If only we were neutrals watching that game it would have been so much fun. Newcastle United and Brighton put on an extremely entertaining game of football for a Sunday afternoon.
It was a game that had everything, red cards, disallowed 90th minute goals and an extra-time winner. Unfortunately the disallowed goals were both Newcastles and the extra-time winner was Brighton's.
Alexander Isak returned from injury to give Newcastle the lead on 22 minutes from the penalty spot after former Magpie Yankuba Minteh chopped down Tino Livramento in the box.
Isak had the ball in the back of the again 10 minutes later but the semi-automated offside system confirmed the linesman's offside flag was the right call and the goal was chalked off.
Minteh was at the centre of the action again at the end of the first half scoring at St James' Park - the ground at which he would have been playing regulalry this season were it not for PSR. Credit to the youngster, he didn't celebrate his goal in front of the fans that came to adore him without him even kicking a ball for the club.
Newcastle once again came out of the tunnel for the second half looking sluggish. Can somebody confirm whether Eddie Howe makes the players down a pint of Guinness in the interval?
Brighton dominated possession while Newcastle did their best to give the ball away at any given opportunity.
The longer the game went on the more it felt like it wasn't going to be Newcastle's day, and I had already put Anthony Gordon in my crosshairs to single out as the winger never looked interetsted all game, but then he went from not caring to caring too much and shoved Jan Paul van Hecke to the ground via the face and saw a straight red for his troubles on 83 minutes.
That rules Anthony Gordon out for three matches, one of which will be the Carabao Cup final in two weeks. Anything Nick Pope can do ...
As the game went into stoppage time, Tariq Lampety picked up his second yellow card and suddenly it was 10v10. Then, the St James' Park crowd was sent into raptures when Fabian Schar volleyed home from close range following the free-kick.
Once again, though, the SAOT was on hand to rule the goal out and that just felt like confirmation that it wasn't going to be our day.
Tired legs in extra time played a huge part in the remainder of the game but there was no excuse for the lazy defending by Tino Livramento who hung back, playing Danny Welbeck onside as the man who sunk Newcastle at St James' Park in October did it again.
Newcastle now have just the one chance of silverware and if they play like today, that game at Wembley is going to be a tough watch.
We'd say that without Anthony Gordon it's going to be even tougher, but he's been so half-arsed lately, this might actually be a blessing in disguise.
We hope that we get a pubic apology and explanation from Gordon for that needless red card. Absolute stupidity.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
29 | 42 | 70 |
2 |
![]() |
29 | 29 | 58 |
3 |
![]() |
29 | 14 | 54 |
4 |
![]() |
29 | 16 | 49 |
5 |
![]() |
29 | 15 | 48 |
6 |
![]() |
28 | 9 | 47 |
7 |
![]() |
29 | 6 | 47 |
8 |
![]() |
29 | 5 | 45 |
9 |
![]() |
29 | -4 | 45 |
10 |
![]() |
29 | 12 | 44 |
11 |
![]() |
29 | 5 | 41 |
12 |
![]() |
28 | 3 | 39 |
13 |
![]() |
29 | -3 | 37 |
14 |
![]() |
29 | 12 | 34 |
15 |
![]() |
29 | -4 | 34 |
16 |
![]() |
29 | -16 | 34 |
17 |
![]() |
29 | -18 | 26 |
18 |
![]() |
29 | -34 | 17 |
19 |
![]() |
29 | -40 | 17 |
20 |
![]() |
29 | -49 | 9 |