Nottingham Forest 1 Newcastle United 3: Joelinton and Barnes seal win for Howe's patient side

Joelinton and Harvey Barnes sealed a comeback win for Newcastle United against Nottingham Forest in a hard-fought Premier League match at the City Ground.

Murillo put the home side ahead with a header from a free-kick after just 20 minutes. However, Alexander Isak notched his fourth goal in as many games after the break, prodding home after the ball dropped to him from a corner.

In a tight game, where both teams looked most dangerous on the counter-attack, Joelinton struck a wonderful left-footed shot to put Eddie Howe’s side ahead with less than 20 minutes remaining, before Barnes sealed the three points late on.

Forest remain third in the table despite defeat, with Newcastle moving up to eighth going into the international break.

Chris Waugh breaks down the big talking points from the game.

Forest cornered

Praise be — Newcastle have scored from a corner.

Much has been made of their lack of (successful) ingenuity from dead-ball situations, with many fans questioning why they do not have a specialist set-piece coach (even if they do have an analyst dedicated to that role). Heading into this match, they had won 58 corners this season and failed to find the back of the net from any.

Five corners in against Forest, and at the 63rd time of asking in the Premier League in 2024-25, they found the back of the net. Albeit rather than from a clever routine, it was a rather scrappy goal.

Although Isak put a 12-yard volley wide of the right-hand post later in the second half, he used the woodwork to his advantage to bring Newcastle level, capitalising on Chris Wood’s inadvertent knockdown.

Newcastle’s second strike was nicely worked, however. Sandro Tonali progressed to halfway and passed to Isak, who spread play to Joelinton on the right.

Advancing into the area, he switched on to his left and curled a delicious effort in via the left-hand post. It put the icing on the cake for Sky Sports’ player of the match. Tonali played a key role in the third too, advancing with possession and passing to Barnes, who scored after coming off the bench once more.

For the first time this season, Forest had conceded two-or-more goals in a home game, having shipped only three all campaign at the City Ground before this match.

Although their final ball was lacking during the first half, Newcastle stayed patient and stuck to their game plan and, after the break, they were justly rewarded.

Defensive deficiencies

Dan Burn has played every single minute of Newcastle’s Premier League campaign so far, but the vice-captain will miss the home clash against West Ham United immediately after the international break, depriving Howe’s side of a key leader.

Joelinton, Fabian Schar and Burn all went into this match on four bookings and, somehow, the former, who has committed the most fouls in the Premier League this season and had an off-the-ball exchange with Morgan Gibbs-White, avoided another yellow. Burn, however, upended Gibbs-White on halfway, clearly preventing a counter-attack and received his fifth booking of the campaign, leading to a one-match suspension.

That came immediately following Ryan Yates’ elbow on Tino Livramento, which drew blood, meaning the game should have been stopped, while Joe Willock was also caught in the box by Anthony Elanga, only for play to continue.

Yet, despite Newcastle understandably feeling aggrieved about those two key first-half decisions, their own shortcomings when defending set pieces handed Forest a soft opener after 21 minutes. Elanga’s delivery from a free-kick on the right may have been superb, but Newcastle’s zonal-marking system let them down.

Alexander Isak dropped too deep, leaving a huge space in front of Joelinton, which Murillo ghosted into and powered a header beyond Nick Pope inside the six-yard box.

In a match which was always set to be defined by small margins — across the Premier League, there have been the fewest combined goals, for and against, in matches involving Newcastle and Forest this season — that was a mistake that nearly cost Newcastle.

Finding form

This has been a potentially season-defining 10 days for Newcastle — in a positive sense.

After advancing into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and securing a favourable home draw against Brentford, Newcastle returned to winning ways in the Premier League against Arsenal, delivering their best performance of the campaign in the process.

Now they have backed up those two victories with a 3-1 triumph at the City Ground, only their second away victory of the season. Questions have persisted about their form on the road for more than a year, yet the combination of a midfield trio of Joe Willock, Sean Longstaff and Bruno Guimaraes, and Joelinton as a wide forward, once again secured a victory.