Newcastle United started at 100mphs on Saturday afternoon, shell-shocking their high-flying opponents West Ham with a blistering 20 minutes that resulted in the game's winning goals, but probably should have sparked a flurry for more. At one point the afternoon looked like it might rival the huge 5-0 victory that then Alan Pardew's side inflicted on The Hammers in the 2010/11 season and certainly if Aleksander Mitrovic had his shooting boots on, he could have taken the match ball home with a hat-trick like Leon Best that night, but in the end United had to settle with a 2-1 and a strongly disciplined display as the tension heightened towards the end. It was Newcastle's first victory in 7 games and moved them, at least temporarily with Swansea not playing until Monday night, out of the bottom 3 with hope and optimism that they can start picking up wins to take them out of the dangerous part of the table. Read on for the big talking points of the game from an unapologetically Newcastle perspective with an analysis on the 5 big heroes and 4 villains from the game. And personal kudos to myself for writing the only match report intro for this game anywhere on the web that didn't include the name Jonjo Shelvey. Oh wait...
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
