Newcastle 0-1 Brighton
by Roger Domeneghetti
at St. James' Park
BART VERBRUGGEN fell on the ball. Referee Peter Bankes pointed to the centre circle and blew his whistle. Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall stared in disbelief. How did that one slip away, lads?
It was the archetypal game of two halves.
Newcastle were dominant in the first. It was arguably the best they’d played so far this season, and they should really have had the three points safely stashed away in their dressing room at the break. Yet, somehow, they found themselves behind courtesy of a cute Danny Welbeck goal.
Alexander Isak had been restored to the Magpies’ starting XI after missing three games due to a broken toe. He was busy, industrious, posed questions for the visitors’ defence. He was also rusty, chances that would have been tucked away with aplomb last season went begging.
The best one came just after the half-mark, played through by Bruno Guimaraes, he only had the keeper to beat.
Verbruggen spread himself wide and Isak could not find the angle to beat him. It was Newcastle’s seventh shot. Yet, two minutes later, Brighton were ahead with their first.
Lewis Dunk took a quick, route one free kick, which found Welbeck. He took advantage of Fabian Schar’s momentary loss of concentration, exchanged a neat one-two with Georginio Rutter on the edge of the area, shrugged off the attention of Tino Livramento and slotted home.
It was all rather too easy. “I don’t think we necessarily switched off, but we didn’t organise ourselves well from a set play,” said a disappointed Howe.
The goal settled Brighton and knocked Newcastle off their stride. They continued to dominate possession and rack up the chances —21 in all — but ultimately a result eluded them and consequently, their 11-game home unbeaten League run came to a shuddering halt.
“It was really frustrating because I thought our general performance was really good for around 65 minutes,” said Howe. “We threatened to overrun them at times but didn’t get the goal our performance deserved.”
Welbeck was stretchered off in the second half after lengthy treatment, but his manager Fabian Hurzeler could still see the positives.
“In the first half we had a bit of luck. We suffered together in the first half, then in the second half we showed a great reaction. For me it was a really good performance. In the end we deserved to win.” Indeed they did.
