Newcastle 1-1 Brighton: Albion back on track for top 10 finish
Most Albion supporters would have deemed a top 10 finish and a run to the knockout stages of the Europa League a successful season for the Seagulls debut campaign in European football. A 1-1 draw at Newcastle United gives Brighton every chance of finishing in the top half of the table for a third consecutive year.
Just two weeks ago, it was hard to see where the Albion were getting another point from. Winless in six, no Brighton player scoring a goal in April and with four tough games left to play against opponents all eyeing up top seven finishes.
Roberto De Zerbi spoke in the aftermath of losing 3-0 at Bournemouth of the players lacking motivation. Can we just end the season now? screamed the title of our WAB match report; a sentiment most Albion supporters agreed with.
De Zerbi too judging by his comments. And the players based on their performance at the Vitality Stadium. They looked very much like they were already on the beach. 12th, 13th or even 14th place seemed a likely finish.
What a difference a fortnight can make. Brighton have suddenly got their motivation back and coming away from Newcastle with a 1-1 draw made it four points out of six against sides above them in the table.
Neither the draw on Tyneside nor the win over Aston Villa last week have been what you would call classic DeZerbiBall performances. But that in itself makes them impressive.
Questions have been asked about De Zerbi’s lack of Plan B. About whether this young Albion squad have the fight and desire to pull themselves out of difficult situations.
Now we know. Brighton have played a different way against Villa and Newcastle. They have battled to hard-earned points whilst not at their best. Counter attacking football has been as important as dominating possession.
They have even become more streetwise; for example when playing for time after taking the lead in the Villa game to close out the 1-0 victory.
Combine this pragmatism with the return of the injured platoon and some fresh new signings who can get the Albion back to playing proper DeZerbiBall and 2024-25 could be very exciting indeed.
Providing De Zerbi stays. He is now the bookies’ favourite to take over at Bayern Munich with Ralf Rangnick having turned the job down.
Maybe Brighton losing heavily to Villa, Newcastle, Chelsea and Manchester United would have been a good thing if it put the Bavarian giants off appointing De Zerbi?
A thrashing was not out of the question before kick off. The Toon have averaged over three goals per game at St James’ Park since January.
They managed just the one against the Albion with the last kick of the first half. Brighton defended magnificently with Bart Verbruggen again impressing between the sticks.
Going forward, Julio Enciso seemed to be at the heart of every Albion attack. Had the Paraguayan brought his shooting boots to Newcastle with him and converted a couple of good opportunities through the opening 45 minutes, Brighton might have even won.
The Albion took the lead with 18 minutes played via the rare sight of a Joel Veltman goal. Pascal Gross sent over a corner, Danny Welbeck flicked it on and Veltman scrambled the ball over the line from close range.
It was only Veltman’s fourth for the Albion, his first for 14 months and broke his duck away from the Amex. At least one Dutchman was having a successful day after the Netherlands were booted out of Eurovision hours before the grand final.
Verbruggen was soon called into action at the other end, palming away a header a corner. Enciso clipped in Danny Welbeck, only for Martin Dubravka to stand tall and stop Dat Guy going around him.
Then came those two Enciso chances. The most glorious being when Adingra led a quickfire break and dinked a cross to the back post.
Enciso was totally free but could only screw his header off target when he should have worked Dubravka at the very least.
Losing Veltman to injury before the first half was out was a blow which felt doubly worse when Newcastle equalised in the fifth minute of injury time.
Antony Gordon tricked and teased his way around Gross and Veltman’s replacement Tariq Lamptey, eventually releasing Lewis Hall whose low square ball across goal was tucked home by Sean Longstaff.
Newcastle came on strong in the second half. A combination of a sliding block from Lamptey and Verbruggen tipping the spinning ball over the bar prevented both an Alexander Isak tap in and an own goal from the Albion defender.
Bruno Guamires and Harvey Barnes were both wasteful with late chances, the former lifting miles over the bar and the latter firing straight at Verbruggen.
Gordon did manage to put the ball in the back of the net late on but was clearly offside whilst a late penalty appeal from the same player fell on deaf ears.
The full time whistle left Newcastle frustrated whilst Brighton ended their 2023-24 away campaign with an impressive point.
From Wolves in August through Marseille, Amsterdam, Athens and Rome, it has been some season on the road. Finishing the campaign off with victories over Chelsea and United at the Amex wouldn’t be bad now, would it?
