Newcastle United chairman witnesses desperately needed St James's Park upgrade v Liverpool – moments missed

A double injury boost

Newcastle were handed a low-key double injury boost ahead of kick-off. Along with Callum Wilson returning to the matchday squad following a slight hamstring issue, Javier Manquillo was also named on the bench after missing the previous three matches with a knee problem.

There was a further boost in the full-back department too as, earlier in the day, Matt Targett played 60 minutes for Newcastle’s Under-21s side – scoring and grabbing an assist in a 4-1 win over Brentford B.

Targett hasn’t featured for Newcastle in a competitive match since the World Cup break. Now he’s back in contention just in time for the Carabao Cup final next weekend.

While the return of Targett and Manquillo may not be significant boosts in terms of impacting Newcastle’s starting line-up, head coach Eddie Howe will welcome having more players at his disposal for what is arguably the club’s biggest match so far this century.

Eddie Howe’s classy Sir Bobby Robson tribute

Saturday saw Newcastle fans pay tribute to club icon Sir Bobby Robson on what would have been his 90th birthday. Lady Elsie Robson and three sons Andrew, Paul and Mark were special guests of the club for the Liverpool match as a Wor Flags display in the East Stand honoured the former Magpies boss.

Along with the Robson family, current Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe paid his respects to Sir Bobby, personally laying flowers at the Sir Bobby Robson statue outside St James’s Park.

Liverpool supporters show respect following the loss of Christian Atsu

There was also a fitting tribute to another former Newcastle man who sadly passed away. On the morning of the match, it was confirmed that the body of Christian Atsu had been found following the earthquake in Turkey earlier this month.

Atsu played over 100 times for Newcastle between 2016 and 2021 and gained recognition for his dedicated charity work in his home country Ghana.

A minute’s silence was scheduled ahead of kick-off but that quickly turned into a minute's applause to honour the former Magpies star as the travelling Liverpool fans sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ up in level seven.

Atsu's widow, Marie-Claire Rupio, and three children were present in the stands at St James’s Park to witness the emotional tribute.

The desperately needed St James’s Park upgrade witnessed by Yasir Al-Rumayyan

To anyone at Saturday’s match, this one was hard to miss. But for the majority watching on television, this may have gone under the radar.

During the tribute to Sir Bobby Robson, the St James’s Park PA system attempted to play ‘Nessun Dorma’ – the classic song fondly associated with the Italia 90 World Cup – but instead all anyone heard was a distorted mess.

And things went bad to worse from there as the likes of ‘Local Hero’ could barely be made out as the players took to the pitch. Newcastle defender Dan Burn appeared visibly unimpressed as the PA announcer attempted to read out a pre-match message.

Given the millions of pounds invested in the club since the takeover and the many potential upgrades for St James's Park, sorting out the PA system would be a simple and relatively cheap fix.

And it could be quite high on the immediate agenda given Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan was in attendance ahead of his 53rd birthday and will have undoubtedly heard the sub-par audio.

Given the PA issues, there was none of the usual ‘enjoy the game’ before the match which was ironically rather fitting given how things unfolded.

Several Newcastle United records ended as Liverpool prove to be a bogey side for Eddie Howe

Despite a bright start from the hosts, it was effectively game over inside the opening quarter of the match as Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo put Liverpool 2-0 ahead shortly before Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope was shown a straight red card for handball.

It was United’s first sending off in the Premier League this season and Pope’s first in the top flight.

Newcastle hadn’t conceded more than once in a Premier League match since the last time they faced Liverpool at Anfield back in August. On Saturday they conceded twice in the space of seven first half minutes as they suffered their first home defeat of the season.

It was also the first home defeat for Newcastle since they last played Liverpool in April 2022 as the Reds made it six league games unbeaten at St James’s Park for the first time in their history.

Newcastle injury scare as Eddie Howe takes no chances

Despite their numerical disadvantage, Newcastle competed well with Liverpool and continued to create chances and cause problems. That was no small part down to Joelinton’s battling efforts in midfield.

But there was a moment of panic as the Brazilian went down appearing to hold his hamstring before briefly continuing. Joelinton insisted he was fine to play on but Howe was taking no risks ahead of the cup final as he quickly withdrew the midfielder in place of Matt Ritchie for the closing stages.

A disappointed Joelinton had a quick word with Howe as he left the pitch as the Newcastle head coach explained his decision afterwards.

“We hope he's okay,” Howe said. “He wanted to carry on - I wanted to protect him for the games ahead. We hope it's not serious."