A disappointing day and a defeat that ends our run of momentum before the international break, as Newcastle fell short at the Amex once again.
Nick Woltemade thought he’d equalised with a stunning flicked finish to make it four in his last four for Newcastle, but goals either side of his 76th-minute equaliser from Danny Welbeck did the damage.
We rallied late on and were better for much of the second 45. However, we were punished for a toothless first-half display, two sloppy moments at the back, and our failure to test Verbruggen at the other end, mustering just three shots on target.
The results keeps us 12th, for now, and on nine points after eight games, leaving us five points behind sixth-place Chelsea, who beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 in today’s early kick-off.
Howe named an unchanged side once again, sticking by the 11 who saw off both Union SG and Nottingham Forest to nil before the international break, although there was a welcome change on the bench as Jacob Ramsey returned.
Newcastle XI: Pope – Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn – Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton – Elanga, Woltemade, Gordon.
Subs: Ramsdale, Schar, Barnes, Krafth, Osula, Murphy, Willock, Ramsey, Miley.
We made a strong start. So much of the early play was in Brighton’s half, we were seeing so much of the ball and almost went ahead five minutes in as Bruno flashed a big chance just wide after some clever footwork in the box.
Elanga’s lack of confidence and conviction saw us waste a few decent openings, and Brighton began to come back into it as we began to be pushed back, with Bruno doing brilliantly to block Minteh’ strike before Pope got down well to save after Joelinton’s awful giveaway.
Next up it was Thiaw who made a vital intervention, as the German came across on the cover quickly and read Minteh’s square pass to perfection to shut out a big Brighton opening as they burst in behind.
After our fast start over the first 10, the next 20 belonged to Brighton, although the next chance fell our way as Gordon beat his man down the left and hung up a cross that Botman headed wide.
The game had slowed down and, just as it looked like we’d go into the break level, Brighton took the lead. Rutter drive beyond Tonali, Welbeck peeled off Botman far too easily and dinked past Pope to make it 1-0. A soft goal to concede and the first we’d let in all season on the road.
Woltemade headed over just before the break from Tonali’s cross and that was that. A first 45 that started well but quickly turned into a really disappointing half where we never tested the Brighton goalkeeper and conceded at such a bad time.
Heading into the second half, we needed to get Gordon running at Wiefffer more, had to get bodies closer to Woltemade and needed Elanga to step up his game down a right side, although the Swede wasn’t offered the chance to do so, as Howe brought on Jacob Murphy and Lewis Miley for Elanga and Joelinton at the break.
Aside from Burn flashing a low ball across the box, it was Brighton that had the first period of pressure since the restart, as Minteh got more joy down our left and Pope blocked De Cuyper’s low shot. Gordon came inside well at the other end, but his shot was poorly struck and scuffed wide, not for the first time this season.
Murphy was giving us an outball down that right and delivered two or three decent crosses into the box, but that moment of quality was still missing as we moved beyond the hour mark without mustering a single shot on target.
Our attack continued to look too one dimensional, despite a period of pressure, seeing Howe make another double change as Harvey Barnes and Jacob Ramsey replaced Gordon and Tonali.
Two big guns off, but something had to change if we were to score our first away goal of 2025/26, and it did. The moment of quality we’d been crying out for finally arrived, and it was absolutely SENSATIONAL from Nick Woltemade, who produced a moment prime Berbatov or Bergkamp would be proud of as he flicked home superbly with his back to goal.
But, just as the away end were chanting his name and hoping to see us push on and win it as Bruno smashed over, Brighton went back ahead. Burn did brilliantly to stop their first effort, but the loose ball fell so fortunately for Welbeck and he buried it, firing past Pope and into the corner to restore the home side’s lead.
We rallied, as Woltemade had one shot blocked and Thiaw headed wide before six minutes of stoppage time was signalled, which saw Burn and big Nick go close again as we threw everything at Brighton to salvage a point.
But it wasn’t to be, as our struggles away from home and winless run at the Amex continued heading into back-to-back home games against Benfica and Fulham next week.
Keep the faith.
Two full backs missing which is really hurting us. That’s not a slight on DB either. Elanga not firing.
Barnes should start with Gordon.
Dunk and Van Hecka two on one with Waltemade, and the pair not given anything to think about but look afterWaltsmade, which they didn’t. Murphy was like for like on right. Osula on right with his height and power would have given the two centre halves more to think about and freed up Woltamade. They still couldn’t stop him.
We still could have won but that enormous gap in the centre of defence when they scored second was awful.
Lack in concentration.
Miley needs to be freed up. It looks like he’s told link the play, break things up and give it to others. Crosses came into the box a number of times where Dunk and Van Hecka were on Waltemade. Maybe Miley ghosting into gap would have scored.
The little birdy(Quote)
Gutted at that result. Some poor defending today after it’s been our strong point all season. Much improved when Murphy came on. I really liked Elanga at Forest, and was chuffed when we got him, but he’s just not quite clicked in our team so far. He needs a goal to sort out his confidence.
The goal from Waltemade was sublime. Superb skill that shows he’s not just about headed shots. He worked well off the ball too. I felt we did enough for a point but not to be. I also agreed with the decision to not award a penalty for us. I didn’t see too many ref issues today.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Out of the 90mins we were pretty good for 30 of them and under par for the other 60.
The half time subs were pretty disastrous and we completely lost control of the game in the midfield until the second set of subs.
Woltemade’s goal was sublime but I think that was his worst performance so far as his hold up play and linking wasn’t as good as in the other games. I wouldn’t fault him too much though as the service and support he got was so poor.
The flow of responsibility we have in our central midfield is brilliant with the first choice 3. But when one drops out (eg for miley in the second half) then I think we need to be more rigid and have a strict defensive midfielder role to snuff out that second goal and generally ensure we aren’t exposed as unfortunately Miley is not mature enough yet to play in such a dynamic fluid midfield.
I agree the fullback situation is a major challenge and it’s hard to find a solution with the personnel available at the moment.
But up top, I think we do have options to tweak things. We should be seeing elanga and Gordon pushing forward much more aggressively when Woltemade drops in to build the play. He will suck in a bit of a gap in the centre of their defence and we should have our rapid wingers bombing into that for a quick through-ball. As it stands our wingers are playing the same way as when we had isak — who was mainly pushing on the last defender…that has to change asap. When we have Wissa then it will have to change again (I am still not clear what the plan is for then – looking forward to seeing it).
Oh, and what a player Tonali is. King.
Howe the toon(Quote)
Been an underwhelming start to season to say the least. 4 wingers…..0 goals and 1 assist.
Difficult to say where the problem is but so far the defence have kept it tight (until today) and the centre forward is scoring at a good rate. So what’s left?
Scott(Quote)