Just before half-time at Goodison Park, Newcastle United had another chance to get back into the game.
Harvey Barnes took a shot, the ball deflected towards Jordan Pickford, and the Everton goalkeeper gathered it. For Newcastle, another attack had ended without a goal.
Everton wasted no time turning that moment into an opportunity of their own.
Pickford released the ball quickly. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall carried the counterattack forward, Jacob Ramsey tried to stop him, and the referee allowed play to continue. Thierno Barry then delivered a cross for Hayden Hackney to score.
Newcastle had been looking for an equaliser. Instead, they were 2–0 down.
By the end of the Carabao Cup tie on 29 October, Matthias Jaissle’s team had taken 28 shots, put nine on target and lost 3–1. Everton had managed 11 attempts.
Those numbers made the result frustrating. The way Everton scored made it more revealing.
Four days earlier, Newcastle had beaten Crystal Palace with two goals created from the right. Now they were facing a question that went beyond finishing their chances: what happened to the team when an attack ended and Everton had the ball?
The progress Newcastle had already made
Newcastle’s troubles in front of goal had been well documented.
Against Coventry City and Aston Villa, they had taken 35 shots across two defeats and scored once. The problem was not identical in both matches. Coventry had given Newcastle opportunities they failed to convert. Villa had regularly prevented them from getting clean shots away.
Jaissle needed more than another demand for better finishing. He needed his players to find different ways into the penalty area.
Against Palace, they finally did.
Jacob Murphy supplied a curling cross from the right for William Osula to attack the near post. Eleven minutes later, Amar Dedić advanced along the same flank and delivered a low cutback that Harvey Barnes finished.
Two goals came from different passes, each suited to the movement of the player receiving it.
That was a genuine improvement, even if Newcastle’s ten shots and two efforts on target showed that their overall attacking output remained limited.
When Jaissle selected his team for Everton, he largely kept faith with the players responsible for that win. Ramsey replaced Joelinton, but Murphy, Osula, Barnes and Dedić all retained their starting places.
There were encouraging signs early in the match.
Nico González found Barnes with a long pass across the field, and Barnes got behind the Everton defence to direct a header towards goal. Pickford saved it.
Joe Willock also tested the goalkeeper, while James Tarkowski intervened to prevent Osula from getting a shot away.
Newcastle were finding positions from which they could threaten. Then Everton showed how quickly the game could move in the other direction.
When Dedić became the target
In the 34th minute, Pickford sent a long ball towards Newcastle’s right defensive side.
Dedić moved to deal with it, but Tyrique George chased him towards the touchline. Under pressure, the Newcastle full-back attempted to clear. George blocked the effort, and the loose ball fell to Hackney.
Hackney found James Garner, who curled his finish into the far corner.
Everton were ahead.
The contrast with Newcastle’s previous match was striking. Against Palace, Dedić had been praised for carrying the ball forward and supplying the pass that created a goal. Against Everton, his handling of a difficult situation near his own penalty area had helped the opposition score.
It would be easy to link those moments and conclude that Newcastle’s attacking full-back was leaving his team exposed.
That is not what the first Everton goal shows.
The move began with Pickford’s long ball and George’s pressure in Newcastle’s defensive third. Dedić had not been caught upfield after an overlapping run.
Jaissle was critical of how his team dealt with the situation. He had reason to be: Newcastle had an opportunity to remove the danger and instead conceded almost immediately.
The useful coaching question is more precise than simply telling Dedić to clear the ball. He had already attempted a clearance, and George blocked it.
To identify a better decision, Newcastle would need to examine the moments before that contact. Could Dedić have dealt with the ball earlier? Was a teammate available for a safe pass? Did George’s approach leave a different route out?
Those details determine what a realistic correction would look like.
One thing is already clear: Newcastle cannot afford repeated losses of control so close to their own goal.
The second Everton goal, just before the interval, exposed a different situation.
Barnes had been shooting at the other end when Pickford collected the ball. Everton moved forward before Newcastle could stop the counterattack, and Hackney finished Barry’s cross.
One goal had followed a pressured defensive action. The other had come after Newcastle’s attack ended.
Both punished the visitors, but they did not begin with the same mistake.
Plenty of shots, not enough answers
Jaissle responded at half-time.
Joelinton replaced Ramsey, while Yoane Wissa and Anthony Elanga came on for Osula and Barnes.
Newcastle continued creating chances.
Willock sent Wissa through with a clipped pass, but Pickford came out to deny him. Dedić had a shot deflected over the bar, and the visitors kept finding opportunities around Everton’s penalty area.
By full-time, Newcastle had attempted 19 shots from inside the box. FotMob’s expected-goals model gave them 2.09, compared with 1.84 for Everton.
That is a substantial body of attacking evidence. Newcastle were not spending the evening taking hopeful shots from halfway.
Pickford’s saves and Everton’s defensive interventions were part of why so many of those attacks produced nothing.
The visitors also had to accept that their opponents were far more effective when chances arrived.
In the 69th minute, Garner moved the ball to Dewsbury-Hall on the left. He carried the attack forward and found Barry, who controlled the pass and scored Everton’s third.
An independent match account describes Garner intercepting an inward pass from Dedić before that move developed. The full positions of Newcastle’s supporting players have not been established from the available reports, so it would be premature to treat the third goal as an exact repeat of the first.
Dan Burn eventually headed in a late consolation.
Newcastle had scored once from 28 attempts. Everton had scored three.
The result reflected both Newcastle’s failure to finish enough of their opportunities and Everton’s ability to take advantage of particular moments.
Keep the attack. Improve the decisions around it.
The defeat does not erase what Newcastle achieved against Palace.
Murphy’s near-post cross and Dedić’s cutback remain examples of effective attacking choices. Jaissle has no reason to discard them simply because the next match ended badly.
But Everton have given him two specific situations to examine.
The first is how Newcastle handle the ball under pressure near their own goal. A full-back confronted by an aggressive opponent needs an appropriate passing or clearance option, and the decision must come before the pressure removes those choices.
The second is how Newcastle prepare for the moment an attack finishes. If the opposing goalkeeper catches a shot and immediately looks forward, the players behind Newcastle’s attackers must be positioned to delay the break.
The earlier suggestion that González could remain deeper when Dedić advances may still be useful in certain attacking situations. It is not an established solution to these Everton goals. Reducing Dedić’s forward runs would also remove a source of the attacking progress Newcastle have worked to create.
That is why the next match matters.
On 2 November, Newcastle face Everton again, this time at St James’ Park in the Premier League.
Everton already know they can pressure Newcastle’s right defensive side and launch attacks quickly when possession changes. Jaissle now knows which moments demand closer attention.
The next test is whether Newcastle can keep creating chances without making the transitions between attack and defence so costly.
Twenty-eight shots were evidence that Newcastle could reach Everton’s goal.
Three goals conceded showed how much could still go wrong before the next Newcastle attack even began.
Sources and previous MATCHIQ coverage
- Newcastle United — Official Everton match report
- Everton FC — Official cup match report
- Sky Sports — Everton vs Newcastle
- FotMob — Everton vs Newcastle match statistics
- Evertonia — Detailed match account
- MATCHIQ — Newcastle Found Two Ways Through Palace
- MATCHIQ — Newcastle’s 35 Shots Hide Two Different Problems