Benitez pleads for fan backing after latest flop
THEY were the Championship’s best last season, but Newcastle and Brighton might just have served up one of the worst Premier League matches of 2017 with this sour stalemate.
It was not even one for the tactical purist, those whose analysis is better suited to the intricacies of a chess match. No, this was more like snakes and ladders — little skill, infuriating and ending up right back where you started. Never mind being last on, Match of the Day might have been tempted not to show this at all.
The game’s best player was a goalkeeper — Brighton’s Mat Ryan — but his afternoon’s work did not extend much beyond a pair of decent secondhalf saves.
This leaves Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle without a home win in six matches and it is nearly five hours since they last scored at St James’ Park. They were too scared to lose here and the upshot was a disjointed performance which drew groans on full-time.
Chris Hughton’s Brighton remain three points better off than the team they finished second to in the Championship last term, but Newcastle’s supporters are looking down, not up. They were peering through their fingertips at times here and, with Amanda Staveley’s takeover talks having ground to a halt over Christmas, the mood on Tyneside is about as low as Benitez’s January transfer fund, which currently stands at around zero.
The manager emerged in a subdued mood afterwards.
‘Everyone was expecting this type of game we have to win,’ said Benitez. ‘But they were well organised, they have experience and they know what they are doing.
‘We are a young team, when something is wrong we are suffering a bit. The anxiety is coming because we have a young team and not too many have experience of the Premier League.
‘We have to cope with this pressure at the bottom of the table. We have to learn, we have to improve. The fans appreciate the effort is there and we need them behind the team.’
For Hughton, this was his first point back at his former club in four visits as manager. The home fans usually reserve a rapturous welcome for the man who won them promotion in 2010, but they have their own worries right now and Hughton’s popularity might have taken a dive had Brighton, as they perhaps deserved, nicked victory.
‘I think we were the better side over 90 minutes,’ said Hughton, before conceding he was happy with a point. ‘But a worse feeling would have been coming away with a defeat.’
Brighton should have been in front at the break. Twice their centre-back Shane Duffy went close from corners, first lashing a loose ball narrowly over before seeing a looping header drop the wrong side of the crossbar.
Newcastle had more purpose after half-time and only keeper Ryan stood between them and the lead before the hour mark.
The Australian had to shift his momentum when Isaac Hayden’s snap shot deflected off defender Lewis Dunk and spun towards the bottom corner. Somehow Ryan managed to reverse his dive and clawed the ball around the upright.
On 58 minutes Ryan thwarted Dwight Gayle — who flashed a header on goal from Christian Atsu’s centre — as he went airborne to palm clear.
Next it was the turn of Newcastle custodian Karl Darlow to preserve the stalemate, fisting from his line after Dunk had turned a header towards goal on 68 minutes.
And that was that. No late twist, no late drama. Just relief at the sound of the final whistle.