Newcastle vs Norwich City match report: Georginio Wijnaldum scores four as Magpies record first league win of the season

Newcastle 6 Norwich 2

Georginio Wijnaldum heads in his hat-trick goal

There was a moment, after Aleksandar Mitrovic had scored Newcastle’s fourth goal, and before he started shooting pistols in celebration, that Steve McClaren turned to those supporters near his dugout and roared: “Come on!”

You do not see Steve McClaren roar a great deal. It was the cry of a relieved man, a nod to the growing anxiety that had engulfed the football club he walked into back in June.

Until yesterday there had not been a Premier League win under McClaren, let alone a player scoring four goals for the first time since Alan Shearer did so in 1999, as Georginio Wijnaldum did, to clear a portion of the doom that had hung over Tyneside.

The significance of the Mitrovic goal, which created breathing space for a team under severe pressure when the scoreline was 3-2 with Norwich pressing, and the victory it acted as platform for will not be known for a long time.

You cannot start talking about historic victories or turning points on one result, but a rotten run of one victory from 19 league games was at least halted, and McClaren left St James’ Park last night with that most precious of things: time.

He knew that when Mitrovic took down Moussa Sissoko’s pass on his chest, waited for the ball to fall to the right height and then smashed a left-footed shot into the goal at the Leazes End of the Stadium.

It was the centre-forward’s first goal at St James’ Park. It was his second for the club. He wears 45 because the number nine shirt is in the ownership of Papiss Cisse, at least for now, and he has overcome the three-game ban he picked up for being sent off against Arsenal in fairly impressive style.

There was joy as he ran towards the Leazes End to celebrate and in his words afterwards, “we showed we can play football,” came the suggestion of desire in the Newcastle squad.

That has been questioned as much as anything in recent weeks. It was again yesterday. For spells, they wobbled alarmingly. Alex Neil, the Norwich manager, suggested the scoreline could have been 8-8. He called it a basketball match, and McClaren had the decency to admit his team rode their luck at times.

That is testimony to the fragility of the players for whom this was only their fourth league victory in the entirety of 2015. It was not as emphatic as the scoreline suggests.

There was much for McClaren to enthuse over, not least the performance of Sissoko, who was involved in the creation of Newcastle’s first five goals.

For the first he shaped to shoot twice before slipping in Wijnaldum, who shot low into the corner of John Ruddy’s goal. Norwich equalised within six minutes, when Dieumerci Mbokani prodded a Martin Olsson left-wing cross past Rob Elliot. Sissoko again turned provider, floating a cross from the right that dissected Russell Martin and Sebastien Bassong, where Wijnaldum headed in his second.

The third was not far behind, again Sissoko was its creator, teeing up Ayoze Perez, who drilled a shot past Ruddy at the second attempt. At 3-1 it did not look comfortable. Norwich had already struck the post through Robbie Brady in the 17th minute. In the 34th they had scored a second, from another Olsson cross, Nathan Redmond cleverly volleying into the Newcastle goal.

That meant the opening 15 minutes of the second half were a nervy affair. Norwich, as Neil admitted, were chasing a victory at that point, and in the 53rd minute, Sebastien Bassong’s header was cleared off the line by Wijnaldum. In the 60th minute McClaren was pitchside, urging more from his players. Four minutes later he got it, as Mitrovic struck. McClaren celebrated.

‘Did you relax at 4-2?’ he was asked.

“No!” he said.

‘5-2?’

“A little bit!”

The fifth goal came two minutes after the fourth, Daryl Janmaat crossing from the right and Wijnaldum, who had played the ball to the defender, leapt to head into the Norwich goal.

There was still time for Redmond to drill a low shot past Elliott, which cannoned off the far post of the Newcastle goal at the Gallowgate End and for Mbokani to deflect a shot off the goalkeeper, who stood in for his first Premier League start in six months, following the knee injury that has ended Tim Krul’s campaign.

With two minutes remaining, Wijnaldum was afforded space on the left and from 25 yards from goal unleashed a superb strike that took a deflection as it flew past Ruddy.

It was their sixth goal from their sixth shot on target and it gave Newcastle their biggest victory since August 2010.

McClaren was asked if it was possible to make sense of the victory.

“Is it possible to make any sense? That’s what we’re fast discovering,” he replied. “That was just reward. I’m pleased for the players and I’m pleased for the fans.

“Like we’ve said all along, not to get too down and not to get too high, but it shows what we’re capable of when it comes together.

“How do I feel? It’s relief and then thinking we have to prepare and do it again next week. It’s very short. The feeling is very short. Football is all about momentum. You need that first one. Behind the scenes it’s a huge relief, for everybody.”