Brighton’s boy wonder Ferguson sinks tired Toon
JUST as well the transfer window closed 24 hours earlier. For those top clubs still looking for goals, here they are, in the boots of a teenager who plays like a man. What price for Evan Ferguson right now?
Thankfully, for Brighton, they don’t have to think about a valuation, at least not until January. The 18-year-old had three chances here and scored each of them. He was sensational. The Seagulls paraded Barcelona loanee Ansu Fati before kick-off, but Ferguson is the real boy wonder.
The strapping teen left to a standing ovation on 81 minutes, by which time he had knocked Newcastle off their feet. And what of the losers? They, by contrast, were a shambles. Eddie Howe has banned late nights for his players on the back of Jamaal Lascelles’ involvement in a 4am street brawl.
Well, he needs to introduce some early mornings. This was a third straight defeat for a team who did not lose three games until March last season. Yes, they have come against Man City, Liverpool and now a very good Brighton. But the opposition do not dictate your energy levels, and Newcastle were hopelessly low on that front as the game wore on.
Howe said: ‘I think the tale is very similar to last week (against Liverpool), we had chances to score and we didn’t take them and at this level you can get punished the other way and that’s what happened.
‘When you reflect back on the start of the season, when you get the fixtures this was an incredibly difficult start for us, very big win in the first one (opening fixture), in my opinion we should have beaten Liverpool, but we didn’t so that is hurting us.’
Their engine-room was low on gas from the off and they were schooled by another relative rookie, Brighton’s Billy Gilmour. But manager Howe’s problems extend beyond the middle of the park.
At this level, what a goalkeeper does with his feet is of equal importance to any handy work. Stop shots and start attacks is the duty.
Roberto De Zerbi was furious with Bart Verbruggen when he failed to fire a ball into midfield to break Newcastle’s press early on. At least the keeper had kept possession, instead rolling a pass to his fullback. If only Newcastle’s Nick Pope had done that in the moments before Brighton’s opening goal on 27 minutes.
Pope’s kicking is not his strong suit. And rather than attempt to find team-mate Kieran Trippier with a Brighton forward closing in, he opted to boot downfield. He was, though, left kicking himself when his scuffed clearance landed at the feet of Pervis Estupinan. From that Pope made a subsequent save but Sandro Tonali swung a lazy leg at the loose ball and was just as sluggish in closing down Gilmour, allowing him to strike on target.
Pope made it look like the midfielder had sent a bar of soap goalwards and his fumble was slammed in by Ferguson. For Newcastle, it was a grubby concession.
Come half-time, the visitors could point to several quality chances as reason for optimism. But really those openings masked a performance absent of their usual intensity and composure.
In the second half, the home side found their feet and Newcastle lost their heads. They were fortunate to enter half-time trailing by just one and Joao Pedro should have added a home second when scooping over from six yards.
Ferguson’s second, on 65 minutes, was both an awesome finish and shocking defending. Tonali had been hooked by now but little had changed and Newcastle’s midfield was bypassed as Gilmour slipped a pass to the striker, in space 25 yards out. Newcastle’s defence ran away and they had every reason to be fearful as Ferguson found the bottom corner.
His hat-trick goal six minutes later owed something to a deflection off Fabian Schar — the defender’s careless leg captured his side’s listless second-half display — but that luck was deserved in securing the first match ball of his career.
Callum Wilson nicked a consolation in stoppage time but that would not damped the mood for Brighton.
De Zerbi said: ‘Great performance against one of the best teams in the Premier League. I like Newcastle, they play good football but today we deserved to win and played a good game. We deserved to win, played a great game and I am very happy for the attitude of my players.’