HE JINX IT’S ALL OVER

Rafa battlers finally have happy Monday

SO Newcastle can score on Mondays after all, even if Matt Ritchie couldn’t 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 relished the opening half an hour at Turf Moor as they made a mockery of one or two unwanted records that had been around 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 had scored away from home in more than six years.

It was also their first on a Monday since September, 2013.

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.

Burnley, who had barely threatened, were thrown a 40th-minute lifeline when taken to a Blackpool hospital in a conscious state.

Newcastle were quickly out of their blocks, scoring in the fourth minute. Fernandez’s shot from the edge of the box was travelling wide but took a big deflection off Mee.

Wood shot wildly into the stands and then let fly with a 20-yarder which Dubravka couldn’t hold onto and was fortunate to see bounce to safety.

Newcastle’s second goal infuriated Burnley boss Sean Dyche as Clark was unmarked when he met Ritchie’s inswinging cross with a glancing header across Hart and into the net.

Joselu so nearly made the points safe for Newcastle late on but crashed his shot against the post.

BURNLEY (4-4-2): Hart; Lowton, Mee, Long, Taylor; Lennon, Cork, Defour (Hendrick 82), Brady (Barnes 83); Vokes, Wood. Subs: Heaton, Gibson, Westwood, Bardsley, Vydra.

NEWCASTLE (4-4-1-1): Dubravka; Yedlin, Schar, Fernandez, Clark; Ritchie, Ki, Diame, Kenedy (Hayden 90); Perez; Rondon (Joselu 71). Subs: Woodman, Murphy, Shelvey, Manquillo, Atsu.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.