The Magpies' Bruno Guimarães Worsens Postecoglou's Growing Troubles at Forest

Forest's manager walked towards the tunnel scratching his head, his eyes downcast. After 7 games in charge and no victories, his immediate future seemed as uncertain as thick mist over the river.

Although Newcastle were far from their best level, late goals from the Brazilian midfielder and the German striker—the latter a spot-kick—eventually earned them a much-needed second top-flight victory this campaign.

From the start, the manager's insulated jacket swaddled him like a duvet, but the Australian's restless gestures indicated it offered no solace.

No jacket could protect Postecoglou from the anxiety that his winless start by the Trent—having arrived as the first manager in a century without a win in his first half-dozen games—would continue ahead of a possible sacking over the international break.

However, his team did not do too badly during a defensively stingy opening period.

Although Elliot Anderson on occasion outshone even Sandro Tonali in midfield, showing everyone why Eddie Howe was so reluctant to let go of the homegrown talent, Nikola Milenkovic contained Woltemade effectively, and Nicolò Savona gave the full-back difficulties down the home left.

In fairness to the forward, who got minimal supply in the air or on the ground, his side's creative department lacked fluidity.

Admittedly, it took a fine fingertip save from the Forest goalkeeper—a former Newcastle shot-stopper—to keep out the Brazilian's effort, and the midfielder missed a couple opportunities, but generally, Forest's defense was significantly better.

Considering it is barely a few weeks since the Australian replaced his predecessor and matches have come thick and fast, leaving precious little time to put into practice his ideas on the practice field, all the talk of an looming dismissal seemed somewhat ridiculous.

Or at least it did until Guimarães lifted a effort over the keeper and into the top corner from the edge of the box.

It left Postecoglou looking dismayed in apparent frustration, with the pained expression of a man who had just lost his house keys.

The Forest squad complained about a possible infraction on Morgan Gibbs-White by the scorer in the lead-up, but their appeals were ignored by the officials.

As the Italian now dominant in midfield, Anderson was not the sole away player struggling to make an impact.

At this point, the coach had thrown off his anorak and pushed up the arms of his jumper. With Forest seldom looking capable of scoring and the hosts threatening to shred their earlier much-enhanced defensive organisation, he was obviously under pressure.

It took another excellent save from the goalkeeper to keep out Tonali's volleyed cross-shot, before the following set-piece prefaced Woltemade's half-volley hitting the bottom of the crossbar.

Sels then made an superb two quick stops from the defender and Harvey Barnes before eventually being beaten again from the penalty spot by Woltemade.

The penalty was awarded when the midfielder's poorly timed tackle brought the Brazilian tumbling down.

Stepping up, the German forward to confound the goalie by lifting a rather audacious penalty into the upper left side.

It was Woltemade's 4th goal for the club since his seventy-million-pound move from Stuttgart in the summer, contradicting comments from senior figures at Bayern Munich that the Magpies were “foolish” to pay so much for the centre-forward.

This may not have been Woltemade's best performance in black and white, but his skill to hold the ball up and use his sticky touch to connect attacks is already making him a fan favorite on in Newcastle.

Rebecca Peters
Rebecca Peters

Tech enthusiast and writer with a passion for exploring how emerging technologies shape our future.