Half time: Toffees 0 Magpies 0

51 mins: Yannick Bolasie's high cross from the Everton right to the far post wasn't dealt with by DeAndre Yedlin and after the ball bounced off both him and Theo Walcott, the £20m signing was in the position of maximum opportunity to drive it into the roof of the Gwladys Street net 0-1

Full time: Toffees 1 Magpies 0

 
A clearly exasperated Rafa said:

 
"We played against a good team. The style and type of football wasn't amazing but they won and that's it. We had two or three chances. The final pass is the difference, especially in the Premier League. You have to take these chances to make a difference.

"I'm pleased with the effort of the players. To stay in the Premier League was the target and we are really clear with that. We didn't take our chances and that is the difference when you have Walcott or Rooney or players on these wages that can make a difference.

"We did really well to be here to play against this team. To expect that we have to beat them easily is impossible. They have very good players and they can make the difference. 

"We battled and we fought until the end so we had the chance to draw, but we lost against a good team and that's it. The difference is they have players with experience in the Premier League. I don't know how much they have spent this year, but it is very simple.

"To come here and expect we have to better than them because we were doing well is not easy. 

"Normally if you go away against these kind of players and these kind of teams, it is not easy to get anything.

"We are really strong. To stay in the Premier League was the target and we are really pleased with that. We will try to do better if we can but today, we knew it would be a difficult game against a very good team, but still we had our chances and now we have to be ready for the next one."

Speaking ahead of this game:

"I cannot do miracles every year, so then you have to have the tools to be sure that you can do your job.

"I like to win, I want to win games and I want to win trophies. I want to be capable of competing and if you want to compete in the Premier League or this market, then you have to compete in everything. Then if you have the tools to compete, you can win.

"I’d like to do that and at the same time, I like to improve players, coach players, follow a business plan, a realistic business plan in modern football. I have no problem with that because I did it in the past.

"I thought that when we came here. We couldn’t save the team, but to win the Championship, to change the mood and to change a lot of players, I think was a bigger step forward.

"And to stay in the Premier League is an even bigger step forward towards reaching the potential of this massive club. 

"We are going in the right direction, then we have to carry on in the same direction.”
 

Big Sham commented:

"What was wrong with our style today? We completely dominated the game. 

"We were patient, we got the winner. You can't knock our football. You can knock some of the passing that goes astray buy you can't knock me for that, I don't pass the ball.

"When does every fan like the manager? I will keep doing what I'm doing because we keep winning and keep getting better. I think eighth in the league compared to fifth from bottom tells you we're getting better.

"Up to 75 minutes the performance was excellent. And then we had to do a little bit of desperate defending to secure the victory that we deserved.

"Breaking down a very stubborn Newcastle defensive unit, with all players in their own half trying to suck you in and hit you on the break, was difficult. Finally we did it.

"Theo's come up with his third goal since he arrived and it was the winner. I'm pleased for him and pleased for the team."

Last Saturday's game at Swansea was notable for anti-Sam chanting by Toffees fans and it then emerged that EFC were circulating questionnaires to a fan focus group asking them to rate the performance of the current coaching staff. Asked about that survey tonight, he said:

"The controversy was caused by an error by one of our employees, which he obviously realises wasn't the right thing to do.

"You get that bit of controversy and I think as a manager you just deal with it and move on. 

"I don't dwell on it. We've moved on, I've got no gripes against who did it, it's gone, let's not let it happen again, let's move forward.

"But the players did all the talking, I'm glad to say, by winning the game again at home and putting us up to eighth place and hopefully (we will) finish this season as strong as we possibly can.

 

Visiting a place we seldom win at, playing on a night we seldom win on and up against a team and manager we seldom win against, perhaps this wasn't as much of a surprise as it seemed to some. 

Beaten here only by the two Manchester clubs in ten PL games since the disgraced former England manager brought his particular brand of devilment to Goodison, Sam Allardyce's side scored the only goal of a disappointing game from their sole shot on target - a not unfamiliar occurrence here.    

Rafa Benitez reached a century of games in charge of Newcastle but saw his side replicate the scoreline of his maiden outing at Leicester City in March - which also came on a Monday night.

Returning to merseyside 12 points and six places better off than we'd been after losing at nearby Anfield in early March, there was a first change to the starting lineup after four games unchanged - Islam Slimani replacing Dwight Gayle for his first start. 

The Leicester City loanee could have marked the occasion with a first Magpies goal, had Ayoze Perez managed to find him with a simple-looking pass after Kenedy blocked Jordan Pickford's 38th minute attempted clearance. 

That came at the tail end of a half when Cenk Tosun and Phil Jagielka had sight of the United goal but failed to hit the target during what was a game of few clear chances and little incident.

The only goal of the night arrived six minutes after the restart when the otherwise inept Yannick Bolasie centred from the right to the back post for Theo Walcott to grab a first goal in ten games.

Despite raising their energy levels and making a trio of replacements, United were unable to sneak in an equaliser - the Toffees reverting to their crowd-displeasing tactics and never remotely seeking to score a second goal, being more concerned with breaking up the play by any means necessary.

Chances to salvage a point duly appeared: Perez shooting wide under pressure from two defenders and Dwight Gayle just clearing the crossbar with his first touch after arriving from the bench.

Seeking to score for the fourth successive game, Perez did well to get a flicked header on target from a Kenedy cross while Matt Ritchie put a free-kick just over the bar after Gayle was brought down near the edge of the penalty area.

Michael Keane was fortunate to see just yellow for that foul and should have had another booking for tripping Gayle down the right wing, shortly after bungling referee Bobby Madley had failed to award a spot-kick for a Jagielka handball in the area.

Five minutes of added time had become six when Gayle was narrowly failed to connect with Jacob Murphy's cross from the right, Seamus Coleman's vital headed clearance to sealing the home win.

Aside from the annoyance of losing to this oafish windbag (and equally odious Sammy Lee), maybe the outcome was no bad thing, given that the required points have now been gathered and the pressure is off to a certain extent.

Maybe that's no bad thing for a fanbase whose soaring levels of optimism have been given more fuel by the demise of the mackems and may just be tempered by this reminder of our own fallibility. We remain a team in development phase, progressing but far from the finished article and yet to devise and implement a way to prosper from situations like the one we faced tonight.

Of course we immediately went from feast to famine; Slimani's first PL start since New Years Day poorly-received in some quarters. Writing him off solely on this display seems massively premature though, given that he lacked support and was perhaps just trying too hard to impress. His vital role in the winning goals against Huddersfield and Arsenal seems to have been very quickly forgotten.

(We of course aren't immune to that, having slated the early toon displays of one Demba Ba...)

Turning to Everton, there's a risk of double standards here for slagging them off for being so negative at home after a season when we've deployed equally restrictive tactics at times. 

Unlike the first meeting of these sides in December though, Everton are well out of danger and can afford to be more expansive as they pursue a Europa League place. It's a fair bet that we'll be rather more offensive against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, having reached our declared objective.

Aside from the fact that we're not on a level with the likes of Manchester City and as a promoted side, we surely didn't represent a threat to his expensively-assembled side to justify these tactics. It was of course nothing to do with respect though, just his default miserabilist stance.

Allardyce's justification appears to be that his £45m Icelandic playmaker is crocked, but that just doesn't wash - certainly given the withdrawn position Wayne Rooney was condemned to occupy, aside from trotting forward to take corners.   

One thing is clear; home followers are bored stiff, rendered even more apathetic than usual by this joyless feast and in no hurry to sign up for more of it - a feeling that may well be shared within the dressing room if the Newcastle squad in 2007 is any guide. The end doesn't justify the means.

Defeat left Newcastle tenth - still not quite mathematically safe, with but genuine hope of achieving a first top half finish since 2014. Tonight didn't change anything....and I still hate Allardyce's guts. 

Biffa