Gary Neville makes 'easy game' claim after Newcastle United beat …

Gary Neville has claimed that Newcastle United’s victory over Manchester United will be an “easier game” than their upcoming clashes with the likes of West Ham, Brentford and Aston Villa as he praised the “best atmosphere” he has seen at St James’ Park in over a decade. Newcastle ran out 2-0 winers against Man United as they moved ahead of Erik ten Hag’s side into third place. Joe Willock and Callum Wilson’s efforts ensured that the Magpies’ dominance translated into all three points during a crunch top four clash. And after the full-time whistle blew, the former Man United man told his Gary Neville Podcast that the atmosphere inside the stadium was unlike anything he had experienced in the last decade.

ALSO READ: Luke Shaw claims Newcastle United did not beat Manchester United ‘on quality’ He said: “I have to say, when I played against Newcastle United, even beyond the Kevin Keegan years when they were going for titles, there was a big atmosphere up here and you knew you had to weather that and deal with it. It was a proper football club, a proper ground.

“Then all of a sudden, I finished my football career and came up here for 10 years working in this capacity [with Sky Sports], it was morbid. There was no connection between the team, the fans, the owners. “Everybody was just low, the energy had been sapped out of the place completely and I don’t know how many times I said it that actually I didn’t look forward to coming up here and that’s actually a crime, to be fair.

“You should as a football fan, irrespective of who you support – I’m a Manchester United fan – you should look forward to coming up here to St James’ Park. This is a proper ground, a proper football club and it should have a bouncing atmosphere. ‘For many years, people said it was the best atmosphere in the Premier League, but you couldn’t say that whilst Mike Ashley was the owner.

That re-emerged for me today, it’s the first time I’ve been up here for quite a while and that’s the best atmosphere I’ve seen in my days working for Sky and that’s 11 years. “I have to say, looking back to my playing career when I came here, I lost 5-0 one Sunday afternoon. That atmosphere at the end reminded me of what it was like for us as Manchester United players back then, probably worse in some ways because obviously five is a proper doing.”

When asked for his thoughts on the performance from Newcastle in general, Neville believed that it was Howe’s aggressive game management that helped the Magpies claim victory. He added: “In that second-half – for the last 20 minutes – Newcastle were really fantastic, they deserved to win. Eddie Howe made great changes to try and be positive and win the game.

“There could have been – there wasn’t – there could have been a feeling from Eddie Howe with 20 minutes to go that ‘Manchester United might come and attack us here, they score a lot of goals in the last 10/15 minutes. We just need to be careful, we need to make sure we don’t concede, don’t lose the game’ He didn’t do that. “He was making positive substitutions, when they went 1-0 up he was bringing three forwards on and he was still going for it and trying to freshen up the game to attack and to win.

“That was the right move because Newcastle United were in really good form in the game. Man United were playing poorly, they only had one shot on target. But secondly I think it would have been a mistake if Eddie Howe looked at the next three games that are away from home and thought they are lower down in the league so that a point’s not bad today.

Those teams will be really difficult away from home for Newcastle, we know that it’s not easy in the Premier League. “This was the easier game today because of how they were playing in the game, the performance levels, the players were up for it, the fans were up for it. And they delivered, they really did deliver.

They deserved to win that match – they were by far the better team, much better than Man United.”

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