NOW it really is getting serious for out-of-sorts Newcastle.Losing away from home is one thing but when a side who’ve never previously picked up a Premier League point against the Magpies breach their St James’ Park fortress, the alarm bells are ringing loudly
Chris Wood celebrates with Anthony ElangaCredit: Alamy
Wood was back to haunt his former clubCredit: PA
Eddie Howe’s job may not be in peril but the stats are wracking up against him after the worst home display since he arrived over two years ago.
This was Newcastle’s sixth defeat in seven games, their third in a row and it;s Liverpool away next.
The star was ex-Toon striker Chris Wood, a striker deemed surplus to requirements by the Saudi-rich club on their supposedly inexorable climb towards the top of the football summit.
Wood scored a memorable hat-trick for Forest who came from a goal down to win for only the second time since September 2.
Their last victory in a top flight game on Tyneside was in 1988 when Brian Clough ran the show.
Now they’re up and running under Nuno Espirito Santo and while he still has plenty of work to do, this was Clough-esque in terms of upsetting the applecart.
It’s been a wretched December for Newcastle, Out of the Champions League, out of the Carabao Cup and now looking down and out.
And don’t bank on a return ticket to Europe. Momentum is going only one way right now.
FREE BETS – BEST BETTING OFFERS & NEW CUSTOMER BONUSES
After Alexander Isak scored from the penalty spot, Wood equalised in the 45th minute, then struck in the 54th and 60th minutes.
Three in quarter of an hour compared to four in more than a year as a Newcastle striker.
Forest’s last appearance at St James’ Park was in August last year on their long-awaited return to the Premier League.
How things have changed for them in the 17 months since though his was perhaps their finest hour over the period.
Not only are they under new management, their side is virtually unrecognisable from that balmy afternoon with Moussa Niakhate the lone survivor.
With such a bloated squad at his disposal, the new coach admits it may take him some to time to find his best starting XI.
He clearly wasn’t too impressed during the 3-2 defeat against Bournemouth, making six changes for his first away game in charge.
This eyecatching result will surely give him more appetising food for thought.
Despite their dreadful form, a rotten record against Newcastle and that raft of changes, Forest made a bright start and grew in confidence as the match wore on.
Newcastle forced a corner inside the opening 20 seconds but it was the visitors who had the first chance of the game in the third minute.
Teenager Lewis Miley was caught dawdling on the edge of his own area and Morgan Gibbs-White seized on the loose ball only to drag his shot inches wide.
Forest had already survived one VAR check when Isak went down inside the box but were not so fortunate in the 22nd minute when Ola Aina sent the Swede tumbling.
Isak stepped up to convert from 12 yards for his tenth goal of the season and first in six games.
The Magpies began to turn the screw. Set up by Miley, Anthony Gordon was only denied by a courageous, full-length block from Gonzalo Montiel.
And after wriggling his way towards goal, Isak’s shot from a narrow angle was pushed over the bar by Matt Turner.
But Forest were always looking to release Anthony Elanga and the former Manchester United man proved a constant menace, testing Martin Dubravka with one effort and firing another into the sidenetting.
And it was Elanga who created the equaliser for Wood in first half-injury time with the Kiwi scoring for the second successive game.
Forest always carried a threat on the counter, none more so than when Gibson-White had the Toon defence backpedalling as he burst upfield.
He played in Elanga whose pull-back was tapped into an empty net by Wood.
Newcastle almost hit back immediately but Isak headed straight at Turner before Hudson-Odoi sprang an attack only to shoot tamely at Dubravka.
It was Elanga who had Forest’s first shot on target in the second half when he seized on some hesitant Toon defending to bring another save out of the Slovakian keeper.
The Geordies looked a bag of nerves on the restart and they were made to pay when Wood struck again in the 54th minute.
Dan Burn had struggled throughout and he will want to forget the move which led to the Forest goal.
After failing to cut out Elanga’s delivery, the beanpole defender was then turned inside out by Wood who then deftly lifted the ball over the advancing Dubravka.
Burn was hooked moments later along with the equally ineffective Miguel Almiron but by now, Newcastle were a shambles.
And when – with Kieron Trippier playing him onside – Wood latched on to Murillos’s long ball before rounding Dubravka, it was game over.
Miley and Isak went close in the last half an hour but a Toon comeback never looked likely.
See how ALL the action from St James’ Park unfolded in our live blog below… More
