Callum Wilson put Newcastle ahead in just the fifth minute
and the game continued at a furious pace until the final whistle, with West Ham
scoring three unanswered goals in 14 second-half minutes to get the win.
Aaron Cresswell scored the visitors’ first equalizer in the
18th minute when his teasing low ball drifted beyond the outstretched leg of
Tomas Soucek and into the net. The goal was initially flagged for offside, but
stood after a replay showed the ball had already crossed the line before Jarrod
Bowen tapped it.
But Newcastle retook the lead five minutes before the end of
an entertaining first half as Jacob Murphy stooped to head home after Matt
Ritchie’s cross from the byline had just evaded the leaping Wilson.
West Ham hit back again eight minutes after halftime, with
Said Benrahma getting between two defenders to head in at the back post
following a cross from Michail Antonio, who did well to control a difficult
pass on the left.
Antonio then saw a bullet header cannon off the bar and
ricochet into Murphy, who was adjudged to have brought down Pablo Fornals in
the area in an attempt to claim the loose ball. Goalkeeper Freddie Woodman
guessed right to save Antonio’s penalty low to his left, but Soucek was first
to the rebound and bundled in after 63 minutes.
It took only another three minutes for West Ham to seize
complete control as Antonio finally got on the scoresheet on the counter,
getting the ball on to his right foot and drilling low into the corner beyond
Woodman.
It made for a promising start for David Moyes’ West Ham,
which finished a surprising sixth last season.
“It was a really good game, if you were a neutral you would
have said it was a good game of football, plenty of action at both ends,” Moyes
said. “I thought we had good control of the game at different times, we kept
the ball well, at times we had to suffer a bit when we didn’t have the ball.”
There were plenty of boos toward the end from the 50,000
fans at St. James’ Park, but Newcastle manager Steve Bruce criticized what he
said was a “harsh” penalty decision that proved decisive.
“It’s the big turning point in the game,” Bruce said. “Once
we went chasing the game we made it very difficult for ourselves. ... But
defensively, unfortunately, we gave away too many soft goals. It’s getting that
balance right. As soon as we chase the game then we left ourselves exposed and
open, we simply can’t afford to do that at this level.” -AP