Newcastle 3 – 1 Brighton

Newcastle United ended a dismal run of five straight defeats with a 3-1 win over a Europe-chasing Brighton at St James’ Park.

Will Osula scored Newcastle’s opener against the run of play thanks to a Bart Verbruggen error before Dan Burn headed home the second against his former employers.

Jack Hinshelwood’s second-half goal restored the nerves among the Newcastle crowd, who have seen their side give up the most points from winning positions.

Those nerves nearly turned into disappointment when former Newcastle winger Yankuba Minteh missed a sitter but second-half substitute Harvey Barnes fired home a Toon third to end Brighton’s five-game unbeaten run.

Newcastle, who began the day in 15th, move up to 13th in the league while Brighton suffered a blow in their chase for Europe, dropping to seventh. Brighton could fall to 10th if results this weekend do not go their way.

How Newcastle stopped the rot

It looked like more of the same for Newcastle. Brighton had made a stronger start at St James’ Park with Nick Pope keeping out Hinshelwood two minutes in, before Carlos Baleba watched his long-range strike hit the bar.

However, the momentum of the first half changed when Verbruggen bizarrely rushed off his line and slipped in an attempt to close down Jacob Murphy, who crossed into the area for Osula to head into an empty net.

Newcastle then took charge, offering wave after wave of attacks before Dan Burn converted a Bruno Guimaraes corner. Fabian Hurzeler revealed on Friday that his side had brought in an MMA specialist to help them deal with the growing threat of set-pieces; however, their expert advice was not followed as Burn headed in Newcastle’s second with ease.

While Newcastle were comfortable in the opening 45, a lax ball from Pope nearly gifted Brighton a way back as his clearance deflected off Hinshelwood and struck the post.

Hinshelwood did find his goal as Brighton started the second half on top, linking up smartly with Danny Welbeck before firing past Pope.

The Newcastle stopper did, however, deny Charalampos Kostoulas’ acrobatic effort late on, though. As Brighton continued to push, a golden opportunity emerged, but an unmarked Minteh sent his tap-in over the bar.

Brighton will rue not taking advantage of their late ascendancy, though, as moments after Joelinton selfishly chose to take on a shot rather than squaring the ball to Barnes, the wide man converted to put the result beyond doubt in injury time.

More to follow…

Story of the match in stats

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