Newcastle United 4 Leeds United 3: Whites run out of gas as Magpies pull off Kevin Keegan-esque win — Yorkshire Post 7/1/26

By Stuart Rayner

Leeds United's unbeaten run came to a heartbreaking end with a 102nd-minute winner from their arch nemesis Harvey Barnes, as they ended up losing a game they led three times.

With two players limping off with what looked like muscle injuries with the game against Newcastle United at 3-3 in stoppage time, Leeds did not quite have enough left in the tank to stretch their run without defeat to eight games, but no one high up in the away end could have any complaints about the effort they put in.

Before kick-off and during the game, St James's Park sent its best wishes to club legend Kevin Keegan, hours after it was announced he had been diagnosed with cancer.

But the biggest tribute they could have paid was the pulsating match both sides produced, which ended with a Keegan-esque scoreline.

If he was watching on from a sofa somewhere, the Yorkshireman would have just loved it.

Leeds started energetically, pressing in the home player's faces and causing a great deal of threat when Brenden Aaronson worked his way into the inside-left channel.

The American got outside Malick Thiaw in the fifth minute, but nobody in blue was able to get on the end of the ball he put in.

Shortly after Pascal Struijk headed over at a free-kick. He would later put a header wide at a corner.

When ilia Gruev won the ball high up the pitch off Bruno Guimaraes, Anton Stach shot at Nick Pope.

Lewis Miley headed over at a 25th-minute corner, but Newcastle chances were surprisingly rare,

Stach shot over after Aaronson played the ball into Calvert-Lewin, and the ball came loose to the German.

The link up between the pair would pay off a couple of minutes later as Thiaw slipped with Calvert-Lewin creeping up behind him and the striker found Aaronson for a precise shot into the corner.

But it was a lead the visitors held for only four minutes, and weak defending was to blame. Leeds never dealt with a ball in front the right and it eventually fell to Harvey Barnes – who had forced a Lucas Perri shortly before Aaronson's goal to equalise.

Leeds began to look vulnerable but just when the relief of the half-time whistle was about to come they got an even bigger lift, Thiaw handling Jaka Bijol's header as he tangled with Calvert-Lewin. After the usual over-long VAR check, the striker buried his eighth goal in nine games.

Newcastle thought they might get a spot kick too but although James Justin gave Joelinton a nudge, he was already heading for the ground when it happened, and got no joy from Michael Salisubry.

A double half-time substitution dragged Newcastle up to Leeds' level and made for an excellent second half packed with incident.

Nick Pope made the first save of it, denying Aaronson with his feet. The chance came about because of Calvert-Lewin's tacking back, which allowed Stach to run half the length of the field before feeding the playmaker.

But it was Newcastle who scored next, in the 54th minute.

Miley, Newcastle's makeshift right-back, did really well to keep the ball in by the corner flag. Whether Guimaraes was shooting or not with the outside of his boot, Joelinto redirected the ball past Perri.

Justin, then Ethan Ampadu made brilliant interceptions to stop Anthony Gordon, then Lewis Hall having tap-ins.

The second led to a corner – despite Hall appearing offside – from which Fabian Schar hit a post, then Perri saved from Nick Woltemade from the follow-up.

Then, only a couple of minutes later, Gudmundsson went outside of his man and hung up a croer Justin headed onto the crossbar.

In the 79th minute Leeds won the ball near the halfway line and Gruev picked out Aaronson for another precise finish, in off the pst, to put Leeds in front for a third time.

Struijk headed off the line from Sven Botman in the 86th minute, and put in a huge clearance from the corner.

Newcastle equalised again when Aaronson handled chasing down a cross His feet were inside the area but as VAR Paul Howard agreed, his hands were not.

After Guimaraes stuttered and beat Perri, the fourth official indicated a minimum of 10 more minutes. Bravo, even if some in blue probably disagreed.

Aaronson and Joe Rodon certainly did when their muscles both twanging around the same time, Leeds made a triple substitution in the seventh of what became 13 extra minutes.

By then they were hanging on, and their winner had an air of inevitability about it, as did the scorer.

It was Barnes who won the 102nd minute corner Perri did well to stretch and tip away but when Bijol won the header at the next flag kick, Barnes swivelled on the ball to delight the home fans.

Including, perhaps, a certain Doncastrian.