Newcastle and Liverpool remember King Kev with four-goal thriller
Liverpool's Alexander Isak and Newcastle United's Lewis Miley battle for the ball during the Premier League match at St James' Park Photo credit should read: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire.
IT didn't quite run to 4-3 but it could have done and defences most certainly weren't on top as Tyneside and Merseyside came together to remember one of their own. King Kev would have loved it.
A rivalry which has become synonymous with late drama delivered again as Domiik Szoboszlai put Liverpool level with a 99th minute penalty fired confidently into the top corner beyond Lukas Hornicek after an inadvisable challenge by Lewis Hall on substitute Victor Munoz - who came close to joining the Magpies in the summer Newcastle emerged from a summer of discontent that has seen the departure of their manager and the heart ripped out of their midfield to put in a display to lift some of the gloom to have descended in this corner of the North-East, only for victory to be snatched from them at the death.
Alexander Isaak drew a blank on his first return to St James' Park as a player taunted as a 'rat' by furious Newcastle fans failed to upstage MIghty Mouse - the nickname given during his spell with Hamburg to Keegan, who passed last month aged 75.
A goal in each half from Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock - who both ended lengthy Premier League goal droughts in the process - either side of a second-half equaliser from Cody Gakpo helped ensure, suitably enough for a contest paying tribute to Special K, at times resembled a basketball match.
Liverpool probably did enough to merit a point, but there remains much for Andoni Iraola to work on with the defensive frailties which pock-marked Arne Slot's farewell campaign still clear to see as they started life without Mo Salah in largely unconvincing fashion.
Elanga failed to find the net in Premier League last season following his arrival from Nottingham Forest but hit the ground running this time by opening his account five minutes into the new campaign.
The goal was the epitome of a swift counter-attack as two passes from Amar Dedic and Will Osula propelled the ball from one area to the other for Elanga to outpace Milos Kerkez and beat Alisson Becker with a confident right foot angled drive into the bottom corner, all stemming from Ryan Gravenberch surrendering possession in front of the Gallowgate End.
Liverpool's Dutch midfielder was involved in a rather more positive manner when he teed-up his side's equaliser 10 minutes into the second half. Gakpo was given time and space to turn onto a Gravenberch pass outside the Newcastle area, and made the hosts pay by finding the bottom corner with a fine finish from 20 yards.
Parity lasted precisely 176 seconds. Yoane Wissa was allowed to run 60 yards from the edge of his own area before playing in Willock, who steadied himself before digging out a fine right foot effort beyond Alisson from the edge of the area into the bottom corner with his second touch after coming on. It was the substitute's first Premier League goal in two-and-a-half years.
Wissa should have put the result beyond doubt when failing to apply a finishing touch to a cross with the goal at his mercy, before his shot was blocked by Alisson after being put through on goal as Liverpool left gaps in search of an equaliser.
They proved to be costly misses when Hall blotted anotherwise pristine copy book by fouling Munoz deep into stoppage time and Szoboszlai did the rest with one of the most emphatic penalties you're likely to see this season.
Hornicek 7; Dedic 7, Thiaw 7, Botman 7, Hall 6; Miley 7 (Bamba 76, 6), Steur 6 (Ramsey 56, 6); Elanga 8 (Murphy 76, 6), Wissa 6 (Schar 90, 6), Barnes 6; Osula 7 (Willock 56, 7).
Booked: Wissa, Miley. Ramsey, Murphy, Hornicek
Becker 6; Frimpong 5, Jacquet 6 (Araujo 70, 6), van Dijk 6, Kerkez 5; Szoboszlai 8, Gravenberch 6 (Koumas 78, 6 ); Ngumoha 4 (Munoz 63, 7), Wirtz 5 (MacAllister 63, 6), Gakpo 7; Isak 3. Booked: Kerkez, Frimpong, van Dijk.
Stuart Attwell
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