38 min: Atsu drives down the right and nearly makes it all the way into the box. Manquillo was tearing alongside him on the overlap, free as a bird, Izquierdo having made no effort to track back. But the pass didn’t come. Atsu loses control and Brighton clear.
36 min: The Newcastle fans start shouting “ole!” as their team knock it around with a yawn in midfield. It’s fair to say that Brighton are not deploying the high press. In fact, they’re standing around doing bugger all, and the fans are getting pretty agitated. Schar nearly takes advantage by waltzing down the inside-right channel and into the box, but loses his balance as he tries to sort his feet out to shoot, and Ryan is able to snaffle.
34 min: A corner for Brighton down the right. Gross takes, and within seconds it’s all the way back at the feet of Ryan. The home crowd groan in irritation.
33 min: Perez can’t continue. The goalscorer limps off down the tunnel, his side still giving him gyp. Kenedy takes his place.
32 min: Bruno takes his own sweet time over a throw, and the home fans holler for him to get a shift on. They’re desperate for something, anything to happen. Nothing’s happening.
30 min: The match has gone saggy and shapeless, with next to nothing by way of intensity being shown by the home side. This is preposterous, given the situation they find themselves in. Newcastle are perfectly happy with this state of affairs.
28 min: Brighton haven’t won a single game at home this season in which they’ve fallen behind. Seven losses and two draws. They’d take a draw right now for a precious extra point over Cardiff, but they look both impotent and inept in attack right now. It’s not looking good at the moment.
26 min: The resulting free kick is whipped into the mixer by Gross. Brighton have a couple of men caught offside, and the pressure on Newcastle is released.
25 min: A corner for Newcastle comes to nothing, allowing Brighton to escape up the other end. Andone whistles down the right and is upended unceremoniously by Dummett, who becomes the second player to go into the referee’s notebook.
23 min: Newcastle have quietened the home fans, just what you want in the early stages of an away performance. The tension is palpable. A very real threat of relegation hanging in the air. That allows the Toon fans to trot out the Mike Ashley songbook, loud and clear for everyone’s entertainment.
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21 min: That goal is great news for Cardiff City. A Newcastle win here would throw them a lifeline. But here’s a stroke of luck for Brighton, as Bruno accidentally clips Rondon’s heel as the latter chases a long pass into the box. The referee isn’t interested, though, and waves play on. Brighton may have got away with one there.
20 min: Brighton’s defending there was non-existent. Not sure why Dummett was able to make so much ground down the left, given all the time in the world to size up his cross. Perez didn’t celebrate the goal too much, as he still looks to be in plenty of pain.
GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Newcastle (Perez 18)
Perez will be feeling OK right now! And this is a lovely team goal. Dummett is allowed to stroll down the left. He sends a ball across to Rondon at the far post. Rondon chests the ball down for Perez, who is just inside the area … and belts the ball into the top right! Ryan had no chance.
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17 min: Brighton are sitting back deep, happy to let Newcastle stroke it around. The home crowd are quiet and pensive as a result.
15 min: Perez gets up, trots off the field, then comes back on. But he’s not moving smoothly at all, and still holding that side, grimacing in pain. In that sense, it doesn’t look as though he’s going to be able to continue, but there’s no movement on the Newcastle bench so we’ll see.
11 min: Andone is booked for a robust challenge on Atsu. He appeared to stand quite heavily on Atsu’s foot. He claims it was accidental, and indeed looked a clumsy attacker’s tackle rather than anything else. But the yellow card comes out.
9 min: A nice end-to-end feel to this already. Brighton get on the front foot again, winning a corner down the left. That set piece leads to another on the right. The ball swirls around in the wind before dropping near the penalty spot, but Rondon is first to the loose ball and hooks away.
7 min: Newcastle respond with no less than three attacks of their own. First there’s space for Shelvey down the right, but his cross can’t find Rondon in the middle. Then Atsu has a dribble down the inside-left channel, but he can’t quite get a shot away. Finally Perez takes a turn down the same channel, and he gets as far as the box before being fairly checked by Duffy. He gets up holding his ribs.
5 min: What a fiasco, though. Such a good position from which to test Dubravka. Brighton come again, Murray slipping a pass down the right for Andone. but Ritchie isn’t giving up an inch and the Brighton attacker is forced to turn tail.
3 min: Gross and Bernardo tap the free kick to each other, back and forth, before the ball’s rolled square across the face of the penalty box to … absolutely nobody. Time to go back to the drawing board, and chop it up into little splinters. Best not to overthink, and to try a direct shot on goal next time.
2 min: Hayden clumsily bundles Murray to the ground, just to the left of the D. A very promising position for a free kick.
And we’re off! Newcastle get the ball rolling and pump it forward. Brighton send it back upfield. Murray nearly closes down a lumbering Dubravka, Shane Long style, but there’s to be no seven-second goal for him. The keeper hacks clear just in time. Still, full marks for effort.
The teams are out! Brighton will play in their blue and white vertical stripes, while Newcastle wear their Ginola-Ferdinand-era horizontal blue and burgundy rugby pastiche. We’ll be off in a minute!
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez talks! “We will try to do our best, we have to win. We are professionals and will try to finish as high as we can in the table. This league is quite difficult. When you have two or three games against the top six, you can lose confidence. But we reacted well and now we are in a good position.”
Brighton boss Chris Hughton speaks! “This is our best opportunity. It would certainly make life easier if we got a result today. It’s a test and a challenge of our desire to stay in this division. Unfortunately for us, we’ve picked our most disappointing part of the season at the wrong time, but we can only deal with facts, and we have an opportunity today for some points that would be very welcome. We’re on the back of two performances at the stadiums of clubs who are having outstanding seasons [Wolves and Spurs] so there’s a good feel from that. The next step now is to do what we’ve found difficult today, and that’s scoring goals.”
A huge pre-match boost for Brighton at Craven Cottage! Fulham have beaten Cardiff City 1-0 thanks to Ryan Babel’s 79th-minute curler from 25 yards. Junior Hoilett hit the bar for the Bluebirds and Sean Morrison missed a point-blank header during a desperate closing heave, but it wasn’t enough. It’s three Premier League wins on the bounce for Fulham, for the first time since 2012, but it’s seriously bad news for Cardiff. Should Brighton win tonight, they’ll be six clear of Cardiff with two games left apiece. Cardiff have the easier fixtures – Crystal Palace at home and Manchester United away, while Brighton have to travel to Arsenal and host Manchester City – but six points would almost certainly not be enough, as they’d also need to make up a 15-goal deficit. In other words, should Brighton win tonight, they’re as good as safe.
Brighton make four changes to the team named for the narrow loss at Spurs on Tuesday evening. Martin Montoya, Yves Bissouma, Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh make way for Bruno, Baram Kayal, Glenn Murray and Jose Izqueirdo. Anthony Knockaert is available again after a three-match suspension.
Newcastle make three changes to the team that saw off Southampton 3-1 last Sunday. Jamaal Lascelles is ill, Miguel Almiron is hamstrung and out for the rest of the season, and Ki Sung-yueng drops to the bench. Federico Fernandez, Jonjo Shelvey and Christian Atsu take their places.
The teams
Brighton & Hove Albion: Ryan, Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Bernardo, Gross, Stephens, Kayal, Andone, Murray, Izquierdo.
Subs: Bong, Bissouma, Locadia, Knockaert, March, Button, Burn.
Newcastle United: Dubravka, Manquillo, Schar, Fernandez, Dummett, Ritchie, Perez, Shelvey, Hayden, Atsu, Rondon.
Subs: Ki, Diame, Muto, Kenedy, Yedlin, Barreca, Darlow.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
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Preamble
Brighton & Hove Albion are in some serious bother. They’ve not scored a goal in the Premier League since March 9, when Anthony Knockaert sent a screamer into the top-left corner of Crystal Palace’s net to win the M23 derby. This impotent seven-game carry-on has sent them clattering down the table, and now they’re just three points above the last relegation place. Their next two matches are against Arsenal and Manchester City; realistically you’d think they need to get something here this evening. Finding the net would be a start.
There’s always hope in football, though. Brighton have a decent recent record against tonight’s opponents Newcastle United. They beat Rafa Benitez’s side earlier in the campaign, 1-0 at St James’ Park, and won this fixture last season. That one ended 1-0 too. Throw in a 0-0 up north last season, and Brighton have reason to be optimistic. Especially as Newcastle, having won their last two, are nice and safe in mid-table now, dreaming of the summer break. Either way, this doesn’t scream goalfest, but you never know. It’s on!
Kick off: 5.30pm BST.
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