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Cristian Romero ensured that Thomas Frank could leave Tyneside celebrating the sort of draw that managers can easily construe as moral victories.
The Tottenham captain’s stoppage-time equaliser, his second goal of the scrappiest of nights, not merely camouflaged plenty of visiting flaws but surely reinforced his manager’s recently fragile looking job security.
As Brentford’s manager Frank prided himself on achieving a decent work life balance. Granted work was demanding but he still managed eight hours sleep a night, five exercise sessions a week and regular downtime with his beloved Wilbur Smith novels.
The likable Dane and his wife also took relaxing holidays at every available opportunity but, judging by the technical area evidence Frank looks in urgent need of a de-stressing spa break. Only a few months into his Tottenham tenure and the visiting manager chewed gum with the sort of manic intensity that not even a counterpart as single minded as Eddie Howe could rival.
Frank’s increasingly animated touchline gesticulations came freighted with evident tension. Ange Postecoglou’s successor is said to be tougher than he looks though and Tottenham’s manager had duly stood firm in the face of the club’s fans’ booing of their goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario following recent mistakes.
Frank not merely criticised those jeers but insisted he would not drop Vicario. Perhaps taking the hint, the travelling supporters perched high in the Leazes End dutifully sang the keeper’s name on repeat after Vicario saved a Lewis Miley shot.
Newcastle were, as is invariably the case here, pressing high and hard. At times Spurs looked in peril of being blown away by so much home aggression but their hosts’ were let down by some disappointing final balls and the Londoners clung on.
Presumably in damage limitation mode, they made few attempts to play out for the back and instead attempted to counter Newcastle with a fairly direct approach. Tellingly Frank made his displeasure plain when Mohammed Kudus attempted a spot of ball juggling while still in his own half. The only problem was that too many Spurs players kept ceding possession far too cheaply.
Tottenham’s squad may recently have staged a team meeting to discuss their reluctance to applaud the club’s recently boo happy fans at the end of matches but, as half-time drew closer, there were encouraging signs that Kudus and co are, at least, still listening to Frank.
Visiting hopes of improving on that woeful record of one point from their last four Premier League matches and averting a fourth straight defeat in all competitions were enhanced when Lucas Bergvall met Kudus’s low cross and attempted an audacious backheel flick that arced just over the bar.
Although Newcastle remained the stronger side and Joelinton was unfortunate to see a shot rebound off a post, Spurs had improved a little, were seeing a bit more of the ball and occasionally looked capable of undoing Newcastle on the break.
Howe could not have failed to notice that his suddenly flat side had looked rather burned out – mentally more than physically – as the interval approached.
Maybe Tottenham were dragging them down to their level or perhaps the sheer volume of domestic and Champions League matches are exhausting them but the irrepressible Newcastle seen at Everton last Saturday evening had gone missing. The trouble with Howe’s, albeit hugely exhilarating, heavy metal style is that it is near impossible to sustain for too long.
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Howe replaced Sandro Tonali – who seemed to have picked up an injury – with Bruno Guimarães at half-time. Harvey Barnes had been preferred to Anthony Gordon on Newcastle’s left wing from the start and, at the outset of the second half, Barnes dodged Pedro Porro before forcing Vicario into a smart save, made with his legs.
Worryingly for Frank, Howe’s players appeared to have found a second wind. If part of Howe had hoped to see how Aaron Ramsdale – once again starting with the apparently injured, recently error prone, Nick Pope not even on the bench – performed under pressure, the former Arsenal goalkeeper had almost embarrassingly little to do.
Howe’s concern was that the reassuringly robust looking Vicario was not exactly overworked either and, in an attempt to break the deadlock he introduced the speed and skill of Anthony Elanga and Gordon.
It was an earlier substitute though that finally ended the impasse. Just as Frank could probably sense a point was almost within his grasp, Guimarães drove a stake though his heart.
That goal began with Gordon accelerating down the left and removing Porro and Romero from the defensive equation before crossing low to Nick Woltemade. The Germany striker’s typically deft lay off fell to Guimaraes to run onto and the Newcastle captain’s swerving shot from the edge of the area proved far too good for even Vicario.
Romero though soon atoned for his part in that goal. When Newcastle failed to properly clear a corner Kudus outwitted Lewis Hall and crossed for the captain to head Spurs level.
Yet if Frank thought he could relax a little he was wrong. A penalty area wrestling match between Dan Burn and Rodrigo Bentancur concluded with a video assistant referee review and it was eventually decided that Burn had been fouled.
Gordon stepped forward and made no mistake from the penalty spot. Spurs looked beaten but Romero had very different ideas. When Ramsdale punched a corner his dramatic overhead kick flew into the back of the net.
