Here’s Tumaini Carayol’s report from the Amex.
The Brighton striker Neal Maupay speaks.
It’s a massive win for us, we knew before the game. Last few weeks we have even struggling. a 3-0 win, three goals, a clean sheet, a very nice win for us. I am very pleased, I have not been efficient. And I am aware of that. We were ready for that game. When we play like that. We have got quality and we know that. Tonight we played a full 90 minutes and we got the win. We’ve got a lot of games to go, it’s just two wins.
It’s been a great weekend for Brighton, with Fulham losing and then this comprehensive victory.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Brighton | 29 | -4 | 32 |
| 17 | Newcastle | 29 | -20 | 28 |
| 18 | Fulham | 30 | -15 | 26 |
| 19 | West Brom | 29 | -37 | 18 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 29 | -34 | 14 |
Full-time: Brighton 3-0 Newcastle
The question was which club would rise to the occasion, the answer was Brighton. Only they pushed for a goal and once Newcastle lost concentration after Isaac Hayden’s injury, the first goal came. And it was only ever Brighton who were going to add to the total. Steve Bruce looks a haunted man, and one with dim prospects. Graham Potter can celebrate only a second home win of the season but’s it a huge win for Brighton.
Updated
90+3 min: Three minutes were added on, and nothing has happened. Brighton, though, can relax, and enjoy that feeling of being able to relax at the end of a game.
89 min: Brighton sub: off goes Moder after a bright debut, on comes Propper.
88 min: Lovely weaving run from Jacob Murphy. It comes to nothing. After all, he’s a Newcastle player.
87 min: Brighton passing it around with little aim other than the retention of the ball. This game is done done done. And so, most probably, are Newcastle.
85 min: This second half has been agonising for Steve Bruce. A six-pointer in which his team have played like a distended turkey. His team have not had a shot on target and the local press pack and fans will be pointing this out. And at length.
Updated
83 min: Danny Welbeck, forces a fine save from Dubravka as he cuts in from that left wing position. That’s his last intervention as Zeqiri replaces the scorer of Brighton’s second.
82 min: Newcastle appear to want to keep the score down. It’s been a bad, bad night for them and Isaac Hayden’s injury caps it all off. That was horrible.
80 min: You have to say that Graham Potter’s tactics of putting strikers in wide positions has paid off. Welbeck and Maupay have caused real problems in overloading down the flanks. Newcastle’s deep defending has been bypassed.
79 min: Brighton sub: off goes Trossard, scorer of the first, and on comes Alexis Mac Allister.
77 min: Newcastle sub: Off goes Almiron after a difficult evening of pursuing lost causes, on comes Sean Longstaff.
Updated
75 min: John emails in from Sydney: “Greetings from a truly rain sodden Sydney. When was the last time Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough were in the Championship together?”
My instinct is that it actually wasn’t that long ago.
73 min: When Jeff deserts the football man’s cause, it’s like the ravens leaving the Tower of London.
Ok Newcastle fans please don’t hammer me. But NOW I think I understand!
— Jeff Stelling (@JeffStelling) March 20, 2021
71 min: Maupay forces a corner as Brighton play with a confidence they have rarely been able to exert since becoming a Premier League club in 2017. It’s been hard at times for them.
70 min: “Which team would you rather stay up, Fulham or Newcastle I think the former will provide better quality football,” asks Nigel. Have to agree that Fulham are better to watch but teams aren’t obligated to entertain. They do need to attack at some point, though. Steve Bruce looked aghast as that one went in, and worried too.
Goal! Brighton 3-0 Newcastle (Maupay, 68)
Lovely interchange of passes, Gross pirouettes, and crosses and Maupay volleys his first goal in ten games. Brighton may need to make sure they don’t use up all their goals.
Updated
66 min: Chance for a Newcastle counter but Fraser is surrounded by blue shirts when the ball is aimed at him.
65 min: Newcastle’s starting line-up had scored ten Premier League goals. They haven’t looked like adding to that total. Did Steve Bruce’s teams always play football like this? That isn’t my personal recollection. His Birmingham and Wigan teams could play a bit.
63 min: Paul Dummett, chasing shadows most of the night, smashes into Gross and gets a deserved yellow card.
62 min: On comes Murphy for Joe Willock who has looked a tad lost amid the block of nothingness that has been Newcastle’s midfield. It has been a void.
60 min: Lewis Dunk has loads of time to step across and clear the ball. Not much urgency from Newcastle. Jacob Murphy will be coming on for Newcastle.
58 min: Bill Jones on mispronounced names: “ I think the current manager of Spurs is called by more outlandish mispronounciations of his name than his parents dreamed possible.Some versions would seem to have only four letters in them.”
57 min: Brighton’s turn to keep it as tight as possible which for them isn’t actually that tight. They’re still looking the team most likely to score the next.
55 min: But somehow, that doesn’t seem like it will be happening.
54 min: Now it’s time for Newcastle to play for their lives, throw off the shackles like Kevin Keegan is in charge and the forward line is (from left): Ginola, Beardsley, Shearer, Sir Les, Asprilla, Gillespie.
Updated
52 min: Oh dear, Newcastle. Just as they had started to look interested in actual attacking.
Goal! Brighton 2-0 Newcastle (Welbeck, 51)
What a strike. In from the left, he cuts in, Manquillo gives him space and he beats Dubravka.
Updated
49 min: Newcastle go close, very close. Joelinton and Almiron switch the play and Fraser chips with his right foot but can only rattle the post. More ambition from Newcastle. And that has to the first time their three attackers link up.
48 min: Andy Carroll sits in the stands, wiping his eyes. Yeah, me too.
46 min: Back underway. In that first half, Brighton completed 200 more passes than Newcastle according to stats king Graeme Souness.
2 - Newcastle have won just two of their last 94 Premier League away games when losing at half-time (D11 L81), with both of those victories coming at Tottenham (Oct 2014, Dec 2015). Battle. #BHANEW
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 20, 2021
Peter Oh gets in touch: “I feel for Joelinton because his name is arguably the most mispronounced in the Premier League. All of the commentators I’ve heard say Jo-el-IN-ton when in actuality it’s more like Zho-EL-in-tow. Ask any Brazilian.”
Brian Robson gets in touch: “I have an upcoming colonoscopy and to save the over stretched resources of the Canadian health care system, the anaesthetic will be provided by the first half of this game, and as sadly I’m watching the substitution of Hayden, why is Jeff Hendricks the only answer to any tactical question?”
Good luck, Brian.
Half-time: Brighton 1-0 Newcastle
Leandro Trossard’s goal came as a surprise, but it was the opening Brighton had been looking for. Rotten luck for Newcastle to lose Isaac Hayden like that but they also paid for a total lack of ambition.
45+4 min: Cannot help but think that the distraction of Hayden’s injury led to Newcastle losing concentration. Brighton - at last - found the space they had been looking for.
Goal! Brighton 1-0 Newcastle (Trossard, 45+3)
Veltman’s pass, and Trossard spins and shoots, well beyond the wingspan of Dubravka. A great goal, but Newcastle sat off him.
Updated
45 min: Hayden goes off, shaking the hand of Bissouma as he goes off, head in hands. Five minutes are added on to the half, at least.
44 min: Watching it again and Bissouma fell over Jonjo Shelvey and inadvertently took out Hayden, who was looking in the other direction with his knee planted.
43 min: Jeff Hendrick will be coming on. That looks like it could be the end of Hayden’s season. The stretcher is on, and he’s barely moved aside from trying to dull the pain by waving his arms. It’s distressing to see. Bissouma looks traumatised himself. Awful. Sheesh.
Updated
42 min: Hayden sounds in real pain as he goes down. He’s smashing the turf in agony after he and Bissouma smash into each other. It looks like a knee injury. And a nasty one too.
40 min: This is going exactly as expected. And one can take no pleasure in that, as iy’s not a very pleasurable game to watch. The immovable object against the totally resistible force.
38 min: Brighton go close. It’s still blocked, as the wall of black and white sits deep again. Trossard gets to the touchline and Maupay can only hit Clark. He needs to do better than that.
36 min: An actual Newcastle corner. It eventually comes back out to Shelvey but Isaac Hayden makes a right hash of it. Steve Bruce howls in anguish.
33 min: Newcastle showing a serious lack of ambition but Steve Bruce is having words with Almiron - ‘Miggy” as Dubravka is down with an injury. He’s also trying to get Joelinton to do something different. It appeared there was a language barrier there. Lots of miming and talking loudly from Brucey. As any Englishman needs to do when talking to an actual foreigner. Joelinton looked bemused.
31 min: Lovely pass from Gross to Welbeck in that wide position, he smashes the cross and it’s cleared. There was nobody chasing it in. Brighton are getting in loads of crossing positions but can’t get the ball to anyone running on to it.
29 min: Welbeck gets to the byline and skips away from Willock, but the ball is cleared. There were too many men in the way.
28 min: Brighton play nice stuff but not quick enough. And that’s their big problem. Because then the mistakes they make get punished.
27 min: Newcastle essentially playing seven at the back. Lallana prods a nice pass through to Maupay who does OK to start with but is crowded by three defenders.
25 min: A terrible ball from midfield evades Welbeck by miles. Twenty five minutes in and it’s awful, frankly.
23 min: Lallana plays in Trossard whose shot is blocked. Any Brighton attack is defended deeply, very deeply.
21 min: Brighton’s zest has abated, which is a worry. Newcastle’s Manquillo currently has a problem, caused by kicking the foot of an opponent. Painful one.
19 min: This defence versus attack: a not especially good attack against a not especially good defence. Does something have to give? Not necessarily.
17 min: Newcastle are digging in while Moder is all over the show. They have not yet been tempted out of their shape. Steve Bruce and trusted assistant Graeme Jones are in discussion after Jones came down from the stands to make a suggestion. Jones previously worked with defensive genius Roberto Martinez.
Updated
15 min: One of those delayed offside as Almiron seems to have scampered away from Brighton’s defence only to be hauled back.
13 min: Newcastle finally get it forward to Joelinton, who is robbed by Veltman but that’s the way to server a player like the Brazilian. He’s also much more mobile than Andy Carroll. Mind you, so probably is Steve Bruce himself.
11 min: Actual Newcastle possession is conceded by Fraser, the ball finds its way up Bissouma after Trossard’s pass. Three decent chances, three lacking in a decent connection.
9 min: Joelinton on the flanks doesn’t look right. He is, as they used to say up in the Manchester area, a ‘centre crash’. He’s no winger, that’s for sure.
8 min: Maupay seems to be playing off the right, drifting away so others can fill the space a centre-forward fills. The same seems to go for Welbeck. The aim appears to be drawing out Newcastle’s massed phalanx of defenders and letting runners from midfield do the damage. [/chalkboard]
Maupay actually has the ball in the net but Dubravka had clearly been fouled.
Updated
6 min: Another chance for Maupay to cross from the right wing, another clearance. Newcastle are sat deep, and that appears to be the plan of action. This does not come as a surprise to anyone, does it?
4 min: Moder again, seemingly playing as an underlapping full-back, as he gets inside a flick from Welbeck. A better shot this time but Dubravka is equal to the task. Brighton already finding openings.
2 min: Maupay gets to the touchline and dips in a cross, Welbeck leaves it for Moder, who has a chance to score on his first start. He whacks it over. He saw glory and delivered something rather less than glorious.
1 min: Away we go. A feast of football surely awaits us all. Just before kick-off there was a moment shared between the two managers. That was nice, actually.
The teams are on the field. Some nerves around, there has to be. This is massive.
Updated
Steve Bruce speaks
[On Fulham losing] It helps the situation. I have always said it’s your accumulation over a season. It’s a big game. I think we’ve played OK over a few weeks. We had a terrible December and January but slowly but surely we’re getting back to an acceptable level. We are unbeaten in three but need to turn those draws into wins. It’s vital that you have your big players fit and available. We’re delighted to see him back in contention. Miggy has been outstanding.
Graham Potter speaks
We have to try to play well, we have to be smart and do our best. We don’t worry about what other teams do. We play for ourselves. We’ll just try and win the game, keep fighting.
Newcastle have won just two of their last 17 Premier League matches, while Brighton’s win at Southampton was their first win in six since beating the division’s whipping boys in Liverpool.
Updated
The big news for Newcastle is that Almiron is fit to play after recovering from his keen injury. He and Javi Manquillo replace Emil Krafth and Dwight Gayle.
Brighton make one change from the side that beat Southampton last weekend with Jakub Moder coming in for Dan Burn, to make a first Premier League start. Burn drops to the bench.
The teams
Brighton: Sanchez, Moder, White, Dunk, Veltman, Gross, Bissouma, Lallana, Trossard, Welbeck, Maupay. Subs: Mac Allister, Jahanbakhsh, Alzate, Izquierdo, Tau, Steele,
Propper, Zeqiri, Burn.
Newcastle: Dubravka, Manquillo, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett, Willock, Shelvey, Hayden, Joelinton, Almiron, Fraser. Subs: Carroll, Ritchie, Gayle, Lewis, Hendrick, Fernandez, Murphy, Darlow, Sean Longstaff.
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)
Preamble
Fulham’s defeat to Leeds last night means the stakes aren’t quite so high as they might have looked in midweek but there’s certainly so much to play for on Saturday night. This will be a clash of styles: playing well and not getting what they deserve in Brighton’s case versus not playing well and somehow not being in the relegation zone in the case of Newcastle. Graham Potter is admired by Brighton fans, Steve Bruce isn’t by Newcastle fans, and yet there is a single point between them. Newcastle, with no Callum Wilson, no Miguel Almíron, and Allan Saint-Maximin, as is likely, look likely to try and dig in for a draw. Though they would probably have done that anyway. With Adam Lallana at last free from injury and the aftereffects of Covid, then Brighton have a player of class, and if Albion could just find someone to score goals for them then they can pull clear. But we should be prepared for this to be the type of game where staring down the abyss lowers the entertainment levels to reading the manual of a micrometer screwgauge.
The kick-off is at 8pm UK time. Join me.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Brighton | 28 | -7 | 29 |
| 17 | Newcastle | 28 | -17 | 28 |
| 18 | Fulham | 30 | -15 | 26 |
| 19 | West Brom | 29 | -37 | 18 |
| 20 | Sheff Utd | 29 | -34 | 14 |
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