Can Brighton upset Newcastle again?
Saturday’s early kick off sees Alan Pardew’s Newcastle side travel to the place where they lost their FA Cup placement in the fourth round last year – Brighton – and I take a brief look into whether or not the Magpies can expect another beating from the Seagulls.
Newcastle went into last year’s tie on the back of 3 wins in 4, including a 3-0 home trouncing of Manchester United, but went down to a deflected Will Buckley effort in the 76th minute against Brighton. It was a tough blow to take for the Toon army but they responded in the best possible manner, winning their next two league games against Blackburn and Aston Villa respectively.
If we look at the form of the Premier League side going into the weekend’s early fixture this time round, it could hardly be more different.
Newcastle have mustered just 1 win in their last 7 games in all competitions, a narrow 1-0 win over bottom of the league QPR, and although they have scored a bag-ful of goals, they have conceded 20 in that period whereas Brighton have lost just once in their last 5 outings, albeit drawing the majority of those.
The Sussex side have struggled for goals this season and could be their downfall in trying to reach a play-off spot in the Championship, but a disturbing trend at the back has also started to emerge. The Albion started the first quarter of the season with the tightest defence in the league but are now conceding far too many goals, including 3 in the home fixture against Watford, 2 against Millwall and 3 against their fierce rivals Crystal Palace last month.
Taking into consideration that Newcastle have been scoring goals from all over the pitch this campaign and the fact that Brighton’s home performances over the span of the season have been about as ruthless as flick on the nose, then sadly I think Newcastle will have enough to come out of this one as winners.
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