Anyone doubting the determination of Eddie Howe and Nuno Espírito Santo to take their players on grand tours of Europe next season will have changed their minds after watching this.
When the final whistle blew, Howe’s fifth-placed team had closed the gap on Nuno’s Forest to three points and must have felt that Madrid, Milan, Munich and the rest of the Champions League staging posts had moved into sharper focus on the horizon.
Howe spent much of the preceding days holding individual meetings with his players as he aimed to eradicate the faults that manifested themselves as the Carabao Cup finalists surrendered 4-0 at Manchester City last weekend.
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Despite a significant improvement here, Newcastle ultimately lost so much focus that they very nearly threw away a three-goal cushion, allowing Forest to reduce the deficit from 4-1 to 4-3 as they threatened to snatch a draw at the death.
If that was a testament to visiting resilience it also indicated that Howe’s side are still in danger of being blown off course by the distraction of next month’s Wembley final against Liverpool.
Perhaps emphasising why they carry an enviable reputation as an excellent counterattacking side, Forest swiftly found themselves in front after breaking incisively from a Newcastle throw-in. When Callum Hudson-Odoi caught Jacob Murphy dithering on the ball after Tino Livramento’s poor throw, he pinched possession and proceeded to cut in from the left.
Once Hudson-Odoi realised that Dan Burn’s giant frame was inadvertently serving as a sizeable screen, creating a blind spot in ’s vision, he duly whipped in a swerving shot, beating the goalkeeper low at the near post, just six minutes into the game.
Pope, recalled in place of Martin Dubravka, could hardly have wished for a worse Premier League return after evidently expecting to see his reflexes tested at the far post.
No matter, Forest were about to be felled by four goals in the space of 11 extraordinary minutes. First the outstanding Lewis Miley equalised, swivelling and shooting low, unerringly and left footed through a thicket of legs and on beyond Matz Sels after controlling Lewis Hall’s cross.
If it was no accident that Miley, deputising for the not quite fully fit Sandro Tonali in the starting XI, found himself, apparently effortlessly, in the right place at the right time, Murphy had looked as if he was trying almost too hard to atone for that earlier error.
The right-sided winger needed to relax and, once he did, redemption arrived as Alexander Isak’s clever, unselfish, backheel, played in Hall and the fallout from his cross eventually fell to Murphy to bundle past Sels with his chest.
Howe’s team extended their lead when a VAR review prefaced Jarred Gillett, the referee, deciding that Ola Aina had controlled Hall’s cross with an arm in the area and duly pointed to the spot. Although Sels touched Alexander Isak’s far from convincing penalty, he could not hold it.
It left the, in that instance, somewhat fortunate Sweden striker level with Forest’s Chris Wood on 18 Premier goals this season but, before half-time, Isak had scored number 19.
This time Pope rolled the ball out to Hall with some alacrity before the left back handed the baton to Joe Willock. Forest had no answer to the midfielder’s hallmark glide across the turf and all that remained was for Isak to see a left foot shot sail over Sels after taking a deflection off Murillo. Hats off to the excellent Hall who had been involved in all four goals.
Sels spent two years on Newcastle’s books during Rafael Benítez’s tenure but now looked as if he could not wait to see the back of St James’ Park.
His team’s cause was hindered by Miley’s uncanny knack of seeing the game’s picture unfolded half a second before everyone else. Miley’s face may be that of an 18-year-old, but his body and, particularly, his brain could easily belong to a man 10 years older.
Before kick-off, much was made of the looming midfield duel between Miley and another Newcastle academy graduate, Forest’s Elliot Anderson but of that pair, it was Eddie Howe’s No 67 who built the stronger case for a senior England call-up.
By now it was apparent that there would be no repeat of the Wood hat-trick that marked the New Zealand striker’s return to his former club as Forest cantered to victory here last season.
When Wood first joined Newcastle, he impressed his new teammates by performing the haka during a dressing room initiation ceremony but, out on the pitch, his old friends Fabian Schär and Burn ensured there would no footballing equivalent of that Māori dance.
How Nuno must have wished that Danilo had been fit enough to start the game rather than take a seat on the bench. No one though will ever know if things might have been different had the Brazil international been able to take his place in the Portuguese manager’s preferred 3-5-2 formation.
Yet although Schär headed a Hall cross against a post, Forest perked up a little in the second half. Indeed Newcastle failed to heed the warning when Anthony Elanga missed a sitter and were left to watch in horror as Nikola Milenkovic cleverly flicked a Wood cross past Pope as Howe’s players failed to clear Anderson’s corner.
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The home team had paid the price for losing concentration, but Howe’s furious body language soon reminded them that the game was not quite over.
Ryan Yates confirmed as much when Newcastle failed to clear an Elanga corner and the substitute highlighted the poor home defending by half volleying home.
