What a crazy Toon around!
Diame’s fluke goal turns tide for Toon
DESPAIR is etched over the face of Brighton defender Bruno as Newcastle’s Jonjo Shelvey roars with delight after his side completed a late turnaround to snatch a crucial 2-1 win in their top-of-the-table Championship clash last night. Rafa Benitez’s men were staring at defeat as they trailed to a Glenn Murray penalty with just nine minutes to go before they turned the game on its head thanks to a comical equaliser by Mohamed Diame and a last-gasp winner from Ayoze Perez.
IT was the sort of good fortune upon which a season can hinge. Indeed, it defined flukey. Hilarious, too.
Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle were heading for a defeat which would have left them in a scrap for second place and contemplating the previously unthinkable possibility of missing automatic promotion, especially with a trip to thirdplaced Huddersfield next up.
But then, with nine minutes remaining, they won a corner. It was delivered by Matt Ritchie and punched clear by David Stockdale. Danger gone, you presumed. Wrong. What followed was laced with comedy and luck. Christian Atsu returned a terribly miscued shot from 20 yards. The ball brushed by unsuspecting teammate Daryl Murphy before deflecting off the static boot of the equally unwitting Mo Diame and looping into the top corner.
Diame had been standing still for most of the previous 81 minutes. Finally, the tactic served him well. Newcastle’s players should have been too embarrassed to celebrate. They weren’t, of course, for they knew how important that goal was, no matter its nature.
A lesser side might have accepted their fortune and sought to escape with a point. Newcastle, though, sensing the opportunity to return to the top of the Championship, had the temerity to press for a winner. And so it arrived on 89 minutes. Atsu scampered down the left to collect a superb long ball from Ritchie and squared for substitute Ayoze Perez, who tucked home first time from 10 yards. There was nothing lucky about that finish.
Brighton boss Chris Hughton was still stunned when he came to reflect some half an hour later.
‘It’s a sickener,’ said the former Newcastle manager. ‘Over 90 minutes, it’s not a result we deserved. I genuinely felt, up until the equaliser, we’d go on and win the game.
‘The equaliser was one of those unfortunate goals. They happen, and I wondered at the time how it had gone in. That gave a strong Newcastle team a bit of momentum going into that last period.’
Benitez accepted that Diame’s leveller was anything but a training-ground routine.
‘We created a lot of chances before that but Diame got lucky,’ he said. ‘But the winning goal was calm from Ayoze. We had to change a bit to be more dangerous, but I’m really pleased with the players’ reaction, the way they understood how we had to play. We had to take a risk.’
Benitez had earlier taken a risk with his team selection. Former Newcastle favourite Rob Lee, in the television studio, described his decision to play wide man Yoan Gouffran as a lone striker as ‘amazing’ and, while Geordie comedy duo Ant and Dec were also in attendance, there was nothing funny about the lethargic manner in which their side started.
Brighton were brilliant during an opening quarter of an hour in which they outplayed, out-thought and outfought Newcastle. Bruno’s blazing volley was flapped clear by Karl Darlow and the goalkeeper produced an equally panicked save to deny Sam Baldock after he had latched on to Anthony Knockaert’s excellent free-kick.
So when Glenn Murray’s opener arrived it came as little surprise. Referee Bobby Madley penalised Ciaran Clark for wrestling Murray to the ground from a corner and the striker converted his 17th of the season from the spot. Hughton thought it was a penalty, Benitez didn’t. The truth, as ever, lies somewhere in between.
Going behind, however, appeared to snap them from their slumber. A Ritchie cross clipped the top of the crossbar as finally they emerged from their own half and Gouffran’s 25-yard drive was paddled clear by Stockdale, who then saved instinctively from Atsu’s goalbound shot in first- half stoppage time.
Benitez had only just taken his seat for the second half but was soon on his feet as Dale Stephens loaded a free-kick into the away team’s area and, with Darlow stranded, Lewis Dunk’s header looped towards an empty goal. Thankfully for Benitez, hopping anxiously on the touchline, defender Paul Dummett had read the unfolding danger and hooked the ball over his own crossbar.
On 56 minutes Stockdale very nearly presented Newcastle with an equalising goal. It was, in fairness, a very tidy pass from the keeper. The only problem was that the ball was delivered straight to the feet of Gouffran. One-on-one, however, the makeshift striker froze. Pausing and subsequently panicking, he shot tamely at the relieved goalkeeper.
But there was nothing Stockdale could do about that Newcastle leveller, nor indeed the winner.
It always promised to be a season- defining week. Diame’s goal had the feel of a seasondefining moment.