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Shelvey shows his quality in vital win

Newcastle 2-1 West Ham
by Roger Domeneghetti
at St James’ Park

NEWCASTLE saw the best and the worst of new signing Jonjo Shelvey in a 2-1 victory over West Ham on Saturday that saw them climb out of the relegation zone.

Shelvey was imperious in an opening 20 minutes in which the Magpies looked a team transformed and scored two goals in an utterly dominant spell of play. However, he was also involved in an off the ball incident with Enner Valencia that might on another day, with a different referee, have led to a red card.

It took just six minutes for Shelvey to make his mark with a neat pass to Georgina Wijnaldum, who laid the ball off for Ayoze Perez to curl a shot past Adrian. It was a merely a warm-up. Nine minutes later, Shelvey found Daryl Janmaat wide on the right with a glorious 60-yard pass. Without breaking stride, the Dutchman whipped a cross into the area for his compatriot Wijnaldum to score.

“I think Jonjo showed today what potential he’s got and I think he can get better than that,” said Steve McClaren of the player who commanded the game from deep in the midfield “quarterback” role vacated by Yohan Cabaye almost exactly two years ago.

But Shelvey also showed the other side of his game, using a strong, high arm to block Valencia’s run outside Newcastle’s area. It led to a melee of players, but no action from the referee. “It was handbags,” said McClaren, “it’s a contact sport and they were shoulder to shoulder. Let’s talk about the game.”

The introduction of Nikita Jelavic for West Ham in the second half turned the tide, the Croatian scoring with his second touch after latching onto a poor back pass from Chancel Mbemba. The goal shifted the momentum of the game but, despite an increasingly nervous performance, Newcastle held on.

“We said today was the biggest game of the season so far for us,” said McClaren. “We’ve had a few opportunities before where a win has taken us out of the bottom three and today they’ve taken it. I hope that’s a big step for the team.”

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