It ended Newcastle United 0 Aston Villa 1.

I was embarrassed to be a Newcastle United fan today.

Not because of the team.

It was some of my fellow supporters, an absolute disgrace.

A minority booing the team off at half-time and full-time.

What exactly were they booing?

The team;s effort was unbelievable, why would you boo your own players when they are giving it their all.

Booing the Newcastle United team because they weren’t as good as Aston Villa today, is that where we are at now with a vocal minority of our fans?

It is like standing outside your local corner shop and booing because they don’t sell caviar.

These Newcastle United players gave it everything today and they simply weren’t good enough.

Newcastle edged the second half but simply lacked inspiration and quality in and around the box.

In the first half Villa were easily the better and more dangerous team and deserved to lead at the break.

With them in front and set at the back, United just didn’t have the quality to break them open enough times.

At moments like this you need a bit of luck and it didn’t happen, when the ball did fall in the penalty area it just wasn’t quite in the right place for our players to take advantage. Whilst Suzuki made a world class save to deny Botman with his fingertips, Hornicek did really well to get his fingertips to Manzambi’s header but couldn’t keep it out. Such are the margins at times.

If you think today was justified to boo the manager and players, you should hand your season tickets and memberships in now.

Injuries and balancing trying to bring key players back when they aren’t fully fit, it has been so tough for Matthias Jaissle. Inheriting a team that had lost its best players (apart from Lewis Hall, who was best player for Newcastle by a million miles) and then the Sporting Director buying a load of young inexperienced players from overseas as ones for the future who will hopefully improve with time in both effectiveness and value.

No doubt those booing today were many of the same ones booing in the second half of last season when Eddie Howe’s small squad was hit by so many injuries and a 58 match season proving mission impossible.

If you are hoping to boo this manager out of his job then be careful what you wish for.

Newcastle United 0 Aston Villa 1 – Saturday 17 October 2026 5.30pm

Match Stats

Goals:

Villa:

Manzambi 36

Possession was Newcastle 49% Coventry 51%

Total shots were Newcastle 16 Coventry 15

Shots on target were Newcastle 1 Villa  3

Corners were Newcastle 4 Villa 5

Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 39 Villa 27

Hornicek, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Lewis Miley, Gonzalez, Willock (Osula 56), Joelinton (Burn 90), Wissa, Barnes, Fernandez-Pardo (Toure 56)

Unused subs:

Pope, Schar, Bamba, Steur, Dedic, Murphy