You hope Newcastle United can offer a bit of post-Christmas cheer in these circumstances…

Finally, the battle of the cup winners came around, as the last Premier League team we meet this season rolled into town.

Crystal Palace have been on quite an adventure since they visited SJP last April, with that 5-0 hammering marking their final defeat in all competitions until October, a run that included the massive FA Cup final win, the Community Shield and a lovely habit of slapping Liverpool.

Unfortunately for them, Palace have since come to realise the harsh nature of the current English football hierarchy.

There may have been a time when an FA Cup win was the springboard to greater things. With the structure of a decent side and a winning manager, Palace may have hoped to kick on, but sides at their level will always struggle to cope with a European campaign and Oliver Glasner seems to have realised that Europa and FA Cup winning coaches can start looking at bigger opportunities.

Crystal Palace arrived on Tyneside with the manager declining any contract extension past this season and an exhausted and depleted looking squad on a six game winless run. Exactly the sort of thing that makes you nervous where Newcastle are involved.

There was encouragement in the form of a platoon of returnees to the bench, as Trippier, Botman and Livramento all joined the squad to all but extinguish the recent defensive crisis. A lift was definitely needed on a freezing cold day and a relatively muted crowd, everyone no doubt feeling a bit fat, skint and miserable at the thought of the complete return to normal Monday would bring.

You hope Newcastle United can offer a bit of post-Christmas cheer in these circumstances but they love to let you down instead.

The first half was a mixed bag.

There was almost a replication of the early opening at Turf Moor, with Gordon’s ball finding Wissa well positioned only for the striker to hit it straight at Henderson from a few yards. A positive opening continued as Hall returned the second ball after a corner and Henderson produced a fine point blank save to deny Schar a goal on his 250th appearance for United. Moments later though it appeared that the deadlock was broken, Bruno’s lovely ball forward released Wissa in behind, and he unselfishly squared for Gordon, who just about managed to squeeze it in when the pass threatened to overrun. This was one of those stinking VAR overturns, where they give the goal, let you celebrate in full and head back to the middle, before some ridiculous cludgebucket in an office somewhere decreed that Wissa was leaning forward slightly. Absolute shambles, bring in Wenger’s daylight rule.

By now there were patterns emerging.

Joelinton was dominant and creative, picking up where he left off at Burnley (his disallowed effort was a more obvious offside). Miley excelled again at right back, undeterred by his more established colleagues returning to the squad. He also had to do a fair bit of tidying up for Murphy, who was having a shoddy afternoon ahead of him, struggling to get in the game and seemingly restricted in getting forward. Similarly on the other side, Lewis Hall seemed a tad off his game after some outstanding displays of late, while Gordon was effective in patches, anonymous in others.

It all amounted to a disjointed looking display, as possession was squandered and Palace seized on the regular opportunities to slow the game down. When Will Hughes broke into the box in added time for the visitors only real chance, you could feel the sucker punch coming. Fortunately, the quick attentions of Schar and Pope did enough to put him off and it was screwed horribly wide.

The second half saw a continuation of the frustration and the feeling grew that this was just going to be one of those days. It’s a real positive that substitutions were useful in turning this around, given our lack of game management of late. Ramsey replaced Tonali, who had another afternoon of being profligate in possession in spite of a couple of flashes of the old brilliance, feels like Sandro needs a break. However, the bigger factor, lively Barnes got way more involved in the game than Gordon had. By contrast, the Palace subs seemed all to be from the youth team as their senior players hobbled and slumped off.

The breakthrough came from what is becoming the usual source this year. When Murphy’s free kick was half cleared, Barnes retrieved and sent a cross to the back post where Miley did brilliantly to get on the end and fire into the ground, the ball bouncing neatly for Bruno to head in his seventh goal of the season. Happy, but definitely relieved.

Bruno has been an absolute talisman this season and I hate the thought of going into any game without him. Any chat of resting him for any forthcoming cup ties is mutinous and you should report your friends and neighbours to the militia if you hear of them spreading such filth.

Bruno seems to have got a liking for trying to score from corners after his antics against Burnley and it isn’t working out badly at all. He hit the bar with his first transparent attempt at a shot, then produced a settler with his second, as Henderson desperately clawed away an effort that looked to be bending and swerving its way into the top corner, succeeding only in palming it into a goalmouth melee, from which Malick Thiaw emerged to knock in the second. More relief.

Hopefully, Murphy looking uncomfortable on his withdrawal isn’t a persistent issue, as personnel problems may shift to the right wing (stick Miley there). He was replaced for the closing stages with Willock, a potential conflict of interest there as Palace are rumoured to be considering a move for Joe this month. Or they were before the injury time incident.

With two of the five minutes of added time remaining, Barnes broke free and advanced on goal, firing in a shot that Henderson parried at full stretch. This broke to Willock who had an open goal to aim at from about ten yards, yet contrived to somehow spuff his shot wide. Gasps of disbelief and I’ve never seen any player look more like they want to ground to swallow them up.

Still, it didn’t affect the result and we have opened 2026 with a win that sends us into the top half, a slightly surprising two points from the fifth spot that will almost certainly award a Champions League spot.

Leeds on Wednesday presents that opportunity to make inroads into the top six that we just seem unable to grasp this season. Let’s see, I’ll get back to you on that later this week…

Newcastle 2 Crystal Palace 0 –  Sunday 3 January 2026 3pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Bruno 71, Thiaw 78

Palace:

Possession was Newcastle 59% Palace 41%

Total shots were Newcastle 12 Palace 11

Shots on target were Newcastle 7 Palace 1

Corners were Newcastle 8 Palace 6

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 35 Palace 26

Newcastle team v Crystal Palace:

Pope, Miley, Thiaw, Schar, Hall (Livramento 63), Tonali (Ramsey 63), Joelinton, Bruno, Jacob Murphy (Willock 88), Gordon (Barnes 63), Wissa (Woltemade 78)

Unused subs:

Ramsdale, Trippier, Botman, Alex Murphy

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