NEWCASTLE, England (AP) — Ryan Fraser and Fabian Schar scored early for Newcastle as its English Premier League recovery survived a concerted Brighton fightback in a 2-1 win on Saturday.
The Magpies extended their unbeaten league run to eight games with a fifth win in six attempts — moving seven points clear of the relegation zone — but they did so largely against the run of play in a tense match at St James’ Park in front of a crowd of 52,214.
Brighton had lost none of the previous nine Premier League meetings between the sides and not conceded a single goal on Tyneside in the process, but the two they conceded courtesy of Fraser and Schar inside three first-half minutes ultimately proved decisive.
The visitors were the better side for much of the game and will feel they should have ended a sequence of three successive defeats, rather than stretching it to four, after captain Lewis Dunk headed them back into it 10 minutes after the restart.
Newcastle took the lead in the 12th when Chris Wood played the ball into Jacob Murphy’s path and the winger left defender Marc Cucurella trailing in his wake before lifting a shot over Robert Sanchez. The shot came back off the post but Fraser was on hand to give the home side a 12th-minute lead.
Only two more minutes had elapsed when the Seagulls were hit again, this time when Schar climbed highest to head Fraser’s right-wing free kick firmly past the keeper.
With Pascal Gross repeatedly finding space between the Newcastle lines to link with Danny Welbeck and Tariq Lamptey, Brighton continued to cause problems, and goalkeeper Martin Dubravka had to be at his best to prevent Welbeck from reducing the deficit after Lamptey had intercepted Joelinton’s ill-judged 29th-minute pass to Jonjo Shelvey.
However, they were unable to trouble Dubravka further and Eddie Howe’s men went in at the break with their healthy lead intact and with Dan Burn and Murphy both having passed up opportunities to add to it as time ran down.
The visitors prospered on the ball once again after the restart and Shelvey had to get in an important 49th-minute block to prevent Leandro Trossard’s shot from requiring Dubravka’s attention.
Brighton got its reward when Dunk met another corner from Gross unopposed to head home from close range.
Howe swiftly introduced the fit-again Allan Saint-Maximin in a bid to introduce fresh forward thrust, but with the Seagulls using full back Cucurella to target Emil Krafth, it was they who continued to pose the greater threat.
Dubravka had to turn away Dunk’s looping 71st-minute header and field Trossard’s snapshot with 10 minutes remaining.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
