Goals:

1-0: Lascelles (15, rose just inside the area to power Ritchie’s free-kick inside Stockdale’s right hand post)

2-0: Shelvey (64, curled a free-kick over the wall and into the keeper’s top left corner)

Bookings: Shelvey (23, foul); Perez (33, foul); Ritchie (33, dissent); Baldock (45, foul)

Sending-off: Baldock (55, second bookable offence)

Referee: Keith Stroud (Poole) – made some awful decisions throughout the afternoon involving both teams. 4

Attendance: 49, 196

Entertainment: **

NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-1-4-1):

7 Sels: Showed good handling and distribution after a shaky start to life at Newcastle;

7 Anita: Newcastle might be on the look-out for a full-back but he did his job effectively again

7 Mbemba: Made a number of important headers and blocks to keep Brighton at bay

8 Lascelles: Defended strongly and his header was outstanding to put Newcastle on their way

6 Dummett: Put the work in throughout and made a couple of important tackles, particularly first half;

6 Hayden: Passed the ball around neatly and combined with Shelvey well;

6 Ritchie: Not as effective as he can be but still crucial and sent over the delivery for the opener

6 Diame: A powerful presence behind the striker even if he could be better in the holding role

8 SHELVEY: Back in the side and enjoying himself, but why wouldn’t he have when he scored a goal as good as he did

7 Gouffran: Almost scored the goal of the season with an absolute belter in the first half;

5 Perez: Found it hard on his own up front with Duffy and Dunk to deal with

Subs:

Gamez (for Anita 72)

Colback (for Diame 81)

Yedlin (for Gouffran 88)

(not used): Darlow (gk), Hanley, Armstrong.

BRIGHTON (4-2-3-1): Stockdale 6; Bruno 6, Duffy 7, DUNK 8, Bong 5; Sidwell 5 (Norwood 68, 6), Kayal 5; Knockaert 7, Baldock 5, Skalak 5 (LuaLua 68, 5); Murray 6 (Hemed 68, 6). Subs: Maenppa (gk), Stephens, Murphy, Hunt.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Jonjo Shelvey – scored a beauty, almost had a second and turned in the sort of midfield display which Newcastle have been crying out for since his arrival in January after being moved forward.