Brentford 2-4 Newcastle: Toon's elite duo fire Eddie's Mags to the brink of Europe

Newcastle survived a brief scare against Brentford to secure a seventh place finish in the Premier League in emphatic fashion through elite talents Alex Isak and Bruno Guimaraes.

Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy and Isak sent the Toon romping into a half-time lead. Vitaly Janelt and Yoane Wissa made it an uncomfortable finish, but Bruno put it beyond doubt; a huge relief as Man Utd secured a 2-0 win at Brighton.

It was a game that typified Newcastle's season - at times brilliant and at times infuriating. However, the lads got the job done today and got the win to end a tough campaign on a high, with us set to play Europa Conference League football next term if Manchester City win the FA Cup next weekend.

Eddie Howe made four changes to the team that lost to Man U last time out. Nick Pope, Fabian Schar, Joelinton and Harvey Barnes replace Martin Dubravka, Kieran Trippier, Elliot Anderson and Anthony Gordon.

Almost as soon as the game had started and Ivan Toney looked to have put the Bees ahead, but a lengthy VAR check spared our blushes after an offside was spotted in the build up.

We missed a huge chance to open the scoring ourselves after 10 minutes when Alexander Isak jinked past his defender and put it on a plate for Joelinton, but the Brazilian dragged what looked like a simple finish wide.

The breakthrough came in the 22nd minute as the ball was worked to Bruno wide on the right, he picked a great ball into the box to find the oncoming Harvey Barnes who met the header perfectly and sent it into the top corner. A huge goal for the winger who had big shoes to fill in Gordon's absence and just what we needed to settle the early nerves.

Three minutes later the away end thought we had another one after Sean Longstaff buried the ball in the bottom corner, but Isak was offside in the build up and VAR confirmed the assistant's flag.

10 minutes from half-time Isak pounced on a loose ball from a defender and played a swooping pass to the back post and Murphy couldn't miss, doubling our lead on the 36th minute. And the third wasn't far off.

Bruno slid through Isak and the Swedish forward guided his 21st league goal of the season past Flekken in the Bees' net. Isak could've even had a brace in stoppage time after Joelinton played a well-timed ball through for him, but Flekken was equal to his strike.

We started the second half how we started the first and after a sloppy period, Janelt was picked out by Yoane Wissa and the German slotted home to Pope's left to give a bit of bite to a game that looked dead and buried at half-time.

On the hour mark, Isak missed another good chance to grab a brace. Some good play between Hall and Barnes resulted in a freekick on the edge. Schar's strike was blocked into the path of Isak but his effort was hooked wide.

Pope made a wonderful save to deny Toney in the 63rd minute, getting down to his right to push a powerful header away, but they soon pulled another back as Wissa's brilliant 70th-minute finish sent the heat rates of Geordies across the country soaring just as Man Utd took the lead at the Amex.

But three minutes later, Hall was tripped in the box - or was he? After a penalty was given by the ref, VAR overturned it and awarded a freekick - hmmm. Thankfully, that didn't matter as Isak's freekick was parried into the path of Bruno who slammed it home, donning a bucket hat from the away end as he screamed "vamos" in celebration!

And so, that was that. The 23/24 season was over. We can close the door to the treatment room and look forward to possibly a second consecutive European adventure. Our elite talents were the difference so often this season, and they were again today. Bruno and Isak ran the show and we would be so much poorer without them (please Eddie, keep these boys around). Joelinton's return was also huge in midfield, although it does make you wonder what might've been had we avoided so many injuries and that Sandro Tonali ban.

Nevertheless, we've ended a season full of challenges with a real chance of Europe and 85 goals in 38 games; a new Premier League record that eclipses the 82 scored by Kevin Keegan's Entertainers in 1993/94. 

Eyes now turn to the FA Cup final, where we need Man City to get one over their local rivals Man U to secure a spot in the Conference League for us next season.