Beardsley’s delighted to be so busy

scoring Championship Dwight Gayle fared no better.

So Chris Hughton dumped Mike Ashley, the man who sacked him at Newcastle, back into the real world for his penny-pinching.

One goal was enough to separate the two sides because neither had a master striker and United defended badly on it.

Jamaal Lascelles, a match-winner of recent times, gave away a free-kick in the 50th minute and the Mags fell for the sucker punch.

Pascel Gross dropped the freekick over the heads of defenders leader sucked in and an unmarked Dale Stephens headed across goal for Tomer Hemed to hook home.

Sure, Bruno blocked off Chancel Mbemba on the cross to Stephens but then United were not streetwise enough either.

Brighton deserved their lead and if United were desperate and stirred themselves to try to rescue something late on they never possessed a clear-headed finisher to achieve it – but for Rob Elliot making an unorthodox save with his foot from Solly March at the back post six minutes after the goal the game would have gone beyond them anyway. Hughton and Benitez are the last two Newcastle managers to finish as Rafa Benitez and Chris Hughton before yesterday’s game Championship champions but whereas Benitez gained the garlands both times last season when the two met it was Hughton who tasted the fruits of his labour on this occasion and, frankly, Newcastle can hardly complain.

So a morale-lifting run of three successive victories ended in sad defeat, and with Liverpool next up United are about to be tested again.

Let us hope they can muster a positive response to keep Geordie flags flying until January presents us with another opportunity to do the right thing. NEWCASTLE United Under-23 coach Peter Beardsley says he is relishing the Magpies’ hectic schedule at reserve-team level.

The Magpies take on Wolverhampton Wanderers at St James’ Park tonight (7pm) on the back of a three-game unbeaten run.

Rafa Benitez could allow some first-team squad members to have a run-out with competition for places fierce at the moment.

However, with another game fast approaching against Burnley in the Premier League Cup and then a trip to Port Vale in the Checkatrade Trophy on October 3, these are busy times for Beardsley and his players.

He told the Chronicle: “The more games the merrier.

“If you are a player you should want to play every day.

“So it is good from that point of view. There are places up for grabs. It is an exciting time for them.

“It is a nice problem for us to have when it comes to first-team players coming in.”

United fielded Jonjo Shelvey, Rolando Aarons and Freddie Woodman in their last reserve game at St James’ during a 2-2 draw on Tyneside.

Beardsley added: “It is brilliant for us.

“The problem we have is, through no fault of anybody, we almost have too many games we want to win.

“We want to make sure there is a winning habit. Because of that there are good kids from the under-18s we have not seen yet. “Cal Smith and Owen Gallacher missed out of our last game at St James’ Park because there were firstteamers in. “We had to leave our captain Jack Hunter out of the last home game.

“Jack just turned up, saw Jonjo Shelvey and said, ‘I am not playing am I?’

“Everybody understands there is a pecking order.” United Under-23 coach Peter Beardsley