FOR much of the first half of the season, Burnley and Newcastle United appeared to be travelling on a very similar trajectory. Come the end of the campaign, however, and they are two clubs heading in completely different directions. Burnley will spend next season in the Championship after their final-day defeat, coupled with Leeds’ win at Brentford, ended their six-year spell in the top-flight. For Newcastle, transformed thanks to new ownership and the stewardship of Eddie Howe, the sky is the limit.

The Magpies finished the season in 11th position, a scenario that would have been regarded as unthinkable as recently as mid-January, when a home draw with Watford appeared to have left them at serious risk of relegation. That they eventually finished a staggering 14 points clear of the drop zone is nothing short of remarkable, with their final points tally of 49 representing their best return since the 2013-14 season.

Yesterday’s success, which came courtesy of a goal in each half from Callum Wilson, ensured Newcastle signed off for the summer with back-to-back victories. They won six of their final eight matches – their only defeats came against title rivals Liverpool and Manchester City – and the fact they travelled with Turf Moor with supposedly nothing to play for, yet still outplayed a Burnley side that should have been battling for their lives, is another feather in their cap. For all the understandable desire to dampen down expectations, Howe has generated a level of momentum that could prove difficult to stop.

For a large chunk of the campaign, it looked as though yesterday’s game would be a survival shoot-out between two sides heading into the final weekend in serious danger of dropping into the Championship.

That was exactly the scenario facing Burnley, who must now prepare for life in the second tier, but things were markedly different for Newcastle, with their remarkable run of form under Howe ensuring their top-flight survival was guaranteed long before they boarded the coach for Turf Moor.

Howe was saying all the right things in the build-up to the game, insisting the integrity of the competition meant he would not allow his players’ motivation levels to drop, but the reality is that Newcastle had taken care of business weeks ago. This was a day when the pressure was heaped on Burnley.

They didn’t handle that pressure particularly well at all, although the afternoon started miserably from a Newcastle perspective when Joelinton was stretchered off after just 11 minutes. The Brazilian’s renaissance has been one of feelgood stories of the season from a black-and-white perspective, so the sight of the reborn midfielder being strapped to a stretcher after suffering a deep laceration felt especially unfortunate. There has been talk of Joelinton potentially earning a maiden call-up to the Brazil squad this summer in the last few weeks – hopefully, yesterday’s injury will not make that an impossibility.

The injury took some of the edge off the atmosphere that had been building inside Turf Moor, and the home fans were silenced in a more forceful manner when Newcastle opened the scoring in the 20th minute.

Kieran Trippier, a former Burnley player, swung over a corner from the left, and while Nick Pope just about managed to claw the ball away as it threatened to drift under the crossbar, he only managed it to direct it onto the raised arm of Clarets defender Nathan Collins.

Craig Pawson initially missed the offence, but it was immediately spotted by VAR, and once Pawson was sent to check the pitch-side monitor, the award of a penalty felt inevitable.

Sure enough, Pawson returned to point to the spot, with Wilson calmly stepping up to stroke home his second goal in as many games following his return to the starting side from injury.

At the same time as Wilson was scoring, Leeds were having a goal ruled out for offside at Brentford, but Burnley nevertheless found themselves in the bottom three.

The noise levels ratcheted up another couple of notches as the home fans tried to spur their side on, but aside from a couple of long-range efforts from Dwight McNeil, who was the only Burnley player to offer any kind of threat, the Clarets were surprisingly lacklustre given the scale of what was at stake.

Indeed, the home side’s survival prospects would have suffered an even bigger blow had Allan Saint-Maximin not passed up an excellent opportunity to double Newcastle’s lead on the stroke of half-time. The Frenchman cut into the 18-yard box after racing on to Matt Targett’s pass, but his low strike was saved by Pope.

Burnley boss Mike Jackson threw on Wout Weghorst at half-time in an attempt to spur his side into life, but the scale of the Clarets’ task became even harder when news filtered through of Leeds' opener at Brentford. Suddenly, Burnley needed two goals to survive.

It became three a few minutes later, as Newcastle finally claimed the second goal their marked superiority warranted.

Saint-Maximin was the architect, dribbling his way into the left-hand side of the area, and after the Frenchman squared the ball across the 18-yard box, Wilson was left with the simple task of slotting home. It was the England international’s eighth goal of the season, a reasonable enough return given his lengthy injury absence and Newcastle’s wretched form when he was fit at the start of the campaign.

Burnley gave themselves a chance of surviving when Maxwell Cornet lashed home in the 69th minute after his initial shot had been saved, but while Woet Weghorst and Jack Cork both came close to claiming a leveller, the home side’s fate was sealed.