FA Cup run has exposed Newcastle’s lack of game management

Add as preferred source on Google

Newcastle are into the FA Cup quarter finals, but yet again they did it the hard way.

Despite leading 3-0 after 47 minutes, the Magpies endured a nervous end to the game against West Brom.

The Championship leaders managed to get two goals back, and had many other chances during the second half.

At 3-0, Newcastle should have been able to see the game out and coast into the next round. However, that wasn’t the case.

And it was a similar story in the previous round.

Newcastle were 2-0 up against League One Oxford United, then conceded two late goals to force them into extra time. Thankfully, Allan Saint-Maximin bailed us out on that night.

While this FA Cup run has been a nice change of pace from the Premier League, it has exposed a weakness in Steve Bruce’s side.

Our game management needs a lot of work. Even when we’re more than one goal ahead, we’ve proven that we aren’t comfortable. On two occasions we’ve seen our dominance slip away.

It forced us into an extra 30 minutes in the fourth round, and it nearly did the same at the Hawthorns.

Something similar happened earlier in the season away to West Ham. We were 3-0 up and cruising, yet a nervous end to the game saw us scrape through 3-2 winners.

Maybe it comes from rarely being in a commanding position.

There are bigger issues going on at Newcastle right now, but this is something Bruce must be worried about.