Resurgent Newcastle hold on for Brighton victory

Ryan Fraser and Fabian Schar struck as Newcastle’s Premier League recovery survived a concerted Brighton fightback.

The Magpies extended their unbeaten league run to eight games with a 2-1 victory, their fifth win in six attempts, but they did so largely against the run of play on a tense afternoon 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 shipped courtesy of Fraser and Schar inside three first-half minutes ultimately proved decisive.

They 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 skipper Lewis Dunk headed them back into it 10 minutes after the restart.

The visitors dominated the early exchanges and central defender Shane Duffy was twice unable to hit the target from Pascal Gross set-pieces, with Joel Veltman firing high over in the meantime.

However, Newcastle took the game by the scruff of the neck inside three devastating minutes to turn the tide.

First Chris Wood played the ball into Jacob Murphy’s path and saw him leave defender Marc Cucurella trailing in his wake before lifting a shot over Rob Sanchez, and although his attempt came back off the upright, 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 Gross repeatedly finding space between the Newcastle lines to link with Danny Welbeck and Tariq Lamptey, Brighton continued to cause problems, and