Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1 – Instant Newcastle United fan/writer reaction

The Mag

·19 April 2025

Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1 – Instant Newcastle United fan/writer reaction

Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1 – Saturday 19 April 2025 5.30pm

Instant fan / writer reaction from some of our regular contributors on The Mag.

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“This looked our toughest remaining match and so it proved.

“Villa deserved to win but the Aussie ref was useless as usual and fell for their clearly pre-planned systematic cheating, to try and get our players booked. Quite embarrassing how so many of them leapt into the air when barely touched, if at all.

“Some poor balls (Tonali at fault for the first goal) and ball watching (Murphy at fault for the second goal) helped Villa to the win, as did two ridiculously cruel deflections (first and third goals).

“Villa scored to make it 2-1 whilst Newcastle were waiting to make the first substitutions with three quarters of the game gone.

“I wouldn’t have been surprised to see NUFC take a point if the fresh legs had been added before that second half lead went in for Villa.

“However, it would have been a fortunate point as the home side were better on the day.”

Nat Seaton:

‘A poor defensive display was well and truly punished by Aston Villa, not that we had much offensively either, especially in the second half.

The Burn own goal summed up the game for us.

The run has finally come to an end (and what a great time we have all had with it!) now a full week to regroup and go again, back at home to Ipswich.’

David Punton:

‘Well beaten.

Not our day at all.

There’s a bin strike in Birmingham but it was United who were a bit rubbish today.

After a three game week it was a bridge too far at Villa Park. They’ve not lost many here all season.

Our squad depth isn’t on par with that of Villa.

The simple fact is you can’t win them all, so we just have to take this and move on, because we are still firmly in the Champions League race.

The absence of Eddie Howe has been troubling – we need him back as soon as possible. ‘

Billy Miller:

‘I firmly believe our midfield three is up there with the best in the league.

Today they were sloppy and completely outmatched though.

The only positive being that we didn’t get anyone sent off.

Bruno was giving me heart palpitations at times towards the end.

We’ve been outstanding for a month and a half but this was always going to be a challenging fixture.

Write it off as a bad day and move on to a very winnable match on Saturday.

Champions League is still very much in our hands.’

Matt Busby said…:

‘A bad day at the office.

Let’s regroup and move on.

We’re still third and I’m not seeing Forest winning at Spurs.

Vile play those cheating snakes from Eastlands next, so at least one of them will drop points.

Keep the faith.’

Davey Hat-Trick:

‘We were battered by a far superior side.

It was probably a bridge too far for a starting XI we haven’t changed for over a month.

We looked lethargic from the first whistle and that is fatal for a team that relies on a high-intensity approach.

Villa were the team that were supposed to be the ones drained by their midweek efforts, but they were sharper, stronger and more creative than Newcastle.

In fact, at times, they reminded me of us when we swarm all over teams.

I won’t be too harsh on the team – they’ve done us proud over the past few weeks, and it’s not their fault we didn’t rotate when we could have.

But a week’s rest for the lads, and three points at home against Ipswich, and this game will just be put down to a bad day at the office.

Man City and Villa play each other on Tuesday. They can’t both win.’

Dan (Junior Numbers) Elder:

‘Disappointing result but we’ve seen worse.

I thought the game was even until their second goal, we fell apart after that, but after scoring 9 goals in our last 2 games, we can’t be over critical on Tindall and the lads.

I thought their squad depth led to their victory, which is what I’m excited about for this upcoming summer window.

Overall, we didn’t deserve to win, a bit gutted and a long journey home, but onto the next one and hopefully a win against Ipswich.’

Mark Jankowski:

‘A deserved loss in the Second (aka worst) City.

We went with an unchanged team and to the surprise of no one it was a catastrophic error.

Would Howe have had the bottle and insight to rotate? I’d say yes.

I hope our manager is back on the touchline soon.

A special mention to a disastrous showing from the referee, his lack of consistency led to both sets of fans informing him he’s not fit to referee simultaneously. Doesn’t happen often.’

Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1 – Saturday 19 April 2025 5.30pm

(Stats via BBC Sport)

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Schar 18

Villa

Watkins 1 Maatsen 64, Burn OG 73, Onana 75

Possession was Newcastle 51% Villa 49%

Total shots were Newcastle 10 Villa 23

Shots on target were Newcastle 3 Villa 9

Corners were Newcastle 7 Villa 7

Touches in the box Newcastle 36 Villa 31