Newcastle romp to 5-1 win and relegate Sheffield United

NEWCASTLE, England :Alexander Isak netted twice while Bruno Guimaraes and Callum Wilson were also on target as Newcastle United thrashed Sheffield United 5-1 at St James’ Park on Saturday to confirm the visitors’ relegation from the Premier League.

Ben Osborn also scored an own goal for seventh-placed Newcastle, who move to 53 points from 34 games this season.

Sheffield remain on 16 points from 35 matches and cannot finish outside the bottom three.

Newcastle keep alive their hopes of European football next season and are a point behind sixth-placed Manchester United following another crisp display, in the second half at least, as they took their tally of Premier League goals against Sheffield this season to 13.

Sheffield took the lead via Anel Ahmedhodzic and might have had a couple more goals as they were the better side in the first half but, as has been the case so often this season, they could not sustain their performance for 90 minutes.

Newcastle beat Sheffield 8-0 at Bramall Lane earlier this season but were second best in the opening 45 minutes.

The visitors started much the brighter and took the lead inside five minutes. Ahmedhodzic headed in Gustavo Hamer’s cross from deep following a fine back-post run.

The visitors continued to press and Cameron Archer saw his goal-bound effort blocked by Dan Burn.

Newcastle were poor in the opening quarter but one piece of incisive play saw them draw level. Jacob Murphy provided the through-ball and Isak showed composure to slip it past visiting goalkeeper Wes Foderingham.

The home side took the lead eight minutes into the second half with a rare Guimaraes header as Anthony Gordon picked out the Brazilian at the back post and the latter stooped to score.

The game was over as a