Dan Burn and Fabian Schar were absolute rocks at the back for Newcastle against Aston Villa.
The latter continued his good recent form, while the former came in for his debut after his deadline day move from Brighton. It was a moment the local lad had dreamt about as a kid, and it couldn’t have gone any better.
Burn was Newcastle’s man of the match against Villa, thrust into the starting XI due to illness to Jamaal Lascelles. But Burn ensured that we didn’t miss the captain, and put in a perfect debut performance.
It was only our third clean sheet of the season, with the other two coming against Burnley and Leeds. Defending has been an issue this campaign, with a leaky backline leading us into relegation danger.
But we’ve looked tighter at the back recently, and picked up a vital clean sheet yesterday to make it three Premier League wins in a row.
Fabian Schar and Dan Burn embrace as full time whistle blows
Following the victory, the club posted a video of the players celebrating as Craig Pawson blew for full time.
You can hear the incredible roar from the St James’ Park crowd, and see Burn and Schar toast a job well done. The pair passionately embrace, celebrating a huge clean sheet on their first game together as a duo.
You can see how much it meant to Burn – it didn’t look like he was going to let Schar go!
The pair defended fantastically. Villa barely had a sniff of goal all afternoon, with Martin Dubravka facing just a single shot on target. That’s a testament to the brilliant work by Burn and Schar.
It wasn’t a classic game, but Newcastle were solid at the back and laid the foundation for a vital three points. Burn and Schar were delighted with their work, and rightly so.
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