Jonas Gutierrez was the hero as Newcastle avoided relegation with a 2-0 win over West Ham on Sunday.
The Argentine who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in September 2014 has come a long way since, and so have Newcastle, who finally put a hapless season behind them.
Coming into the game, the Toon knew that a win would secure Premier League football for next season and second half goals from Moussa Sissoko and Jonas Gutierrez ensured that with Hull playing out a goalless draw against Manchester United.
Gutierrez provided a delightful cross for Sissoko’s goal and scored a header of his own which secured a win which will surely last long in the memory of the Newcastle faithful.
Relegation would’ve been disastrous for the club and with owner Mike Ashley realizing the gravity of the situation, gave a rare interview before the game accepting full responsibility for the club’s current position, underlining his full commitment to the club and stating he would not sell the club at least until they’d won some silverware.
Manager John Carver admitted he was proud of his players’ performance in such testing circumstances.
“I think the adrenaline is still pumping, but I have to say I think we dealt with our emotions and we dealt with the game very well,” Carver told Sky Sports.
“In the first half there weren’t too many chances and we knew it might take the last five minutes of the game before we could break them down.
Sam [West Ham boss Allardyce] put his strongest team out and they came and were resolute, but it was all about what we were going to do and I think we put in a performance that was worthy of the victory.
The fact he’s saying he wants to win something is fantastic. We’ve seen how good our fans, we’ve seen what kind of performances we put in altogether and we all have to be together.
If Mike’s come forward then fair play to him because he wants this club to be united. It’s a big, big summer for this club, we have to invest and hopefully we will.”
The Magpies boss is now hoping he would still be at the helm next season, having recently stated that he was the best manager in the Premier League.
“This week was tough, I’ve tried not to show it. It was a build-up to a cup final and we won the cup final, but it would be really nice to say at the end of a season that we’ve won something.
“We shouldn’t be in the position we were in, but we were and we dealt with it.”
