PREM: Newcastle 0-1 Brighton

Jose Izquierdo (far right) wheels away from goal after giving Brighton the lead

Newcastle dropped to the bottom of the Premier League table after a fifth home defeat in a row in a 1-0 loss to Brighton.

A nasty clash of heads saw Glenn Murray stretchered off and taken straight to hospital, delaying the match for around eight minutes early on, but it was not long before the visitors got themselves in front after Beram Kayal diverted Jose Izquierdo's strike into the net in the 29th minute.

Newcastle pressed for that leveller, but were either frustrated by some fine goalkeeping from Mat Ryan, or their own wayward finishing. In truth, Brighton saw out a first away league win in almost a year with relative ease.

 

The match started at a decent pace, with Ayoze Perez forcing a fine save out of Ryan from point-blank range early on, before Murray went up for a high ball with Federico Fernandez, clashed heads, and seemed to lose consciousness as he hit the ground.

 

After lengthy treatment on the pitch, Murray was stretchered off, but the club later confirmed he had regained consciousness and was talking. That seemed to slow the tempo of the match in the aftermath, until Brighton took the lead in somewhat fortuitous circumstances.

Shane Duffy headed a corner back to the edge of the Newcastle penalty area, Jose Izquierdo - making his first start of the season - arrived right on cue, drilled for goal, it took one deflection, before then coming off Kayal and finding the net. That final nick took the effort away from Martin Dubravka in the home goal.

 

The chances kept coming and going for Newcastle, with Jonjo Shelvey denied by another fine save from Ryan, before Kenedy fired for goal, only to see the ball skim the top of the crossbar and fly over the top.

After the break, Newcastle put plenty of crosses into the box, but created very few real openings of note. Kenedy's decision to try a rabona shot at goal, when in a good position, which he got badly wrong, summed up their afternoon's efforts.

Brighton could have made the result much more comfortable, but Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Yves Bissouma could not convert when clean through. Nonetheless, they held on to pile the misery on the St James' Park masses.