than the unremittingly wet Tyneside weather.
While outstanding performances from Dango Ouattara and Keane Lewis-Potter left Andrews’s seventh-placed side appearing genuine European contenders, Howe’s Newcastle have won only one of their last eight matches in all competitions and lost four of their past five.
Along the way towards Brentford’s first victory at St James’ Park since 1934, their hosts sunk to 12th. Right now, the boast made only last weekby the Saudi Arabian-owned club’s chief executive David Hopkinson, that Newcastle can win the league by 2030, rings slightly hollow.
Meanwhile Tuesday’s trip to Tottenham has suddenly assumed real importance for Howe. If his position remains infinitely more secure than Frank’s, Newcastle’s hopes of qualifying for another Champions League campaign via the league have all but evaporated. More than 45 minutes after the final whistle Howe remained locked in the dressing room with his players.
Ouattara ultimately clinched victory for Brentford in the 85th minute but they needed to come from behind and began buoyed up by a sense of injustice. In the second minute Kieran Trippier tugged Lewis-Potter’s shirt sleeve inside the penalty area and sent him tumbling. There seemed a decent case for a penalty and a red card but, to considerable visiting chagrin, neither was awarded.
Although Newcastle were slapdash in possession, Howe had Bruno Guimarães, back in midfield after an ankle injury, and when the Brazilian whipped in a corner, the pace on the ball was so fast that it needed only the slightest of glancing headers from Sven Botman to give his side the lead.
It was the first league goal Brentford had conceded from a corner since August and Andrews, the team’s set-piece coach before succeeding Frank as manager last summer, looked suitably irked.
Newcastle might have been two goals ahead by the interval but the otherwise ineffective Brentford old boy Yoane Wissa’s goalbound shot was cleared by Vitaly Janelt and seemed to hearten a visiting team whose counterattacking menace rose accordingly.
That threat ensured by half-time Brentford were in front. Janelt headed the equaliser after meeting Ouattara’s sublime left-wing cross but its origins were rooted in a tactical switch.
A little earlier Andrews had instructed Keane-Potter and Ouattara to swap flanks and that alteration appeared to flummox markers that, displaying excessive generosity, had left Janelt unattended as he advanced from midfield.
Andrews spun on his heels and punched the air in delight but there would soon be further cause for celebration. At the end of a typically swift visiting break Mathias Jensen’s shot seemed set to fly past Nick Pope but, instead, the ball was diverted after striking Jacob Murphy’s hand.
Following a lengthy video assistant referee check, a penalty was awarded and Igor Thiago stepped forward to send Pope the wrong way from the spot.
It proved the cue for a lingering embrace between the striker and Andrews, and a bout of manic notepad scribbling from Howe.
Newcastle’s manager duly introduced Anthony Elanga and Nick Woltemade at the start of the second half as he shape-shifted to a fluid formation that often seemed more 4-2-4 than 4-4-2.
Bloodyminded resistance was required but Andrews’s backline remained incredibly well organised, while his relocation of Keane-Potter to the right succeeded in cramping the customary style of Newcastle’s usually highly creative left-back Lewis Hall and Ouattara tortured Kieran Trippier down the visiting left.
Igor Thiago shows his delight after converting his penalty. Photograph: Craig Cowan/ProSports/Shutterstock
Despite Caoimhín Kelleher saving superbly to deny Malick Thiaw, Howe, who replaced a disconsolate Wissa with Will Osula, looked increasingly anxious.
The home head coach’s optimism levels must have risen a little as, following another lengthy VAR review and an extended contemplation of the pitch side monitor by the referee, Andy Madley, Newcastle were awarded a penalty of their own.
Once it was decided that Michael Kayode had tripped Guimarães as the Brazilian stretched to connect with Elanga’s cross, Newcastle’s captain sent Kelleher the wrong way from the spot.
Kayode’s body language screamed righteous indignation but he would not be downcast for long.
Sure enough Brentford quickly caught Howe’s defence cold on the break with Jensen’s fine pass met by Ouattara who shot low, left footed and straight through Pope’s legs.
All that remained was for Newcastle to be roundly booed off.