A Newcastle win and a happy Yodel delivery driver

24 hours before Brighton kicked off away at Newcastle United and I met a couple of people in and around the village of Crawley Down who were in contrasting moods about the game at St James’ Park.

One was an Albion fan who I accidentally bumped into on Friday night. He was travelling up by train the following morning on a return ticket costing in excess of £150 and a journey lasting many hours.

Our loyal away support really go above and beyond to follow the Albion around the country. Unfortunately, those costs are out of my budget and so I found myself keeping track from home.

You could certainly hear over the radio waves the 1,500 or so Brighton fans who had made the trip and were positioned in the seventh tier at St James’ Park.

Newcastle put their away end up in the gods so that the noise travelling supporters makes struggles to be heard on the pitch. If only we could so similar at the Amex, then the North Stand might find it easier to outsing the opposition.

Brighton fans will certainly need to be in good voice next week when Liverpool and their boisterous support visit.

The other person I met on Friday with an interest in the game was the local Yodel delivery driver. He is an avid Newcastle fan and had a ticket to the match, only to have been told that morning that he had to work on the Saturday as his stand-in had gone sick.

He was really upset to say the least, but still managed to grin after dropping off my parcel and wish Brighton luck with a strong hint of sarcasm in his voice.

I managed to resist slamming the door in his face by thinking the Albion would have the last laugh. How wrong can you be? Still, at least he would have been happy with the three points even if he had been unable to attend himself.

Fast forward to Saturday 2pm and the Brighton team was announced with a few surprises. Neal Maupay, Yves Bissouma, Alexis Mac Allister, Solly March and Adam Lallana were all on the bench.

Paul Merson on Soccer Saturday ran down Graham Potter for his selection, saying all those players had been left out as the Albion manager was playing a deliberately weakened team.

Merson obviously doesn’t study the form before appearing on TV. Potter had to do something to try and end a run of three consecutive defeats.

Newcastle were seven without a loss, which the Albion might have been hoping would lead to some complacency. That did not work out, but the Magpies must be due a defeat soon surely?

A midweek clash with Southampton followed by Chelsea at the weekend will be worth keeping an eye on, otherwise my Yodel man is going to be even chirpier than normal.

St James’ Park was stuffed to the gunnels with Ukraine flags, Newcastle Brown flags and the Magpies black and white flags. Tributes were paid before kick off to the suffering of Ukrainians at the moment and Brighton wore their yellow and blue kit in solidarity.

The message being sent was clear – football in England is thinking and saying prayers for them all. What is happening in Ukraine is truly unacceptable. I understand the situation even more now after watching a Netflix documentary called Winter on Fire.

I really do recommend it, however please be aware there are some really upsetting scenes. It features real footage and has been made to highlight the troubled times when Ukrainians fought for their freedom not so long ago. Boy do they have some determination as a country.

Back to the football and I tried something new this week, one ear on BBC Radio Sussex and the other ear on a computer screen. What the screen showed me in the first 10 minutes is that everything was going Brighton’s way.

And then somehow in the space of two minutes, we were two goals behind. A good turn from Chris Wood saw him thread a ball through to Jacob Murphy who raced away.

Murphy really should have scored himself but Robert Sanchez made himself big, forcing Murphy to put his shot against the post.

Unfortunately, it fell straight into the path of Ryan Fraser who slotted home with Joel Veltman unlucky not to block on the line.

Next a Fraser set piece found its way to the penalty spot where Fabian Scharr was on hand to head past Sanchez. Brighton now had a brick wall to climb and the players could have been forgiven for looking a little deflated.

We saw in the Manchester Derby how quickfire goals can lead the floodgates to open. Roy Keane described how Manchester United gave up as being “unforgivable”.

Giving up is something we rarely see from Brighton and at Newcastle, the Albion response was to keep plugging away and looking for opportunities.

It was another one of those days when chances just did not work out. Shane Duffy could tell you that even before Newcastle had taken the lead, his header from a great Pascal Gross corner was not-quite on target.

Dan Burn blocked a certain goal from Gross after Jakub Moder worked the ball beautifully around the home defence. Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka denied Danny Welbeck when pushing his shot over the ball after nice work by Tariq Lamptey.

Burn looked determined to make an impression at both ends and Sanchez was relieved to see his former teammate put a header just wide.

The man wearing orange in the Brighton goal next saved from Murphy as the sides went into half time with Newcastle leading 2-0.

Whatever the diagnosis and prescription offer by GP, it worked as the Albion were better in the second 45 minutes. A corner came Brighton’s way in the 55th minute and a powerful header from captain Lewis Dunk made it 2-1. Game on.

The Albion went at Newcastle time and time again over the remaining 35 minutes. On came Maupay, March and Mac Allister to add fresh impetus.

Chances dropped for Maupay and Leandro Trossard. Dunk had another good header from a corner. The Albion kept going with no sign of any let up until the final whistle blew.

Had the game gone on for five or 10 minutes more, I am convinced it would have finished Newcastle 2-2 Brighton. However, we just ran out of time and it was a fourth defeat in a row.

Where do we go from here? Onwards and very much upwards, certainly in terms of opponents from Newcastle near the bottom to title challenging Liverpool at the top.

Brighton drew with the Reds at Anfield earlier this season. We took four points from Jurgen Klopp last year. Give the team all the support we can and who knows what Saturday might bring?

A less happy Yodel driver, hopefully. Up the Albion.

Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony