Nottingham Forest 1-3 Newcastle: Alexander Isak, Joelinton and Harvey Barnes net for Magpies after Murillo's header gave hosts lead
- Murillo opened the scoring after 21 minutes before Alexander Isak's equaliser
- Joelinton curled ball home to put visitors ahead before Barnes sealed the win
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Newcastle's bench emptied onto the pitch after the Joelinton goal that put them in front, and Nottingham Forest would have been forgiven for fearing it was another black-and-white wave about to crash on their shore.
That is how it felt in the second half here, as those visiting bodies flooded forward, scoring three times to take a deserved three points and making it three wins on the spin in the process.
Forest, by contrast, did not look like the side who started the day in third. They sank with barely a trace after leading at the interval and, their goal apart, rarely looked like scoring. Free-scoring Chris Wood was cut down to size against his former club by one of the few defenders taller than him, and Dan Burn was a giant in every sense here.
But Joelinton was the biggest of them all. He played on the left and right of a front three but took his goal like a centre-forward. He dropped a shoulder, dropped a Forest defender on his backside and dropped his curler inside the far post in the 72nd minute.
‘He’s Brazilian, he only cost £40million,’ they chorused afterwards, and it is true that the one-time flop is perhaps worth double the fee that had seemed extortionate during his early struggles.
Newcastle came from a goal down to beat Nottingham Forest 3-1 at the City Ground
Murillo headed home Anthonhy Elanga's freekick to open the scoring after 21 minutes
Alexander Isak finished from close-range after Forest failed to defend a corner 54 minutes in
‘He is an amazing player,’ said Eddie Howe. ‘He’s turned into a beast, a machine. You know what you are going to get regardless of the position you play him.’
Newcastle were so much better than their hosts after half-time and, come the end, the only conclusion to draw was that they and not Forest are most likely to hang around the top four this season. Just one point separates them now.
Joelinton’s goal was bookended by Alexander Isak’s equaliser and a Harvey Barnes sealer seven minutes from time, as Newcastle did to Forest what Forest have done to others of late. Nuno Espirito Santo knew it, too.
‘We must learn an important lesson,’ he said. ‘We were punished the way we punished other teams, on the counter-attack. They have quality and were lethal. You cannot allow their players time and space to decide. They are a good team who were able to control us.’
Forest, though, did have a smart tactic in the first half - let Newcastle have the ball, wait for them to give it back and break. The spell of pressure that brought the 21st-minute opener came from Fabian Schar gifting them possession when his team-mates were committed forward.
A lot happened in between time - a controversial award of a corner and a free-kick then conceded by Joe Willock for a foul on Anthony Elanga - but Newcastle were only on the back foot because of their own misstep.
Elanga delivered the free-kick from the right and Murillo ran away from Isak and across Joelinton before flashing a header beyond Nick Pope. The centre-back needed an all-zones pass given how many of Newcastle’s he had journeyed through. He is a joyous player, Murillo, as if controlled by a friend with a joypad in the stands, and he celebrated his first call-up for Brazil with his first Forest goal.
His team-mate Ryan Yates, meanwhile, plays as if under instruction by a terrace hooligan. His forearm drew blood from the lip of Tino Livramento early on and he then landed his studs around the knee of Sean Longstaff. On both occasions he escaped not only a caution, but also a foul. This was not referee Anthony Taylor’s finest afternoon.
The Swedish striker now has four goals in his last four following his latest strike on Sunday
Joelinton curled the ball into the far corner from the edge of the area to put the Magpies ahead
Newcastle killed the game in the 83rd minute when Harvey Barnes converted at the near post
Yates was eventually booked in the 65th minute when cynically stopping a Newcastle attack. It was 1-1 by this point and, with the Magpies in control and Forest drowning, it was a necessary intervention. Forest could only keep the shark from the bay for so long, however.
Newcastle had drawn level on 55 minutes when Isak turned in his fourth in as many matches after Anthony Gordon’s corner dropped kindly amid bodies. But the goal that put them ahead and the one that made sure of victory were both from incisive breakaways. They never wanted the ball for too long after all.
Isak fed Joelinton and he moved effortlessly upfield, a full 25 yards, before stepping away from Elanga and bending inside the post with his left foot. Howe did not see it, he later admitted, because of a body in his way, and Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels would have sympathised, for it was past him in a flash, too.
Another counter-attack and another goal followed as Sandro Tonali found Barnes and the substitute did what he does best, cutting infield on his right and snapping inside the near post. Game over and game on for Newcastle, whose top-four ambitions are not as fanciful as they seemed a fortnight ago.
‘How quickly football can change,’ said Howe. ‘There is a totally different feel about the team now. We have a good look about us. We needed that momentum. So to come back and win in the way we did was a big moment for us in our season.’
It was a season in need of a life-vest after a recent run of five without a win in the Premier League. But when you have a force-of-nature player like Joelinton, there is always the chance the tide will turn.
