Joe Buck delivers his verdict from Newcastle United's 2-2 draw with Bournemouth at St James' Park. A late equaliser from Matt Ritchie rescued a point for Eddie Howe's side after Dominic Solanke and Antoine Semenyo put the Cherries ahead. Anthony Gordon also scored in another chaotic game.
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00:00 Newcastle United, yet again, fail to win a home game after another chaotic game. They
00:07 drew 2-2 with Bournemouth here in James's Park. Matt Ritchie, very late equaliser for
00:14 Newcastle, rescuing a point on the day which was, again, the word chaos has reigned supreme
00:19 recently and it's another chaotic game and one that Eddie Howe will be really frustrated
00:23 with. I think the first half went, it was goalless at half-time in the last couple of
00:27 games where it's been 2-2. But yeah, they were goalless at half-time. I think both teams
00:32 probably felt they probably should have scored. Solanke had a couple of good chances saved
00:35 by Dabravka. Anthony Gordon missed a really good chance early on. So I think both teams
00:39 would be disappointed to have not scored in that first half. But I think you'd probably
00:44 have said, you know, a draw at half-time was the correct result. And then the second half,
00:50 chaos ensued. The first goal was, it's a really hard goal to sort of analyse because Dabravka
00:57 gets played full-back by Sven Botman, as he normally would. They're often passing out
01:01 in the back. He slipped, unfortunately, as Solanke closed in. Solanke just tapped it
01:05 to him and that's, you know, it's a goal, it's a free goal. You can't do anything about
01:10 it, you can't legislate for it. But then, again, you've got to take your chances because
01:14 sometimes that happens. Newcastle did have a few good chances. Almar on missed a good
01:19 opportunity. Gordon went one-on-one with the keeper, couldn't take a round of him just
01:22 moments before that. So then they go one mile behind. Alright, it's a free goal, but you
01:25 think Newcastle really sort themselves out. They did, luckily, very soon after with a
01:30 penalty foul on Fabian Scherr. It was a really long VAR check that one. The check for a foul,
01:35 the check for offside, the check for pretty much anything. So that was a really, really
01:38 long VAR check. I think it was the right decision from the replays we've been able to see. Anthony
01:43 Gordon stepped up and tapped it to him. And then you think at that point, right, 1-1,
01:46 they've had their let-off. You know, they've rescued from a losing position and then all
01:53 of a sudden Newcastle are 2-1 down again. There's Semenya on the right. It was Dan Byrne
01:58 again. That question keeps coming up. Dan Byrne, Tino Liveromento, how sticks would
02:02 burn. It worked last week, it didn't work this week. This goal wasn't like the others.
02:08 We've seen why it wasn't like Burned Off before, but again, Newcastle just so open at the back
02:13 and in midfield. Semenya gets out on the right and we've seen this goal so many times where
02:16 the right winger shoots into the far bottom corner. All of a sudden it's 2-1 and Bournemouth
02:20 probably deserved it. Bournemouth were very good today. How many times again have we seen
02:24 that? Luton were very good last time. Forest a couple of weeks ago were very good. So Newcastle
02:28 come up against good opposition in terms of opposition that aren't scared of them. They're
02:32 happy to come here and play. And yes, they probably feel there should be teams like Bournemouth
02:36 and not in Forest and Luton at home, but these teams are giving Newcastle a real good game.
02:39 And unfortunately, they haven't got any answers at the minute. Eddie Howe, you know, really
02:43 is very steadfast in this formation, this way of playing. And yes, it has worked in
02:48 recent past. Seven points from nine available just before this was showing that it worked,
02:55 but it just didn't work. And then Newcastle were lying on the last minute. I say last
02:58 minute, it was 91 of 100 minutes in total. But it was a goal from Matt Ritchie. Joe White
03:03 and Ritchie came on together just before the end of the normal period. Then the fourth
03:11 official showed 10 minutes out of time. And to be fair, Joe White was brilliant when he
03:13 came on. He drove the ball. The ball was eventually crossed over to Ritchie, who's header versus
03:18 block. But then he was quickest to react, to stab home against his old side. Another
03:21 last minute equaliser against Bournemouth for Ritchie and his first goal in three and
03:26 a half years since against Tottenham Hotspur during the Pine Grove Stores end of the 2019/20
03:31 season, that COVID season. So that's a long time for Ritchie to wait for that goal. But
03:35 at that point, much like he did in Luton when Albie Barnes equalised, he thought, right,
03:38 Newcastle got nine minutes, they've got a good chunk of time to put pressure on. Another
03:41 Jacob Murphy header that went over, really, it should have been Bournemouth that scored.
03:44 They had lots of other very good chances towards the end of the game. And again, you would
03:47 feel like it's another point. Drop for Newcastle, it's a shame because they need to start winning
03:53 these games. And it was a great result last week. But then all of a sudden, they get beat
03:56 this, sorry, they don't get beat, they drop two points here and you think, well, that
04:00 result doesn't really matter. And then they've got Arsenal next week. So yeah, plenty of
04:03 things for Eddie Howe and his team to dissect. As I said, Arsenal next week is going to be
04:07 a major, major test. Does he stick with Burn? Does he go Liveromento? Is there a change
04:11 in formation? Because something has to change because really they've been outran. Yeah,
04:18 it's just something not clicking currently with Newcastle in the minute. They're getting
04:20 by, picking up points recently, but that's going to change very soon. It's the end of
04:24 the Chiara game, 2-2, Newcastle tonight. Well, feel this point they didn't get more, but
04:28 feel lucky that they managed to get a point. So yeah, hard one to assess.
04:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]