LOCAL boy Sean Longstaff netted his first Premier League goal as Newcastle United pulled further away from the relegation zone with a 2-0 win over Burnley on Tuesday night.

Fabian Schar had opened the scoring 14 minutes earlier with a spectacular strike, but it was the youth product, from North Shields, who stole the show. 

The visitors had their chances, but Newcastle stayed resolute to record a fourth-straight home win, go above their opponents in the table and end their eight-match unbeaten run.

Rafael Benitez piled praise on the youngster, admitting he fully deserves his place in the team and first league goal.

“I said so many times when he was coming with us and training with us he was doing well,” he said. 

“He was lucky enough to make his debut sooner rather than later because of injuries but now he deserves to be in there. 

“There are a lot of positives; we have a young, local lad playing well and scoring goals.”

While it became evident rather quickly that Newcastle would be in for a tougher game physically than against Huddersfield on Saturday, they started with confidence, zipping the ball around and feeding Miguel Almiron at every opportunity.

On 24 minutes, they took the lead through Schar’s wonder-strike from distance. Hit with such venom, it was past Tom Heaton and into the top left-hand corner, via the opposite post, before half of the stadium could react.

Almost immediately, Burnley showed their prowess from set-pieces. Chris Wood’s volley forced Martin Dubravka into a smart save following Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s corner.

Soon enough, it was 2-0, and there could hardly have been a more popular goalscorer. Longstaff has been a revelation since stepping up from the academy, and he grabbed his opportunity from close range after Ritchie’s cross.

James Tarkowski missed a glaring opportunity to halve the deficit as half time approached, but he could only sky over from six yards as Ashley Barnes knocked down a free-kick.

After the break, a swift counter attack saw Ayoze Perez slip Almiron in, but his first touch didn’t set him up for a clear run on goal, allowing Burnley to clear.

The Clarets then squandered another chance, again through Tarkowski, who couldn’t direct his free header from substitute Robbie Brady’s corner on target.

Time ticked on and the hosts maintained control of the game as well as their defensive shape. Burnley’s sporadic attempts to break were being halted by a string of brilliantly timed tackles by Isaac Hayden who, alongside midfield partner Longstaff, was excellent all evening.

Sean Dyche reacted by replacing Barnes with Peter Crouch, and his obvious aerial threat did begin to turn the tide with 20 minutes remaining. Almiron then received another generous ovation from the home crowd as Paul Dummett came on, as did Longstaff when Mohamed Diame replaced him.

The visitors continued to turn the screw and their corners were causing trouble for Newcastle. But their poor finishing meant that, overall, they were kept at arm’s length.

Dyche was disappointed with the first-half showing from his side, but said after such a good run of form, he couldn’t criticise too much.

“We were really poor in the first half,” he said.

“In the second half we looked more like ourselves, but after eight games unbeaten I can’t be too critical.”