Murphy inspires Newcastle victory
NEVER has a goal so absurd been so important.
Brighton were minutes away from winning this game and pulling four points clear of Newcastle United at the top of the Championship, and closer to a lucrative future.
Then Mohamed Diame scored a fluke of an equaliser, standing still while the ball hit his foot and flew into the net. It was a preposterous moment but it transformed the whole feel at the Amex Stadium.
Minutes later, a resurgent Newcastle, who had offered very little all game, scored their second through substitute Ayoze Perez.
Up until Diame’s lucky bounce point this was a demonstration of why Brighton look like winning the Championship.
CONTROL
They played with power and control, holding off Newcastle and creating chances.
It was only when Newcastle threw on Daryl Murphy that they finally had a presence up front but even then they needed some ludicrous luck, and then clinical skill, to get the win that moves Rafa Benitez’s side back to the top of the table, two points clear of Brighton.
It was clear from the very start which of these sides had the momentum and which did not.
Brighton have been improving recently, while Newcastle have not, and it was Chris Hughton’s side who put the immediate squeeze on their anxious guests.
In Glenn Murray and Sam Baldock, Brighton had two real threats up front, two more than Newcastle did, and were not embarrassed about getting the ball forward quickly to them.
Newcastle were pinned back. Karl Darlow had to save from Bruno Salter from distance. Baldock nearly scored from a cleverly worked free-kick.
Newcastle were under pressure and soon enough the error came. With a corner curled into the box, Ciaran Clark curiously decided to wrap his arms around Murray and pull him to the ground.
Referee Robert Madley gave the penalty and, for all Benitez’s and Mikel Antia’s futile fury, it was a fair decision. Murray tucked away his 17th goal of the season from the spot.
It was only then, facing the reality of falling four points behind the leaders, that Newcastle started to play.
DeAndre Yedlin and Christian Atsu combined well down the right but Newcastle ran into the problem of not having a proper strike.
They are not the same team without Dwight Gayle and neither Yoan Gouffran nor Diame gave them the presence they needed.
When Diame and Matt Ritchie burst through, they left the shot to one another, to Ritchie’s disgust. The closest Newcastle came to equalising, with the last action of the first half, owed nothing to the strikers at all.
Atsu played a clever pass to Yedlin, who ran down the wing and pulled a cross into the box. Atsu met it on the volley and David Stockdale had to dive down to his right to keep it out. It was an improvement for Newcastle, but it was not enough.
Brighton started the second half as aggressively as they started the first. Paul Dummett had to acrobatically clear the ball off the line from Lewis Dunk’s header and then Darlow saved from Baldock.
Newcastle had to work hard to stay in the game and were still short of any real threat up front.
Their best chance of the early second half was a gift. Stockdale skewed a kick straight to Gouffran, 20 yards out from goal.
An instinctive confident striker like Gayle would have taken it but Gouffran is some way short of that. He paused nervously, allowed Stockdale to scamper out, and then shot straight at him.
It was only when Newcastle brought on a physical number nine that the game changed.
Murphy replaced Jack Colback and suddenly Newcastle had a presence, someone to act as a focal point and to whom they could play the ball long.
The Irishman nearly made an instant impact when he headed a corner straight at Stockdale, but he changed the dynamic of the match in Newcastle’s favour.
DIRECT
Benitez’s side started to go direct and Bruno had to head one cross away just before Shelvey could not it in.
Then another Murphy header forced another Stockdale save, this one resulting in the corner that led to the farcical equaliser. The ball fell back to Atsu on the edge of the box. He skewed a shot that was heading towards the corner flag.
But it hit an unaware Diame on the outside of his boot, flying up and into the only unprotected space in the goal, just beyond Fikayo Tomori’s desperate head.
That goal was absurd but the winner was quality. Ritchie hit a brilliant diagonal pass to Atsu, high up on the left. He wriggled into space to cross the ball and found Perez, just on as a substitute. No Brighton defender had picked him up and he slotted the ball easily home. (©Independent News Service)