Newcastle head coach Steve McClaren heaved a huge sigh of relief after seeing his team breathe new life into their season with a priceless 2-0 Premier League victory over Liverpool.
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The game at St James’ Park was deep into injury time when Moussa Sissoko crossed for Georginio Wijnaldum to cement the win and finally allow McClaren to believe a massive three points was his amid speculation that he might have only two games left to save his job.
Asked about his emotions when Wijnaldum struck, the 54-year-old said: “Sheer relief because even then I thought with a minute to go, we could likely concede two with the way we go.
“It was relief because you know Liverpool, they have got quality players in any moment and that could have spoiled it, like (against) Chelsea, conceding just at the end.
“It could have spoiled it, but it didn’t today. We’ll enjoy this for 24 hours, Tuesday morning we will review it, bounce heads off the wall again and get back to work and get ready for next week.
“Now we have got to take that on. We are not getting carried away, we have a lot of work to do. People say, ‘Where do you solve it?’ You only solve it on the training field, you can only solve it through hard work, and that’s what the team got back.”
The Magpies efforts were rewarded by a stroke of good fortune when Wijnaldum’s 69th-minute shot was deflected over keeper Simon Mignolet by defender Martin Skrtel, and – having seen the visitors get the rough end of a tight offside decision to rule out a potential equaliser by Alberto Moreno – the Dutchman made sure in the 94th minute.
Wow what a result. When you’re committed and work hard, the rest follows. Great win at last. Well done @NUFC!!
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) December 6, 2015
Jurgen Klopp, who tasted defeat for just the second time in his fledgling reign, was less than happy with his side’s performance.
Asked what had gone wrong, Klopp said: “Nearly everything, I would say. The start, the middle and the end. I don’t know. This was obviously not a really good football game, and that was 50 per cent because of Newcastle and 50 per cent because of Liverpool FC.
“We were not creative enough, so we had no chances.”
