Newcastle pummel charitable West Ham 3-2 in EPL

LONDON (AP) — Newcastle roared into a three-goal lead and held off a late comeback to beat West Ham 3-2 in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Goals from Ciaran Clark, Federico Fernandez in the first 22 minutes, and Jonjo Shelvey in the second half fired the Magpies to their second away victory of the season and hauled them away from the drop zone.

They were assisted by a comically inept display from Manuel Pellegrini’s expensively assembled West Ham, who were booed off at halftime and by those fans who bothered to stay until the end at London Stadium.

Late goals from Fabian Balbuena and Robert Snodgrass gave the scoreline a flattering look that West Ham did not deserve. They have gone six games without a win.

Before this, Newcastle had not scored more than one goal in a match this season. Fernandez had never scored a goal for the Magpies. Yet, West Ham simply laid out the welcome mat, and could have been down by five at halftime.

Newcastle was always going to sit deep and hit the hosts on the break, but it seems nobody told West Ham.