NEWCASTLE
SO Newcastle can score on Mondays after all even if Matt Ritchie could not hit a barn door last night.
The Toon midfielder was guilty of one of the misses of this or any other season as he blasted wide from less than two yards as the Magpies looked to seal a first away win of the season.
Newcastle certainly relished the opening half an hour at Turf Moor as they made a mockery of one or two unenviable records that had been hanging around the club’s neck for far too long.
When Federico Fernandez’s shot struck Ben Mee, looping over Joe Hart in the fourth minute, it was the earliest Premier League goal they’d scored away from home in over six years.
And it was also their first in front of the cameras on the first day of the week since September, 2013.
Luck, which deserted Newcastle during the early weeks of the campaign, may be shining on them now.
Ciaran Clark was only playing because of an injury to Paul Dummett but he was the unlikely scorer of their second midway through the first half to raise hopes of a third successive league win.
Burnley, who had barely threatened, were thrown a 40th-minute lifeline when Sam Vokes reduced the deficit in barnstorming style.
He was 18 yards out as Mee’s diagonal cross dropped but he outjumped Clark before powering a thumping header beyond Martin Dubravka and into the net.
It woke up Burnley and on the stroke of half-time, Chris Wood’s blockbuster was pushed over the bar by the Toon keeper.
Ritchie should have restored the two-goal advantage five minutes after the restart but somehow, missed a gaping target after DeAndre Yedlin had chased down Robbie Brady and rolled the ball to the far post.
The match had been delayed 30 minutes when referee’s assessor Eddie Wolstenholme collapsed in the tunnel and was taken to a Blackpool hospital in a conscious state.
But Newcastle were quickly out of their blocks breaking the deadlock in their first attack.
Fernandez took all the plaudits for that early goal but his shot from the edge of the box was travelling wide before taking a big deflection off Mee.
And while he could hardly be blamed for the goal, the same