Newcastle United claimed a vital 3-1 win over Brighton on Saturday afternoon to get back on track in the Premier League.
It wasn’t always pretty but goals from William Osula and Dan Burn put Eddie Howe‘s side ahead at the break before Jack Hinshelwood pulled one back for the Seagulls.
Brighton piled on a lot of pressure but Harvey Barnes rounded off a huge win for Howe.
Here’s how Geordie Boot Boys rated the players…
Nick Pope – 6
Big save in the opening few seconds. Almost gave a goal away a few minutes later. Made a brilliant save, and then was involved in giving a goal away. Then made another brilliant save.
The Nick Pope experience, everybody.
Lewis Miley – 7
Miley was easily done by Kaoru Mitoma in the opening exchanges but recovered well and grew into the game.
Another decent performance from a player Newcastle cannot do without.
Malick Thiaw – 7
Thiaw really should have scored in the first half as Newcastle were pushing for a third but largely did well defensively.
Sven Botman – 8
Not quite Botman at his very best but this was a resolute defensive showing. Brilliant to see he’s still got that in him.
Dan Burn – 8
An awful lot was made of Lewis Hall being dropped in favour of Burn but he certainly repaid Howe. Burn scored and looked decent enough up against Yankuba Minteh.
Bruno Guimaraes – 8
Words cannot describe how good Guimaraes is for Newcastle. Dominated the midfield at times here and got his team out of tricky situations with his brilliant close control.
What a player.
Sandro Tonali – 7
Energetic as ever. Tonali might not be a Newcastle player for much longer but he’s far from downing tools.
The quality on the ball still isn’t always there but the Italian put himself about.
Joelinton – 7
It was great to have Joelinton back to his battling best. Consistency might be an issue at this stage for him but he produced the goods here.
Jacob Murphy – 7
Murphy has been dreadful in recent weeks but that assist was fabulous. He had the courage to keep going and dig out a fine cross at the end of it.
A strong response to mounting critics.
William Osula – 8
Looks unplayable at times. The jury is still out on whether he’ll ever work out those rough edges but Osula is more than doing his bit. With chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan watching on, he would surely have been impressed. A statement performance.
Joe Willock – 8
Willock was another who justified his place in the side. Full of running and energy, something Barnes was just not offering prior to him being dropped.
Promising to see him build on a good performance against Arsenal last time out.