Newcastle United won their first away league game since April against Everton [Getty Images]Ciaran Kelly - Newcastle United reporterSat, November 29, 2025 at 10:48 PM UTC·5 min readNewcastle United supporters could not quite believe it.
"How bad must you be?" they boomed at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. "We're winning away!"
This 4-1 rout against Everton had been a long time coming for the visitors.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGeordies had travelled to Aston Villa (twice), Brighton (twice), Arsenal, Leeds, Bournemouth, West Ham and Brentford in the past seven months and failed to see their side pick up a single victory.
There were occasions when Howe and his players almost sheepishly made their way over to applaud the away end at full-time, not least after bruising defeats at the Gtech Community Stadium and the London Stadium earlier this month.
But, this time, they were greeted by a deafening roar as Howe celebrated a convincing win on his 48th birthday.
Finally, this side had found a cure for their travel sickness in the Premier League.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"I was fed up of it," Howe told Match of the Day. "That's why I'm so pleased that the players gave me the opportunity to come here and not talk about it as much."
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A change of mentality and personnel
It was an evening when Howe's big calls paid off following the midweek defeat in Marseille.
Aaron Ramsdale, Lewis Miley and Anthony Elanga were handed rare starts while regulars like Lewis Hall, Joelinton and Nick Woltemade were also recalled.
Fabian Schar, Sandro Tonali, Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon, who have all been big players for Howe, were among those left on the bench as a result, just a day after the Newcastle head coach insisted he had "no favourites".
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRather than the six changes disrupting the side - as such tweaks ultimately did at West Ham earlier this month, when Newcastle looked strangely lethargic - the visitors felt the benefit of rotating.
It is far from a coincidence that the recent return of Hall and fellow full-back Tino Livramento from injury has given Newcastle a new dimension down the flanks with their energy and creativity.
Miley, meanwhile, stepped up with a goal and an assist against Everton and this was the rapid Elanga's best performance since his £55m move from Nottingham Forest last summer.
Joelinton battled away in the middle of the park, on a night Everton struggled with Newcastle's physicality, and Woltemade scored a delightful lob to make it 3-0.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd though Ramsdale had little to do on his first league start, after the under-fire Nick Pope missed out with a groin injury, the goalkeeper brought a calmness in possession and Newcastle used the ball much more effectively, completing 88% of their passes.
Yet there was a change of mentality as well as personnel.
Newcastle made an aggressive start - Elanga winning a corner shortly after the kick-off - and Malick Thiaw headed the visitors in front from Miley's in-swinger.
It was the quickest Premier League goal of the season, after just 55 seconds, but this was familiar territory for Newcastle.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThey had taken the lead in each of their previous three away games in all competitions only to go on and lose.
This time, they defended resiliently as Everton probed.
Dan Burn, back in his favoured position at left-sided centre-back, made a couple of crucial blocks. As did Hall. Even Woltemade got back to cut out a cross from Jack Grealish.
That did not go unnoticed by Thiaw.
"We also scored early in other games away or went 1-0 up," he told Match of the Day. "But, this time, even after we lost a bit of momentum in the game, we all stayed together, defended really well and it paid off."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNewcastle have only conceded a measly four goals in the first half of league games this season, which should give Howe's side a greater platform.
It certainly did on Saturday.
'A big step forward'
This felt like a return to what this side do best.
Everton manager David Moyes even labelled Newcastle "the most physical team in the Premier League" after the game.
It was an evening Newcastle won all of their tackles (15), covered nearly 5km more than Everton, won more aerial duels (19) and made 13 more clearances than the hosts.
And Newcastle also had a ruthless edge in the final third, which has been lacking of late, after the visitors failed to press home their advantage away at Marseille, Brentford and West Ham after opening the scoring.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThough Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was at fault for Miley's goal, Newcastle found a way to double their lead at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
It felt a long way back for Everton by then as Newcastle, in Howe's own words, put their "foot to the floor".
Woltemade added a third before Thiaw scored a fourth with another header that his countryman would have been proud of.
"Unbelievable player," Woltemade told Sky Sports. "We're always making jokes about that he can't head. Today he did two headers.
"Yesterday he wanted to train headers but the rain was so bad so we couldn't train. You don't need it anymore."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHowe shared a quip with Thiaw at full-time as the Newcastle head coach jokingly rubbed his eyes, perhaps stunned that the man of the match had scored two headers.
Thiaw, in one game, has already matched his greatest individual goalscoring season, and the burden is finally being shared around.
But this has to be the start.
"We have work to do on our away form," Howe added. "It's a long way back from where we have been.
"It's not been good enough, but today was a big step forward."
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