Newcastle’s Jacob Murphy gives Van Nistelrooy sobering Leicester lesson

Only time will tell whether Ruud van Nistelrooy’s honeymoon as Leicester’s manager was ended or merely interrupted here. Equally it is still far too early to predict if this will come to be regarded as a turning point in Newcastle’s hitherto stuttering season but, after four games without a win, Eddie Howe’s players certainly succeeded in making a mockery of suggestions that he might be destined for the sack.

While Howe recently celebrated his third anniversary in charge at St James’ Park, Van Nistelrooy suffered his first defeat in three matches since taking the helm at Leicester. How the 48-year-old must have wished he was still wearing his old shooting boots rather than watching in increasing dismay from the edge of the technical area.

As a Manchester United striker Van Nistelrooy scored 11 goals in 10 appearances against Newcastle. No other opponents suffered quite as consistently in the face of his attacking threat but now, on a cold, dank, December day it was the Dutchman’s turn to feel the pain.

Jacob Murphy had already missed one extremely presentable shooting chance when his first-time right-foot shot from the edge of the area flew past a slightly wrong-footed Mads Hermansen in the aftermath of a smart short corner routine culminating in Anthony Gordon’s clever cutback.

Despite the hosts having initially struggled to get going, Leicester were clearly missing the hamstrung absentee Wilfred Ndidi and his recently stabilising midfield influence, and they failed to retain possession sufficiently well to take proper counterattacking advantage. By the time of Murphy’s 30th-minute breakthrough, Leicester seemed to be in an unsustainable backs-to-the-wall mode and Van Nistelrooy looked distinctly unimpressed with the recalled Hamza Choudhury in a central midfield department frequently dictated by Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali.

Leicester’s manager replaced Hermansen with Danny Ward at the interval and, almost immediately, the newcomer found himself picking the ball out of his net after Bruno Guimarães nodded the ball beyond his reach after a Gordon free-kick was headed across the face of goal by the impressive left-back Lewis Hall.

Alexander Isak stoops to head home from close range for Newcastle’s third goal against Leicester. Photograph: James Gill/Danehouse/Getty Images

Ward barely had time to dust himself down before he was beaten by another header. This time the scorer was Alexander Isak, the Sweden striker delighting in polishing off a deflected cross from the overlapping Hall.

At that juncture Martin Dubravka, deputising for the injured Nick Pope in the home goal, had still not been required to make a save but when Kasey McAteer finally unleashed a shot it proved so tame that the Slovakia goalkeeper could probably have stopped it in his sleep.

Poor Ward was swiftly left powerless as Murphy’s second goal of the game, another first-time shot dispatched in the wake of some defender-disorientating fancy footwork on Isak’s part, whizzed through his legs.

As atonement for last Saturday’s disappointing 4-2 defeat at Brentford it was more than satisfactory but Howe knows things could well be somewhat trickier when Thomas Frank’s side arrive on Tyneside for Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup quarter-final.

Van Nistelrooy, meanwhile, has much to ponder. At the final whistle, it was interesting to see him drifting over to Miguel Almirón, an unused home substitute earmarked for a January exit by Newcastle, and whisper something in the initially rather startled looking but subsequently smiling Paraguay’s forward ear.