Newcastle vs Liverpool match report: Georginio Wijnaldum seals victory after Martin Skrtel own goal

Newcastle 2 Liverpool 0: Alberto Moreno was denied a perfectly good equaliser that was deemed offside

Georginio Wijnaldum scores against Liverpool (GETTY IMAGES)

The final twist of the knife for Liverpool came in the 95th minute, when the Gallowgate End of St James’ Park burst into the Beatles’ Hey Jude.

It is a song that was adopted years ago by the Newcastle support and it is aired as a symbol of pride in the region and the team, the word “Geordies” belted out at the end of the finale’s stirring chorus.

That same end of the stadium, so called because it used to house the gallows of the area, had come more in expectation of another culling, more change in their club, Steve McClaren this time with his head in a noose. No one in the city of Newcastle, before a ball was kicked today, foresaw what would follow; fight, energy, shape, desire.

Before a ball was kicked, they were arguing about how many Liverpool – so rampant of late – would score. Rarely has there been such fear, such acceptance that their team had so much surrender in it.

Rarely has Steve McClaren had so much riding on a game, not quite in terms of its importance to members of the boardroom – although a thumping would have made his grip on his job seriously precarious – but more to show those fans that he can turn the tide of misery that has washed over Tyneside for three-and-a-half years. Somewhere inside the club this week, they found spirit.

The significance of that cannot be understated, nor the brittle nature that had seen the team concede eight goals in successive games to Leicester City and then Crystal Palace. That the particular waving of the white flag was to Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace added another component to the cocktail of anger.

They do not wave white hankies at St James’ Park to call out their own team’s failings. Instead in every office, house, shop and bar, they dismissed their team in conversation for a week. They spoke only of how many free-scoring Liverpool would put past their team.

Two years ago, when Pardew was in charge, Newcastle conceded six at home to Liverpool. It was the worst defeat on home soil since 1925. It was felt that statistic would be revisited.

That was the starting point for today’s game. That was what something in the region of 48,000 Geordies expected to see. There were even muffled jeers when their captain, Fabricio Coloccini, had his name read out before kick-off. It was muted for the rest of the players.

This was breaking point. There was no hiding from that. Steve McClaren had managed just 14 Premier League games, but the weight of failure, of exasperation, fell on his shoulders. In his words afterwards, when phrases like “brink of crisis” were used, came the admission of what was on the line.

They had not looked like a group of men you would want fighting for your future. No one foresaw that they would almost crawl from the pitch, around 97 minutes after the opening whistle, with victory to their names and the stadium reclaiming a modicum of the region’s pride.

There is a mountain of work still to be done at Newcastle, but to have blunted Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool – 13 goals scored in their previous three away games – and to have found a priceless victory in the fight to stay in the Premier League was a rarefied moment.

They slowly found a path into the game. McClaren stood in his technical area from the start. He held the hands of his players as they faced three corners in the first 70 seconds. Newcastle grew into the game. Liverpool grew out of it. Nothing they did matched the start.

By the close of the half, Papiss Cissé had spurned a good opportunity and Chancel Mbemba had headed over. They were chinks of light for the home side.

Their opening goal would come in the 69th minute and it carried good fortune. There was debate about whether Georginio Wijnaldum should be in the starting XI on Wednesday, as McClaren tinkered with formations. McClaren called it a lightbulb moment on Thursday to keep faith with much of those who had failed before.

Wijnaldum ran himself into the ground for victory. He remains the most likely goalscorer in the side.

In the 69th minute he timed his run perfectly into the Liverpool penalty area, taking a pass from Moussa Sissoko, out wide on his right. The chance appeared to be fading as he moved across the Liverpool box, but he struck a shot that clipped the leg of Martin Skrtel to beat Simon Mignolet.

Afterwards McClaren would repeatedly use the mantra about luck following hard work. Given that Klopp would say he thought the start, the middle and the end of the game went wrong for his side, there was substance to his words.

There was nothing lucky about the winning goal, which came in the 93rd of the official 95 minutes that were due to be played. Sissoko did extremely well, once more from the right, to wait for the run of Wijnaldum. The player had earlier asked if he could come off because of his exertions when all three substitutes had been used. In the 93rd minute he drove into the Liverpool penalty area and cleverly lifted Sissoko’s cross over Mignolet.

McClaren gritted his teeth and repeatedly punched the air in celebration. There would even come a handshake of congratulations before the game had finished from Klopp. The substitute Daniel Sturridge had shot horrendously wide earlier and there was a volley from Alberto Moreno that cleared Rob Elliot and landed in the far corner of the Newcastle goal when it was 1-0. It was not off-side, which it was ruled out for, but the Newcastle goalkeeper claimed he was aware of the infringement.

They would prove minor details for Newcastle.

For once they got the bigger picture correct.