Newcastle United put in another dire display against a London side on Saturday when they drew 1-1 with Crystal Palace, but one player did impress.
It was a dreary game in South London, with Newcastle United doing little to improve upon their 2-0 defeat to West Ham on Monday.
The only incident of note in a turgid first half was Alexander Isak limping off with injury but Eddie Howe’s side did take the lead just after the break with Marc Guehi ironically scoring an own goal.
Newcastle took the lead without having a shot on target and didn’t manage to have one in the rest of the game as they sat back and allowed Crystal Palace to grow into the match.
Fabian Schar and Dan Burn did their best to keep the Eagles at bay but their resistance finally crumbled in the final minutes as Daniel Munoz ghosted in unchecked by Lewis Hall or Joelinton to head home.
Even a point flattered the Magpies but BBC pundit Michael Brown did at least move to praise Burn for one excellent moment.
Dan Burn comes in for praise for performance vs Crystal Palace
Instead of pushing on after finally finding the opener, Newcastle retreated and hardly left their own half.
It was only the resolute defending of Burn and Schar that kept them in the lead until the dying seconds.
Schar himself made an impeccable sliding challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta but it was Burn who had the best moment of defending.
Palace worked a smart overload which saw Munoz with an open goal to aim at and his shot was destined for the back of the net until Burn stretched out to block his effort.
Without Burn, Munoz would have got the leveller far earlier than he eventually did and Brown was impressed.
He said on the BBC: “It was a great ball in behind.
“Pope stays really big and it’s a really good save and then Burn throws himself across with some brilliant defending to divert Munoz’s effort wide.
“Brilliant defending.”
Worrying performance for Newcastle
Even if Newcastle had have managed to hold on for a few more minutes and get the win, the performance would still have been concerning.
It would have been chalked up as a ‘hard-fought, ugly victory that the team did well to grind out’ but for a team with Champions League desires it was nowhere near good enough.
To go to a team down in 19th place in the table, with just one win to their name and the second-lowest scorers in the division and not even manage to get a shot on target is embarrassing.
There was a dire lack of creativity, with none of the midfielders being progressive on the ball or even getting it to the wingers in good positions.
It appeared Newcastle had turned a corner with wins over Chelsea, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest but you have to beat the supposed ‘lesser’ teams consistently if you want to be a contender in the Premier League.
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