'Possibly' - Jason Tindall defends Newcastle United decision v Aston Villa with clear Premier League message

The Aston Villa match marked a third game in six days for Newcastle with the same starting line-up as they eyed a seventh successive win in all competitions.

But things didn’t materialise that way as Villa opened the scoring inside 40 seconds through Ollie Watkins. Fabian Schar equalised for Newcastle in the first half before three goals in 11 second half minutes saw Aston Villa claim a convincing win in the end with Ian Maatsen, Amadou Onana and a Dan Burn own goal finding the net for the hosts.

Newcastle remain third in the table but now have Villa breathing down their neck just two points behind them with five games left to play.

A game too far for Newcastle United?

Following the match, Tindall admitted Aston Villa were the deserved winners in the game but felt Newcastle’s busy fixture schedule with the game starting line-up ultimately took its toll on the side.

“I felt on reflection over 90 minutes Aston Villa deserved to win the game,” Tindall said. “In the first half, I felt we'd done all right off the back of the early setback, when we could see the goal so early.

“The lads showed great character to get themselves back into the game. And then maybe, looking at the second half, it was just one step too far. Three games in six days, maybe caught up with us, certainly probably around the hour mark.”

Jason Tindall defends Newcastle United team selection

Newcastle became the first Premier League side to name an unchanged starting line-up for seven successive matches in all competitions since 2016. While the starting line-up couldn’t really be questioned after six successive wins, Villa’s fresh legs ultimately saw them win comfortably in the second half.

When asked about his team selection, Tindall responded: “Possibly [a game too far for the same line-up]. But, you know, when the team's in such a great moment and the players are in such good form, it does make it difficult to change the team.

“You could quite easily be sitting here having made three or four changes, and the same result happens. Then probably everyone is saying, ‘why did you change the team?’ So, it can work both ways.

“But, you know, I've probably felt that, on reflection, certainly in the second half, maybe it was just a step too far for the lads physically, with the physical effort that they've had in the previous two games.”

Jason Tindall’s Newcastle United message heading into the final five Premier League games

While Saturday’s defeat was a reality check of sorts for Newcastle in their battle for Champions League qualification, Tindall was keen to stress that the side have put themselves in a great position to add to their Carabao Cup success.

“The message to the players, to everyone, is that we can't lose sight of where we are,” he told The Gazette. “We're third in the Premier League, and if you had said to anyone at the football club at the start of the season, would you be happy with being third in the Premier League with five games to go? I think everybody would have said yes.

“So, we certainly can't lose sight of that. We've done incredibly well to get ourselves in that position. We've been really, really consistent, delivered some excellent performances.

“So, that's the biggest message, is to make sure that we rest, recover, and then when we get back to work, we prepare right to go and deliver a performance against Ipswich.”

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