Newcastle and Bournemouth show Howe there are different ways to move on | OneFootball

It turns out there is life after Eddie Howe. And, mercifully, Jason Tindall.

That was the broader lesson learned at St James’ Park at Saturday lunchtime. When Newcastle and Bournemouth last faced each other without Howe prowling either touchline, Ossie Ardiles and Harry Redknapp managed a 2-2 draw in front of almost 26,000 at Tyneside.

Over 34 years later, the same scoreline was played out with different methods of handling a transition between eras underlined.

Five new Newcastle signings featured, with Antonio Silva the sole fresh face for Marco Rose’s Bournemouth. The Cherries had more players bought by Howe in their side, with Adam Smith, Lewis Cook and David Brooks somehow not being snared for £100m in the great summer of Premier League cannibalism.

For the majority of the game, Bournemouth’s continuity-based approach seemed far more effective. Their press suffocated the hosts, silenced the crowd and created the sort of absurd fortune which underpinned the two goals scored in the opening half an hour or so.

Both were deserved, yet still felt somehow harsh on Newcastle. In one instance, James Tavenier simply reacted quickest to a shot heavily deflected towards a back post Amar Dedic neglected, while the second was a Yakety Sax-adjacent mess of Justin Kluivert’s shot deflecting off the post and then Lukas Hornicek’s back, before Alex Scott’s centre looped in off Malick Thiaw.

But that goal especially defined the gulf between these two teams: Dedic overrunning the ball in his own half, Tavernier skipping past a Gonzalez challenge, Bournemouth committing players forward and Newcastle having too few back. And most of all, Scott being a level or two above the rest.

Newcastle seemed entirely incapable of playing the ball out. Even a simple square Sven Botman pass to Gonzalez resulted in a chance Evanilson really ought to have scored. Tavernier, too, should have had another.

Then within seconds of going 2-0 down, Newcastle responded. Lewis Hall finally pushed them beyond the lines with a pass wide to Harvey Barnes, who cut inside and curled a sublime effort into the top corner.

That was Newcastle’s second shot to Bournemouth’s 12, and it shifted momentum completely. The Magpies had six shots to five in the subsequent hour or so, but did have to be far more patient for their equaliser.

As much as Matthias Jaissle got it wrong in the first half, those issues were rectified in the second. Newcastle played quicker, crisper and with more confidence. Matias Fernandez-Pardo brought energy and excitement from the bench. Jacob Ramsey offered energy and intent.

Cook and Brooks, Bournemouth’s only substitutes before Ramsey’s fine finish to make it 2-2, could not stem the tide.

A draw was the fairest result overall in a game which emphasised the strengths and weaknesses which make both these sides so watchable.

Newcastle were so poor and slack in the first half but grew into the second and have a proactive manager who has already improved their mentality at the very least.

Bournemouth seemed genuinely unplayable in an electric first half but slowly crumbled when the opposition figured them out; they are the first team to lead their opening three Premier League games of a season without winning any of them, and Rose really must address the insistence on conceding particularly late equalisers.

Both he and Jaissle have shown more than enough to suggest they should be trusted with those areas of concern in these clubs’ exciting post-Howe years.