EPL: Newcastle 3-0 Southampton

Kenedy scores Newcastle's second goal against Southampton

Newcastle recorded a crucial victory in the battle for survival in the Premier League, beating Southampton 3-0 at St James' Park on Saturday.

Kenedy was the man of the moment for the hosts, scoring his first goal for the club in the second minute to give Rafael Benitez's side the perfect start.

The Brazilian scored his second after a brilliant counter-attacking move featuring Ayoze Perez and Dwight Gayle in the 29th minute before Matt Ritchie (57) rounded off a comfortable afternoon's work for the hosts.

 

The win sees Newcastle move up to 13th in the league, five points clear of the relegation zone but defeat leaves Southampton perilously close to the drop zone in 17th, one point ahead of Crystal Palace and Stoke having played a game more.

Newcastle were handed the perfect start by Kenedy, who chested down Jonjo Shelvey's pass before turning and side-footing the ball past Alex McCarthy and into the bottom corner to score his first goal for the club.

 

The goal gave the home fans a huge early lift and Benitez's players responded to the backing from their supporters as Shelvey snapped into a tackle to win the ball back in midfield before playing a brilliant pass through to Gayle, whose touch let him down with only McCarthy to beat.

 

Southampton struggled to find any sort of foothold in the game and they should have been further behind when Mohamed Diame dispossessed Mario Lemina, but Gayle's shot was smartly saved by McCarthy low down to his left.

The second goal eventually came though, and Lemina was involved again, slipping on the edge of the Newcastle penalty area to allow Perez to break forward on the counter-attack and pick out Gayle in the penalty area. The striker could have easily taken on the shot himself but he showed brilliant vision in sliding the ball to Kenedy, who had a tap-in at the far post to finish off a scintillating Newcastle counter-attack.

 

Southampton responded by sending on Shane Long and Josh Sims on at the break for Lemina and Dusan Tadic but Mauricio Pellegrino's side continued to struggle.

And they were further behind in the 57th minute when Shelvey, who had acres of time and space on the edge of the penalty area, laid the ball off for Ritchie, who stroked the ball into the bottom corner.

 

Southampton did eventually muster up a couple of shots on target through Guido Carrillo and Sims but Martin Dubravka, who had a quiet afternoon, kept both out to compound what was a miserable afternoon for the Saints.

Despite Dubravka's late work, Newcastle remained relatively untroubled as they secured a victory which sees them take a positive step towards remaining in the Premier League.