Just three days short of a year since Newcastle United overwhelmed Paris Saint-Germain on that famous Champions League night at St James’ Park, Eddie Howe’s side laboured to a deserved, if uninspiring, 1-0 victory over fourth-tier AFC Wimbledon. Despite Newcastle ’s 18 shots, 78 per cent possession and dominant territorial share, they only forced three saves from Owen Goodman , while their solitary goal came via a Fabian Schar penalty. Advertisement Even that spot-kick was controversial, with infuriated Wimbledon manager Johnnie Jackson labelling the penalty “dodgy”, given that Darren Bond, the referee, did not award it, and his assistant only belatedly did so, following an apparent foul from Joe Pigott on Miguel Almiron .
Regardless, Newcastle have booked themselves a Carabao Cup last-16 tie at home against Chelsea . The Athletic ’s Chris Waugh analyses the key takeaways from St James’ Park..
. William Osula is a rough diamond — and patience is very much required Newcastle’s present centre-forward shortage felt frustratingly inevitable due to Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson ’s respective injury records. With toe and hamstring problems respectively, neither is likely to feature at Everton on Saturday, with Anthony Gordon in line to deputise through the middle once more .
The England international is described by Howe as Newcastle’s “third striker”. This confirms summer signing Osula’s status as a “project player”. The 21-year-old failed to scor.