Brentford edge Newcastle 3-2 in five-goal thriller at St James’ Park

Brentford came from behind to edge Newcastle 3-2 in a five-goal thriller at the St James’ Park on Saturday.

Newcastle took the lead in the 24th minutes by a Botman flicks, before Janelt levels for Brentford in the 37th minutes.

Brentford took the lead 10 minutes after through Igor Thiago penalty in the 47th minutes, while Bruno Guimarães 79 minutes level things up for Newcastle.

But, Dango Ouattara 85 minutes goal assisted by Jensen silenced the home crowd, as the Magpies moved to 12th position in the Premier League, with Brentford at 7th.

Newcastle have now dropped more points from winning positions than any other side in the Premier League this season (19).

Only in 2004-05 (31), 1999-00 (24) and 2021-22 (24) have they dropped more points in a single campaign.

“Clearly things aren’t good enough currently, but for me Eddie Howe is not under pressure,” says Alan Shearer, former Newcastle striker and legend.

According to him, the signings in the summer, apart from Malick Thiaw, have not been good enough and hit anything like top form.

“Like any manager, things need to get better and they need to turn a corner, but in terms of him losing his job, absolutely not.”

Shearer said the new signings have not justified the money that was spent on them, which has hindered Howe performance.

“Sometimes you have to dig in, especially when they come out flying in the second half,” says Brentford midfielder Vitaly Janelt.

According to him, Brentford did a great job in the first half to come back from 1-0 down at the St James’ Park.

“We showed personality, did very well. As we knew, we lost a bit of control in the second half, it became an open game at 2-2 – we had a lot of chances to kill the game but we got it over the line.”

On scoring his first goal in over a year, Janelt said he might not have been used to scoring scores. “First goal this season. Maybe I scored one goal last year. I am not used to it.”

The midfielder added that Dango Ouattara, who scored the winning goal is a special player.

“He shows his quality with his left foot and right foot. You don’t know which way he is going to go. It was a brilliant cross from him,” Janelt said.

Seyi John Salau is a BusinessDay Correspondent with interest in development journalism, which tells stories that connect the people, brands, and the government. SeyiJohn is also a media professional with BSc, Mass Communition (ACU); Masters of School Media (MSM, Ibadan) & MSc, Mass Communication (Caleb).

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