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George Bennett

Newcastle prove they don't need to break bank to mount serious challenge - national verdict

A look at the national media take on Newcastle United's win over Nottingham Forest..

Newcastle proved they do not have to ‘break bank’ to mount challenge

The Telegraph’s Jason Mellor says Newcastle may not need to break the bank to ‘mount a sustained challenge at the sharp end of the league’.

Mellor wrote: “Forest will not be alone in returning empty-handed this season from the increasingly fortress-like St James' Park, as Eddie Howe's side maintained the impressive momentum with which they ended the last campaign to earn a fully deserved victory.

READ NEXT: 'I'd still like to add' - Eddie Howe's fresh transfer vow after Newcastle United's winning start

"It took them until December last season to register a first home league win but despite fielding just the single summer signing in their starting line-up in England goalkeeper Nick Pope, the world's richest club showed you perhaps do not have to break the bank, or FFP rules, in order to mount a sustained challenge at the sharp end of the league."

Newcastle ‘schooled Nottingham Forest from start to finish’

Craig Hope of the Mail wrote: “ Let us be clear, Newcastle schooled Nottingham Forest from start to finish but, as chance after chance passed them by, you wondered whether the visitors were about to spoil their way to a point on their return to the Premier League after 23 years away.”

"Schar’s intervention, then, was needed. Collecting the ball 40 yards out, he strode forward unopposed and accepted the invitation to shoot. He was encouraged, too, by a crowd growing a little frustrated with a scoreline that was no reflection of their side’s superiority.

"Forest debutant Dean Henderson is a confident boy, though, and would have backed himself to stop an effort from such distance. Even at the point of contact it appeared speculative. So the sound of Schar’s strike kissing the inside of the post would have felt like a smack in the mouth for the goalkeeper, rendered helpless by the precision of the execution."

‘A brilliant sun might really be rising over Tyneside’

The Guardian’s Louise Taylor wrote: “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for NUFC and we’re feeling good,” read a giant banner unfurled in the Gallowgate End before kick off."

Taylor added: "Nottingham Forest’s initial obduracy would test the optimism of the legions of Newcastle fans buying into that message but, well before 5pm, Fabian Schär’s superlative opening goal and another fine finish from Callum Wilson would ensure it was most definitely not a case of tempting fate.

"With Guimarães’ stellar touches and subtle through passes threatening to overwhelm Forest, Newcastle remained very much in the ascendancy. Nonetheless, when Sam Surridge escaped Kieran Trippier and met Williams’s cross only to head it wastefully into the ground, it explained the home fans’s collective yearning for another goal.

"The hard-working but well-shadowed Wilson duly obliged, dodging his marker adroitly to control Joelinton’s cross with the outside of his right foot before cleverly flicking the ball beyond Henderson’s reach from an unpromisingly awkward angle.

"On this evidence, a brilliant sun might really be rising over Tyneside."

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