Hull City came into this one with something to prove to the Premier League. They left St James' Park having proved it, and still somehow lost.
Joe Willock and Lewis Hall put Newcastle two up inside seven minutes, Hull pulled one back through Mohamed-Ali Cho, and then spent the final half-hour absolutely battering a tired, injury-ravaged home side. One goal was all they got for it. That is football at its most maddening and most honest.
Newcastle Were Clinical. Then They Were Hanging On.
The opening spell was everything Matthias Jaissle could have wanted after the embarrassment of a 4-1 defeat at Leeds on Monday. Willock lashed one past Konstantinos Tzolakis in the third minute, the goal coming after John Egan blocked his initial effort but Hull failed to clear their lines. Harvey Barnes picked Willock out and the midfielder did not need a second invitation.
Four minutes later, Barnes was at it again. He combined with Lewis Hall, and the left-back, who had just been recalled to the England squad the day before, swept a crisp low shot into the bottom-left corner. Hall had started the whole move himself by dispossessing Oli McBurnie deep in Newcastle's own half. Tidy from start to finish.
At that point, Hull looked like a freshly promoted side getting a rude welcome. They were not, though. They tested Newcastle before the break, with Sorba Thomas coming close from a Matt Crooks cross. Then, right on the stroke of half-time, Thomas was fouled by Jacob Murphy for a penalty. Yoane Wissa stepped up and his effort was weak enough for the goalkeeper to save it comfortably. That miss, as Jaissle acknowledged afterwards, changed the momentum of the entire game.
A Back Three Nobody Wanted, and Then Hull Smell Blood
When Newcastle went to a back three midway through the second half, introducing Fabian Schär for the young Sean Steur, Jaissle made no attempt to pretend he was happy about it. He has been clear on how he feels about that formation, and within moments of the switch, Hull made him look right. Lewis Miley was caught in possession in midfield, Mohamed Belloumi played Cho in, and the summer signing from Nice whipped a close-range left-foot shot past Lukas Hornicek.
From there, Hull had Newcastle pinned back. Crosses, corners, shots from everywhere. Hornicek made a particularly sharp stop to divert Robinio Vaz's half-volley with his foot. The young goalkeeper earned his clean sheet in that second half as much as he did in the first. [Newcastle had flagged up injury concerns ahead of the weekend](/uprise/football/premier-league-team-news-predicted-lineups-for-the-weekend-action), and by the end you could see exactly why that mattered. Tino Livramento, another picked for England, did not even make it to kick-off after picking up a training injury, one of nine absentees in total.
Hull manager Sergej Jakirovic was blunt after the final whistle: "Over 90 minutes, we deserved a point." He is not wrong. But the Premier League does not hand out points for second-half effort, and his side's failure to defend a set piece on the hour and a missed penalty will haunt them more than the result itself.
The verdict: Newcastle needed this, grabbed it early, and then survived rather than won it. Hull have nothing to be ashamed of, but backing yourself to get results in this league means not going to sleep in the opening ten minutes. They will not make that mistake again.