Newcastle Responds to Leeds Defeat with Strong Start Against Hull

Newcastle needed a response after being torn apart 4-1 by Leeds on Monday. They did not bother easing their way into it.

Three minutes in, the ball broke for Joe Willock and he wasted no time. One touch to set himself, then a firm finish past Konstantinos Tzolakis. The Hull goalkeeper, a £20 million summer signing who had only been beaten twice before this game, suddenly looked human.

Newcastle smelled vulnerability. Four minutes later, they struck again.

Lewis Hall, fresh from his recall to the England squad, burst forward from deep and combined sharply with Harvey Barnes. A quick exchange of passes opened a sliver of space and Hall stroked a low shot into the far corner. Seven minutes gone, 2-0, and Hull looked shell-shocked.

Jakirovic’s newly promoted side could easily have folded. They did not. They steadied themselves, tightened up, and started to play their way into the contest, even as Newcastle kept their foot on the accelerator.

Jaissle’s selection problems had shaped the night before a ball was kicked. Tino Livramento’s hamstring injury on Friday added him to an already swollen absentee list, taking the tally of missing senior players to eight. The Newcastle manager turned to youth, handing 18-year-old Sean Steur a place in a makeshift midfield.

The teenager did not hide. Newcastle pressed high, moved the ball with intent and pinned Hull back for long spells. Yet the hosts failed to land the knockout punch before the break, and the game began to fray around the edges.

Deep into first-half stoppage time, they had the chance to kill it. Jacob Murphy darted into the box and Sorba Thomas clipped him, leaving the referee pointing to the spot. Yoane Wissa stepped up with the stadium expectant.

His penalty lacked conviction. Tzolakis guessed right, plunged low, and pushed it away. A pivotal moment. The save jolted Hull, who had already started to stir. Moments earlier, Thomas had almost turned in a Matt Crooks cross at the near post, a warning Newcastle did not fully heed.

The pattern shifted after the interval. Newcastle’s early fluency ebbed, Hull’s belief grew. Jaissle tried to wrestle back control, withdrawing the tiring Steur and sending on Fabian Schär, reshaping his side into an unfamiliar back three.

The change unraveled almost immediately.

A loose passage at the back dragged Lewis Miley into trouble. Hesitation proved costly as Mohamed Belloumi pounced, robbed him, and slid the ball into the path of substitute Mohamed-Ali Cho. The former England youth international needed no second invitation, curling a measured left-footed strike past Lukas Hornicek from close range to drag Hull back into it.

From there, the match turned into a siege.

Hull poured forward, sensing Newcastle’s uncertainty. Cross after cross rained into the box, shots snapped in from the edge of the area, and every clearance felt like a temporary reprieve. Newcastle, so dominant in the opening minutes, were now hanging on, bodies flung in front of everything as the clock ticked down.

They survived. Barely, at times, but they survived.

The win hauls Newcastle up to eighth, on eight points, tucked just behind seventh-placed Hull on goal difference. The table is tight, the margins even tighter, but after the Leeds collapse this felt like a necessary step in the right direction.

After the international break, Jaissle’s patched-up squad will head into a meeting with Coventry City looking for something they have not yet found this season: momentum. Hull, beaten for the first time after two wins and two draws, must pick themselves up quickly as Jakirovic turns his attention to Everton and the question that now lingers — was this just a stumble, or the first sign of a harder autumn ahead?