EPL: Newcastle United 1-0 Crystal Palace

Newcastle celebrate their winner

Mikel Merino scored a late winner to give Newcastle all three points against Crystal Palace at St James' Park.

In what was a poor match throughout, it was the hosts that had the first shot in anger when Christian Atsu beat Joel Ward before firing into the side-netting from an acute angle.

The away side threatened themselves just minutes later when Andros Townsend, playing against his former club, whipped in a cross that was headed just wide by Wilfried Zaha.

Both sides picked up the pace in the second half and Townsend came close to breaking the deadlock, firing inches over the crossbar with a shot from distance.

The home side increased the tempo late on and Julian Speroni was forced into making a couple of good stops, first from sub Mo Diame and then from Jonjo Shelvey's long-range shot.

Rafael Benitez's side won a corner with just four minutes to go and Matt Ritchie's ball in was headed by James McArthur onto the head of Mikel Merino, who scored his first goal for the club and earned his side the three points.