Newcastle United moved back up to third in the Premier League with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at Brentford on Saturday after Ivan Toney missed a penalty for the London side for the first time in his career.
An own goal from David Raya and Alexander Isak’s second-half winner gave Newcastle a fifth consecutive win that moved them up to 56 points from 29 games — the same as Manchester United — but Eddie Howe’s side have a superior goal difference.
The result marked only the second time Brentford had lost at home this season after losing to Arsenal in September as Thomas Frank’s side missed an opportunity to leapfrog eighth-placed Liverpool, sitting ninth with 43 points.
“It was a tough game, this is a tough place to come to. They have been unbeaten here for a very long time,” Isak told Premier League Productions.
“It was a tough task and we felt that in the first half. But we turned it around with different energy (in the second). We are happy with the three points.”
Newcastle were sluggish in the opening stages and invited Brentford pressure which nearly resulted in an opening goal for the home side when Toney scored from a parried save but VAR ruled it out for a marginal offside.
That was the wake-up call Newcastle needed and they slowly found their rhythm to peg Brentford back, but it was almost undone by Sven Botman who clumsily brought down Kevin Schade as he sprinted into the box with the ball at his feet.
Nick Pope came to Newcastle’s rescue as he guessed correctly to deny Toney who missed from the spot for the first time since 2018 having converted his previous 24 attempts.
But Brentford were given another lifeline when Isak fouled Rico Henry and the referee awarded another penalty after watching the replay. This time, Toney made no mistake and beat Pope to score his 18th league goal of the season.
The tide turned in the second half, however, as Newcastle came out firing and equalised nine minutes after the restart when Joelinton’s attempted cross went in off goalkeeper Raya’s foot.
An unmarked Isak then made amends with an emphatic finish after he was set up by his strike partner and second half substitute Callum Wilson, with the Swedish striker guiding his effort past Raya to make it 2-1.
Wilson had the ball in the back of the net again from a set-piece but his celebration was cut short after VAR ruled it out for a handball from the striker while at the other end Pope denied Toney once again with a reflex save from a header.
“We changed things tactically (in the second half). Sometimes that can give you a lift in itself. We knew we were desperate for the result and threw caution to the wind a little bit,” Howe told BBC.
“The players responded well physically, even though we were a little bit fatigued from the week we have had. That is down to the characters we have.”
