Newcastle United edged Burnley 2-1 at St. James’ Park on Saturday, earning a third straight home victory and moving into the Premier League’s top half.
The match was decided by first-half goals from Bruno
Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon, with Newcastle capitalizing on a series of Burnley mistakes, including a red card and two penalties.
Guimaraes gave Newcastle the lead in the 31st minute, scoring directly from a corner that floated over former Magpie goalie Martin Dubravka and into the net.
The visitors’ problems deepened just before halftime when Burnley left-back Lucas Pires was sent off for a late tackle on Anthony Elanga. Moments later, a VAR review penalized Lesley Ugochukwu for a handball in the box, and Gordon converted the resulting penalty deep into first-half stoppage time to double the advantage.
Newcastle maintained control through much of the second half, and adding to the party Yoane Wissa made his debut from the bench. Burnley, down to ten men, struggled to create clear chances until late in stoppage time.
Then and there, Malick Thiaw was penalized for handball after another VAR review, and Zian Flemming converted Burnley’s penalty in the 94th minute. Despite a frantic finish, Newcastle saw out the result as Burnley nearly found a late equalizer with the final attack.
Burnley have now lost six consecutive matches and remain 19th in the table, four points adrift of safety. Newcastle’s 10 points from their last four matches have boosted the club into the top ten as the season nears its midway point.
“It was a tough ending to the game, that’s for sure. We concede the penalties with minimal time left. Then the whole game changes. The extra man advantage goes out the window. But we got over the line, won the game, and that’s all that matters. We were sluggish starters today. We grew into it. Bruno scored a great goal. Our plan was to put the ball right on the goalkeeper today. There were some bright spots in our play—not enough from our perspective—we know it wasn’t our best performance. But we got a win, 10 points out of 12, we’re moving in the right direction,” Eddie Howe said after the win.
Newcastle’s next match is against Bayer Leverkusen in another Champions League grouper stage game.
