Brighton 1-0 Newcastle: Toon come up short in a sobering defeat on the south-coast

A disappointing day after enjoying a string of superb wins over the past few weeks, but just like we didn’t get carried away after three straight wins, we won’t overreact to a closely contested defeat here.

We huffed and puffed, but a second half striker from Tomer Hemed was enough to hand Brighton all three points in a closely contested affair at the Amex this afternoon.

It puts an end to our three game winning streak however, despite our lack of conviction in front of goal, it was a game we could’ve got something out of on another day.

We had 17 shots to their 7, shaded possession and applied decent pressure at times, but just fell short too often with our final pass or effort on goal. This is our second defeat now to a newly promoted side and blanking in both of those has perhaps highlighted our limitations in attack – something we knew could come back to bite us after failing to sign a proven striker and new number 10.

From the off we didn’t look quite as sharp as we have in previous weeks. Brighton got in behind our midfield a little too easily in the opening stages, leaving us a little more exposed than we have been in previous week. Given we pride our game on staying compact and affording teams little space or time on the ball, Benitez won’t have enjoyed how open we allowed the game to be early on.

A mini-storm was weathered and we ended the half the strongly, but could and should’ve taken the lead on 22 minutes. Joselu’s hatful of misses against Stoke were not punished, however he dragged a BIG chance wide in the first half. A miss that has proved costly today and will no doubt be one he’s sat regretting as we speak.

Their second half opener was a well worked set piece, looking to be something Hughton’s had them working on in training. We responded with inevitable late pressure, but it was one of those afternoons where I was never quite convinced we were going to find a way. We haven’t had to chase games recently, having not been behind in our last three, and you could tell.

It’s not been our style to come onto teams this season and that showed after going behind in a game for the first time since Huddersfield last month. We’ve tended to absorb pressure and hit teams on the counter, however Brighton’s opener allowed them to sit in, giving us a different predicament to what we’ve faced in our last three games and one that doesn’t seem to suit us too well.

Ritchie tried his best and Merino put in another classy display and kept things moving forward, but we just lacked that little something to break down a pretty stern Brighton back four. Shelvey gave us something Hayden couldn’t when he came on in the second half. I’d like to see him start alongside Merino in the near future.

By no means a disastrous display, but it wasn’t quite good enough and that, as Brighton and Huddersfield have already proved, will see you punished in this league – even against newly promoted opposition.

Onto Liverpool at home next week – a tough test, but a defence that can be got at and a fixture that’s sure to whip up a good atmosphere at St. James’!

HWTL.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

96 thoughts on “Brighton 1-0 Newcastle: Toon come up short in a sobering defeat on the south-coast

  1. I actually don’t really have a feel on how good or bad Aarons can be as he has been injured so much that I wouldn’t want to say either way. Give him 6 months injury free and I might comment. I will leave the omnipotence up to God and AMF.

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  2. Oh, wise and all seeing Aussie. Tell me who we should sign since you can judge players after 5 games. Not ones that have already gone to other clubs and be realistic. We will not be spending 50 million but possibly 20 million in January if we are 17th or 18th.

    Yes, Oracle tell me who?

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  3. I shouldn’t berate AMF. Sometimes there is that sixth sense that a player is just ****. I had it about Amdy Faye, along with probably 52,000 NUFC supporters, and about Graham Oates so you can have that. I haven’t about Aarons.

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  4. Since I started the Aarons business this morning I can see there’s lots of opinions. Mine is the lad’s a real talent which has been easy to see since he was 17 and Pardew played him. He’s had dreadful injuries and the jury is still out on his determination and attitude. We’ll just have to see. If he does the business in training then Rafa will pick him.

    In Aussie’s defence I’m worse than him. I generally judge a player after a few minutes. I knew immediately that De Jong couldn’t play in England. Looks to me that Joselu is ****. I’ll be surprised if Mitro isn’t the first name on the team sheet for L’pool.

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  5. georgio:
    Since I started the Aarons business this morning I can see there’s lots of opinions. Mine is the lad’s a real talent which has been easy to see since he was 17 and Pardew played him. He’s had dreadful injuries and the jury is still out on his determination and attitude. We’ll just have to see. If he does the business in training then Rafa will pick him.

    In Aussie’s defence I’m worse than him. I generally judge a player after a few minutes. I knew immediately that De Jong couldn’t play in England. Looks to me that Joselu is ****. I’ll be surprised if Mitro isn’t the first name on the team sheet for L’pool.

    Georgio, glad to see you can relate to my point about seeing if a player is up to it or not. You don’t need to be an oracle like Eric suggests. Just someone with a keen eye for football and a little knowledge about the game.
    I stand firm about my call on Aarons and I thought the same as you about both the Dejong brothers.

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  6. AUSSIE tell you what i really really miss from your end the gravy from Big Rooster,flavour was un-real 😆 😆

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  7. georgio: I am worried about Joselu too. But that is because he is 27 and I can look at stats over the years and see he scores about 1 in every 4 games. And I am worried about him and Perez in tandem because he seems to have settled into a 1 in 7 or 8 goal scoring mode.

    We cannot have non-goal scoring strikers and expect to survive.

    We cannot rely on centre backs to score our goals.

    We can maybe play Joselu or Perez individually, but not together. We need Gayle or Mitro to step up.

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  8. Aarons has a great eye for the game but is he another Taylor made of bloody glass,Rafa must have seen somthing to give the kid a new contract,ill wait and see,he got through a under “£ game last night lets see if hes lame again by the week-end

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  9. I still think that 9 points is a fair reflection of our season. We could easily have drawn against Huddersfield, Stoke and Brighton and been on exactly the same points.

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  10. He got a lot of stick did Shepherd but it was a lot more enjoyable being a NUFC fan when he was involved than it has been for the last ten years.

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  11. Stuart79:
    He got a lot of stick did Shepherd but it was a lot more enjoyable being a NUFC fan when he was involved than it has been for the last ten years.

    Apart from sacking Bobby Robson and bringing in Sourness/Sourpuss.

    Did they invent the word dour to describe Souness or was that for Moyes?

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  12. “Fer me he just gets turned too quickly there and will never be a premier league player. You have to block a shot like that, even though it is your first PL game, you just have to. There is no place in this league for players who make a mistake in their first game. He will never make a go of it in the league. Mikel Mereno, one mistake and you’re oot Son.”

    That was my summary of Sourness not my own opinion.

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  13. Kenny Dalglish and Gordon Strachan were thought to be quite humourous when you could understand a word they fckin said.

    I have gone on a Scots tangent 🙂

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  14. Eric Sykes:
    Kenny Dalglish and Gordon Strachan were thought to be quite humourous when you could understand a word they fckin said.

    I have gone on a Scots tangent

    Have you got a kilt that fits mate

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