Please leave ratings for all players who have played 20 mins or more.

Scoring is from 3 to 10 as follows:

10 - Out of this World
9 - Excellent
8 - Very Good
7 - Good
6 - Average
5 - Below Par
4 - Poor
3 - Abysmal

Heaton 7
Taylor 8
Mee 5
Tarks 3
Bardlsey 5
McNeil 3
Cork 3
Hendrick 3
JBG 3
Wood 5 - hard to judge, no service
Barnes 5 - hard to judge no service
Brady 5

night to forget, reminded me of Sunderland away last time we got relegated (not suggesting we will this time though but we need a few more wins)

Dyche 3

From TV...

Heaton 6

Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 6
Mee 6
Taylor 8

JBG 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 4
McNeil 4

Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 5
Crouch 5
Vydra 5

Heaton - 7 - Not much he could do with the goals, couple of good moments throughout the game.
Bardsley - 5 - Not his usual self tonight.
Mee - 5 - Looked the better of the back two.
Tarks - 4 - Missed a sitter and a very good headed chance and also let frustration get the better of him.
Taylor - 9 - Don't think he did a thing wrong all game. The only player who really looked up for it.
Cork - 4- Anonymous
Hendrick -5 - Did try, but looked poor throughout.
JBG - 4 - Nothing went for him tonight and he didn't really make any big impression defensively either.
Mcneil - 4 - Taken out of the game entirely by Newcastle and looked incredibly lethargic.
Barnes - 5 - Put himself about, but was trying to feed on the scraps of the long balls from Tarks.
Wood - 5 - Also had nothing to work with. The Newcastle defence had him in their pocket,

Brady -4 - Offered very little in open play, had one decent chance from his first of two corners.

Heaton 7
Bardsley 6
Taylor 7*
Mee 6
Tarky 5
McNeil 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 4
JBG 5
Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 5
Crouch 6

The ultimate ‘After the Lord Mayor show’ ....missed our Player-of-the-year Westwood
(Off telly)
Heaton 7
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 5
Mee 6
Taylor 8*
JBG 6
Cork 5
Hendrick 5
McNeill 4 (Brady 5)
Barnes 5
Wood 6 (Crouch 5)

Heaton 7 - Few good saves and clearances

Bardsley 5 - Ponderous tonight
Tarkowski 4 - Gave him a 10 on Saturday but tonight he was awful. Missed a sitter and thought he was Beckenbauer (albeit had little options in midfield to pass to)
Mee 5 - Bullied by Rondon - again
Taylor 8* - Our best player on the night by a distance

JBG 4 - Struggled to get in the game and when he did his passing was woeful
Cork 5 - Looked tired, missed Westwood
Hendrick 5 - Been playing so well lately on the right that he looked completely out of place in the middle
McNeil 5 - Very lethargic tonight (as were most)

Barnes 5 - No service but couldn't make the ball stick
Wood 5 - As Barnes

Brady 6 - Helped move us forward on the odd occasion

As good as were against Spurs we were as poor tonight. Shame but other results mean it doesn't hurt us too much. Lethargic all over the pitch and missed Westwood's tenacity and tidiness.

We brush this aside and move onto the weekend now.

Heaton 7
Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 5
Mee 6
Taylor 8
JBG 4
Hendrick 5
Cork 5
McNeill 5 / Brady 5
Barnes 5
Wood 6

From space

Heaton - 5
Bardsley - 5
Mee - 6
Tarkowski - 5
Taylor - 7*
Gudmundsson - 4
Cork - 5
Hendrick - 6
O'Neil - 5
Wood - 5
Barnes - 5

Brady - 3

Heaton 7

Bards 7
Tarks 6
Mee 6
Taylor 8 **

JBG 5
Cork 5
Hendrick 5
McNeil 5

Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 4
Crouch 5
Vydra 5

Heaton -7 could do nothing with either goal but swept up well

Bardsley - 6 generally did well but wasn't the outlet he was on saturday due to their formation.

Mee -6 solid, seemed to handle Rondon better than his partner

Tarkowski - 4 for somebody purported to be a ball playing centre back, quite why he chose to pump it 80yards every time he had the ball is beyond me. Also missed a sitter

Taylor - 8 defensively sound and offered width with the ball

Gudmunsson -5 offered little

Cork -5 missing his usual partner and looked leggy which isn't surprising

Hendrick -6 put himself about and generally played it simple

McNeil -4 poor. Will put it down to his efforts on Saturday but had no "umph" with or without the ball, with very slow reaction times

Wood -5 not strong enough, not helped with the balls fired in high against their 3 big centre halves.

Barnes -5 as above

Brady -6 a little more spark than McNeil, but not much
Crouch -6 caused problems just by his presence without contributing much
Vydra - n/a

Vegas Claret wrote:Heaton 7
Taylor 8
Mee 5
Tarks 3
Bardlsey 5
McNeil 3
Cork 3
Hendrick 3
JBG 3
Wood 5 - hard to judge, no service
Barnes 5 - hard to judge no service
Brady 5

night to forget, reminded me of Sunderland away last time we got relegated (not suggesting we will this time
though but we need a few more wins)

Dyche 3

Nice to see a honest appraisal of the performance

Diabolical performance from all bar taylor

From TV

Heaton 6
Bardsley 5
Mee 5
Tarkowski 5
Taylor 8

Gudmundsson 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 5
McNeil 4

Barnes 5
Wood 5

Brady 4

After a fabulous run since Boxing Day only Taylor showed Up tonight.

Heaton 7
Bardsley 6
Taylor 8
Mee 6
Tarky 5
McNeil 5
Cork 4
Hendrick 5
JBG 6
Wood 5
Barnes 6

Brady 5
Crouch 6

That was very disappointing. It emphasized the weakness of certain players. Cork got bossed about, McNeil was absent, Tarks complacent, Brady and JBG totally disinterested. Apart from the back 3 Newcastle were pretty poor

Heaton 7
Bardsley 6
Tarks 6
Mee 6
Taylor 8
Cork 5
Hendrick 5
McNeil 4
JBG 5
Wood 5
Barnes 6

Subs too late

Heaton 7

Bards 5
Tarks 5 struggled
Mee 6 average
Taylor 8 Decent.

JBG 4 nothing.
Cork 4 looked lost
Hendrick 3 absolute joke of a performance
McNeil 3 nothing. At all.

Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 4 hmm
Crouch 4 I just feel embarrassed when he comes on.
Vydra 3 just a rubbish player, give up.

Heaton 6
Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 4
Mee 6
Taylor 7*
JBG 5
Hendrick 4
Cork 6
McNeill 4
Barnes 4
Wood 4

Brady 5

Vydra 3 just a rubbish player, give up.

Jesus, thought he did well actually!

From the TV

Heaton 7 Didn't do much wrong and didn't have that much to do
Bardsley 6 Again OK-ish, but didn't really offer much going forward
Mee 6 Did what he had to do but got himself booked needlessly
Tarkowski 6 Not his best game and could have got a goal.
Taylor 8 Probably our best player on the night and tried to get forward.
Gudmunsson 5 Was hoping for more from him tonight but did very little
Cork 5 Pretty poor for me but our midfield was too
Hendrick 5 Didn't look too happy
McNeil 4 Very poor but hardly got the ball and when he did wasn't sure what to do with it.
Wood 5 Just didn't get much of the ball in any threatening positions
Barnes 5 Offered very little

Brady 6 Needs a few games before we see the best of him.
Crouch 5 Wasn't ever likely to happen and it didn't.

Overall extremely disappointing performance especially compared with Saturday.
To say Newcastle didn't play particularly well we played much worse.
We never looked like scoring through open play.

We'll need to up it big time against Palace on Saturday.

Heaton 6
Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 5
Mee 6
Taylor 8
JBG 5
Hendrick 4
Cork 4
McNeil 4
Barnes 5
Wood 5

Brady 5

From TV...

Heaton 6

Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 5 needs to work to his goal scoring attributes
Mee 6
Taylor 8 best game

JBG 4 poor
Cork 5 (fouled on one of the goals)
Hendrick 5
McNeil 4

Wood 7 (great turn and denied by the keeper) poor service
Barnes 6 (should have been an assist Tarky!) poor service

Brady 4 Poor
Crouch 6 (caused damage )
Vydra 6 worried them

Taylor 7
Heaton 6
Mee 6
Everyone else 5

Disappointing performance after Saturdays excellent effort but hopefully this is a reminder (not that one was really needed) that we ain't safe yet and we'll learn from this and bounce back on Saturday.

burnley007 wrote:Heaton 7

Bards 5
Tarks 5 struggled
Mee 6 average
Taylor 8 Decent.

JBG 4 nothing.
Cork 4 looked lost
Hendrick 3 absolute joke of a performance
McNeil 3 nothing. At all.

Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 4 hmm
Crouch 4 I just feel embarrassed when he comes on.
Vydra 3 just a rubbish player, give up.

Giving somebody a 3 for 5 minutes work is a bit harsh.

Murger wrote:Giving somebody a 3 for 5 minutes work is a bit harsh.

Just annoyed. Long day at work tomorrow, in Newcastle!!

From TV

Heaton 6
Bardsley 5
Mee 5
Tarkowski 4
Taylor 8

Gudmundsson 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 5
McNeil 4

Barnes 5
Wood 5

Brady 4
Good grief that was poor, would Westwood have made any difference ?, I don’t know.
But if he ate anything dodgy, I wish he hadn’t.
Zero service to the strikers.
Glad I am not paying for BT Sport yet!.

All poor physically and mentally, apart from Taylor, who had his best game for us.

Heaton 6 - could have done better with 1st goal
Bardsley 5 nowt special and not an outlet down the right
Tarks 5 - launched so many long balls I thought he was back at t'Latics!
Mee 7
Taylor 9 - this guy gets better, our best attacker and only outlet, MOM
JBG 4 poor
Cork 6 tried but short of help in midfield
Hendrick 5 off the pace tonight
McNeil 4 a poor first half, could not get into the game
Barnes 5 but no service
Wood 5 ditto

Brady needs game time, Crouch OK, Vydra not on long enough

We didn't turn up in the 1st half and made a modest Newcastle look like Manchester City.

Heaton 7 - played like a sweeper centre back at times.
Bardsley 6 - not in the game alot
Taylor 8 - our only ray of hope but neither McNeil or Brady were on the same wavelength
Mee - 7 thought he got through a lot of work tonight and actually set a few moves going
Tarky - 5 needs more consistency and to keep it simple
McNeil - 3 not at the races tonight
Cork - 5 struggled manfully
Hendrick - 5 looks better out wide
JBG - 6 uninvolved in the first half put some decent crosses in in the second
Wood - 5 nothing stuck and no real threat
Barnes - 5 pretty much as above.

Brady - 5 stopped the flood down the left hand side
Crouch - 4 looks shot to me.

Heaton 7

Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 6
Mee 6
Taylor 8 MoM

JBG 5
Cork 4
Hendrick 5
McNeil 4

Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 6
Crouch 5

Heaton 6
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 5
Mee 6
Taylor 7
JBG 5
Hendrick 5
Cork 5
McNeill 4
Barnes 5
Wood 5

Brady 4

After the high of Saturday, the bump to Earth.

Best dust ourselves down and look forward to the next match on Saturday.

Up the Clarets

This was a frustrating one but has been met with complete overreactions all around. We went behind to a once in a lifetime goal from a centre back, and once behind against these lot we’re always going to struggle - worth pointing out I thought they were excellent at what they did.
We couldn’t get going and everything was slow and lethargic. Westwood obviously a big miss after recent form. The fans on social media asking for a refund are frankly embarrassing.

Heaton 6 - A few kicks straight out of play. Can’t blame him for the first.

Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 5 - Fine defensively. Cut a frustrated figure when trying to find a pass. His long passes come off 5/10.
Mee 6 - Always finds it tough v Rondon. But not too bad todah. They hardly created much let’s be honest.
Taylor 8

Gudmundsson 5 - Bit rusty. Sloppy touches. His crosses often fail to penetrate.
Cork 5 - Fouled before the second? Looked it from row ZZZ in the away end.
Hendrick 3 - I have a real love-hate relationship with this guy. Hated him tonight. So lethargic and ineffective.
McNeil 4 - Still gets us forward more than others but sloppy in possession today.
Brady 4 - Frustrating

Barnes & Wood 5 - Just wasn’t happening

Heaton 7 - Couple of good moments
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 5 - Missed a sitter
Mee 6
Taylor 8 - Positive
JBG 4
Hendrick 4
Cork 4
McNeil 4
Barnes 5
Wood 5

Brady 4

Midfielder were all poor today, McNeil wasn't in the game at all. Tired, insipid performance but we go again on Saturday.

Heaton 5 No idea what he was trying to do with second goal.
Bardsley 5 outpaced all night
Tarks 3 Sorry
Mee 4
Taylor 8 MOM Only one who looked interested
JBG 5
Cork 5 Missed Westy ?
Hendrick 4 couldnt pass wind tonight
Mcneil 3 I can only assume he was unwell
Barnes 4
Wood 4 Did either striker win anything

Brady 4 weak
Crouch 3 Is he seriously our third striker
Vydra Actually made a difference

Sorry Sean the greasy spoon out foxed you tonight. Great run over Start again Saturday.Having said that if Tarks taps in the open chance and ref gives clear pen on JBG we could easily have taken a point against a very poor Newcastle.

Some harsh ratings on here.
How can you doubt this squad after the massive effort against Spurs etc.
A Game too soon, a worldiy strike for the first and from then on uphill.
The fact the midfield were outnumbered and they played well.
Cork was snapped at all game and our forwards were bossed - the rest of the midfield had no chance to play.
We were left to Tarks to play a killer pass to bypass midfield - a long shot.
Part of me thinks Vydra for Wood at half time playing in front of the midfield may have helped even up the play.

All 6's and 7's for me, Brady a 4 or 5 he just is not back to pace yet - Taylor an 8.
Just a bad day where players looked knackered. Not short of effort.

Heaton 6
Bardsley 5
Tarks 5
Mee 6
Taylor 8 mom
McNeil 3 (did he touch the ball?)
JBG 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 5
Wood 5
Barnes 5
Brady 4

Heaton 6 great strike, but looked well positioned to his near post to let that 1 past.
Bardsley 6
Taylor 7 easily MOM
Mee 6
Tarky 5 missed a sitter, too many over hit lumps up
McNeil 4 anonymous
Cork 4 gave the ball away time and time again, including the first. Missed his partner.
Hendrick 5 very poor display for his "natural position"
JBG 5 offered nothing, weak on the ball
Wood 5 feeding off scraps
Barnes 5 as above

Brady 5 As per JBG, although also wasted opportunities with sill decisions
Crouch 6 helped create our only mini spell of the 2nd half which lasted 30 seconds, can see why he's been brought in as an emergency forward

Bad day at the office, Rafa has now done a perfect tactical job on us twice now.
We barely had a kick, midfield were over run and the amount of over hit balls either gone out of play or into their GK hands were alarming.

Needs to be parked asap, lets just hope palace look as tired as we did tonight on Saturday.

A return to aimless hoofball.

Heaton 7
Bardsley 5
Taylor 8*
Mee 5
Tarky 3
McNeil 3
Cork 3
Hendrick 3
JBG 3
Wood 5
Barnes 4

Brady 4

Heaton 7
Bardsley 6
Taylor 8 (MOM)
Mee 6
Tarkowski 5
McNeil 5
Cork 5
Hendrick 5
JBG 5
Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 5

3 points from Spurs (H) and Magpies (A). I'd have taken that last Saturday morning!

Heaton could have done better with the first goal? Really?!

From TV

Heaton 6

Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 6
Mee 7
Taylor 8 MOM

Gudmundsson 4
Hendrick 4
Cork 5
McNeil 4 (Brady 5)

Barnes 5
Wood 6

Ratings from shouting at the tv

Heaton 7 - no chance with either goal
Bardsley 5 - not at attacking full back, surprised he wasn't switched with Lowton at some stage
Tarks 6 - solid at the defensive bit, but missed a sitter, missed a decent chance and distribution not great. But v solid in defending
Mee 6 - solid
Taylor 8* - comfortably our best player
McNeil 4 - as good as he has been, he was completely anonymous tonight in all areas
Cork 5 - caught on the ball a couple of times, including in the build up for the crucial 2nd
Hendrick 4 - another one who has been superb but really struggled in CM
JBG 5 - should score really and poor throughout
Barnes 5 - never got a sniff
Wood 5 - as Barnes

Subs
Crouch 5 -
Brady 5 - another one who really needs to find some form
Vydra 6 - should have been on earlier as he offered something different

Feels a bit harsh on reflection, but Newcastle were as likely to score as we were (ie never) till they popped in a worldie. That knocked us completely out of shape for the rest of the half and we never got out of 2nd gear. I understand we are good at what we do, but we do need to change it when it isn't working and we completely failed at that tonight. But despite that, Tarks misses a sitter, JBG should probably have had a pen and a couple of scrambles in their box could have gone our way (like their 2nd goal).

Shame the run has ended, but we need to put it right on sat with a much better performance

Heaton 6
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 4
Mee 6
Taylor 8
JBG 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 4
McNeil 4
Barnes 5
Wood 6

Brady 6

As bad as Tarky's distribution was it shouldn't really be his job. Hendrick is a right sided midfielder after all, which gives us a surfeit of wingers and a chronic shortage of central midfielders. Good to see Taylor dishing out a rollocking - a sign of growing confidence and leadership.

UTC!

Heaton 6
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 4 seems to perform like this as soon as there is a sniff of England. Probably thought he had done enough on Saturday. No composure at all.
Mee 6
Taylor 8 mom the one bright spark. He is looking more like a PL player now.
JBG 5
Hendrick 4 can’t believe we actually signed him as a central midfielder
Cork 4 looked lightweight and ill
McNeil 4 poor
Barnes 5 but little service
Wood 5 as above

Brady 5 doesn’t offer a lot
Crouch looked lost

Hoof ball, unable to string passes together, no energy or composure against a fairly poor Newcastle side.

A disappointing end to our recent run, but the positive is that despite being comfortably second best, the chance count remained pretty even (as did most of the other stats).

Heaton - 8 - Initially thought he might have done better with the opener, but replays showed otherwise. A couple of tidy saves, and quickly off his line more than once to snuff out danger at source.

Bardsley - 5 - Thought Newcastle tried to exploit him on the turn, with some success, and when we're chasing the game we miss the superior quality on the ball that Lowton gives us.

Taylor - 8 - Defensively sound, and by some distance our biggest threat going forwards.

Tarkowski - 6 - Caught in possession once or twice, but defensively he was solid enough.

Mee - 8 - Thought he maintained his good recent form and was probably the biggest single reason why we restricted Newcastle to two real chances - the second goal and Almeron's one v one chance - in 90 minutes.

Hendrick - 6 - Thought he started OK during a tight and tidy enough first 25 minutes, but struggled to take the initiative once we were behind.

Cork - 5 - Poorest game for a while, and even if he was fouled for the second goal, he ran himself into trouble and then failed to track back with the necessary determination to match Longstaff, the player who had dispossessed him.

JBG - 5 - We got the ball to him periodically in some dangerous areas, but his quality was well below the level we've come to expect from him.

McNeil - 5 - One useful early run, but he was a peripheral figure and this felt like a game too far for him. Perhaps had Westwood been fit he'd have been given the night off.

Barnes - 5 - No great service, but unable to break free of the Newcastle back 3 to give us a focal point.

Wood - 6 - Thought he put himself around reasonably well and was very unlucky not to equalise at 1-0.

Brady - 6 - I thought he did OK and was one of the brighter spots of the evening.

Crouch - 5 - Was surprised that he rather than Vydra was the first sub, and I'm not too sure the plan worked.

Vydra - 6 - No great impact but I thought he provided a bit more mobility up front.


This was just one of those nights. It wasn't absolutely terrible - after an untroubled start, we were unlucky to find ourselves a goal down to a worldie (apparently, the first goal Newcastle have scored from outside the area this season), very unlucky that a top class save denied Wood an equaliser, then conceded a bad second goal and the game was gone. Even then, had Tarks taken his gilt edged chance before half time, we might have given ourselves the platform to get an equaliser. At the other end, once the two goals were scored we restricted Newcastle to one real chance and a few half chances. For the second time this season against Newcastle, we've no complaints at losing the game but actually played at least as well as in other games when we've taken a point or three.

Benitez adopted a shape that has troubled us before - we've built out attacking play on the physicality of Barnes and Wood, and their ability to exploit space in the channels, to get the midfield quartet coming onto the ball. Newcastle's 3 centre backs dealt with that threat comfortably, which placed an onus on the midfield quartet to create stuff from deeper.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to do it, and the reshuffled midfield illustrated how important both Westwood has been, and Hendrick has been in injecting energy and dynamism down the right hand side. Without it, the midfield looked a touch lightweight and we lacked athleticism in wide areas on both sides. We might have got away with it had we kept the game 0-0 and been able to play on the counter attack, but once that option was extinguished we didn't have much to offer.

Hey-ho, Saturday is a different day.

Heaton 7
Beardsley 6
Tarks 6
Mee 6
Taylor 8
McNeil 4
Hendrick 4
Cork 5
Gudmonson 5
Wood 5
Barnes 5

Brady 4
Crouch 5

Pre Xmas performance was this one, lets hope we can bounce back on Saturday with a win

Missed Westwood who has been excellent since the new year

3 Bardsley,Tarks, McNeill, Cork, Gudmunson, Hendrick
4 Barnes, Wood,
6 Heaton, Mee
8 Taylor

SUBS All 3
As good as it was Saturday it was as poor tonight, too many players didn't look up for it, we desperately need another combative midfielder because it certainly isn't Jeff Hendrick

Heaton 6
Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 5
Mee 6
Taylor 9
JBG 5
Hendrick 4
Cork 4
McNeil 3
Barnes 5
Wood 6

Brady 5

Heaton 5 I’m not convinced about his part in the first
Bardsley 5 nothing came off
Tarkowski 3 seemed to set the tone in first few seconds with an aimless punt and continued for the full 90 mins
Mee 5 bullied a bit
Taylor 8 the only plus
JBG 4 way off the pace
Hendrick 3 only contribution could have been a red
Cork 4 another who seemed well off it
McNeil 3 very poor. First time for us
Barnes 4 little to go on and offered nothing when he did get it
Wood 5 slightly better than Barnes

Brady 3 little difference in that position to first half.
Crouch 5
Vydra 6

Not sure where that performance came from. It was miles away from where we have been recently. Mentioned on a few threads after game I was expecting Dyche to say we’d had a bug in the camp that a few more apart from Westwood were suffering with but doesn’t seem to be the case.

Still despite an awful performance it was us that created the better chances and it was our wastefulness that cost us.

From TV
Heaton 6
Bardsley 4
Tarkowski 5
Mee 7
Taylor 8
Gudmundsson 4
Cork 4
Hendrick 4
McNeil 4
Wood 4
Barnes 4

Brady 4
Crouch 4

Just a dire performance. Last time we played them Benitez 'did for us' tactically. Three months later he 'did for us' again as we decided to repeat the same mistakes. I always thought that we might learn from previous mistakes but not last night.

Heaton 7
Taylor 8
Mee 7
Tarks 6
Bardlsey 6
McNeil 5
Cork 5
Hendrick 5
JBG 5
Wood 6
Barnes 6
Brady 5

Taylor very encouraging and MOM
Hendrick far better on the right, Brady very disappointing