Newcastle United won 2-0 at Crystal Palace on Sunday, second-half goals from William Osula and Harvey Barnes giving Matthias Jaissle's side a first win in three league games and piling the pressure back on Palace manager Pierre Sage at Selhurst Park.
Both managers arrived under scrutiny — Sage after a 5-0 thrashing at Brighton and Newcastle after back-to-back defeats — and for 45 minutes it showed, in a goalless first half short on quality. What followed after the break was a lesson in taking chances, as the official Newcastle United report recorded.
Osula strikes, Willock denied, Barnes finishes it
Palace had the best early chance, Lukáš Horníček reacting quickly to smother Jean-Philippe Mateta's close-range effort, and the French striker pulled another shot wide before Daichi Kamada tumbled under a challenge from Fabian Schär in the box, with referee Paul Tierney unmoved. Barnes saw speculative drives charged down at the other end, and the sides went in level.
Just over a minute after the restart, Jacob Murphy's superb whipped cross from the right was prodded home by William Osula, starting for the first time since the opening day of the season. Moments later Joe Willock finished superbly across Walter Benítez from Joelinton's through ball — only for a VAR check to rule him fractionally offside, as charted in the Sky Sports match page.
Newcastle did not have to wait long for their second. On 58 minutes Nico González fed Amar Dedić, whose perfectly weighted cutback was swept home by Harvey Barnes for his fourth goal of the season. Palace sent on Eddie Nketiah and Dario Osorio, but a side that has now conceded 19 goals this season — the most in the division — never looked like recovering, and there were no red cards in a game Newcastle controlled once ahead.
Five changes pay off for Jaissle
Jaissle made five changes for the trip to south London, with Dan Burn, Fabian Schär, Dedić, Murphy and Osula all coming into the line-up, and every one of them was vindicated: Murphy and Dedić claimed the assists, Burn captained a defence that kept a rare and much-needed clean sheet, and Osula led the line with the energy the Magpies had lacked in last weekend's home defeat, covered by Beyond The Final Whistle in its report of Newcastle's loss to Aston Villa.
For Sage, the numbers are stark. Palace have won just two of their opening eight league matches, and the defensive frailty that Beyond The Final Whistle flagged in its account of the pressure building on Sage after the Brighton humiliation was on show again in the way the second goal was conceded, with the home defence caught flat-footed by a simple cutback.
So what? Newcastle climb, Palace look over their shoulder
The win lifts Newcastle to 11 points and into the top half of the chase, level with Aston Villa and Brentford, and buys Jaissle breathing space before Everton visit St James' Park in the league on Monday week. Newcastle first face cup business in midweek, but the league table suddenly looks far healthier than it did at kick-off.
Palace stay on seven points, just above the relegation places, and their next league test could hardly be tougher: a trip to Tottenham on Saturday, after a Carabao Cup tie at Fulham on Wednesday. Sage was given time by the board after the Brighton defeat, but a home loss in a game his side had targeted will shorten that leash again.
Beyond the Final Whistle: Newcastle did what good sides do to struggling ones — stayed patient, struck twice in eleven minutes and shut the game down. Osula and Barnes took their chances, and Jaissle's five changes all delivered. For Palace, the question is no longer whether Sage is under pressure, but how many more afternoons like this the board will watch. Should Palace stick with Sage — or is it already time for a change at Selhurst Park?
