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Graham Potter admits painful truth after Newcastle United make it 5 wins in 6 matches

2 years ago
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Graham Potter couldn’t quite believe his team didn’t win at St James Park, never mind the fact that they actually lost.

When you play at home and have 68% possession, five more shots (15 v 10) than the home side, plus three more (7 v 4) corners. You would tend to think the final result won’t be painful.

Maybe though the key statistic was the efforts on target, which ended 4 v 4.

For all Graham Potter had Brighton playing good football and dominating the ball, they struggled to create clear chances. Indeed, I only really felt worried on set-pieces, as the two big dopes (Dunk and Duffy) threatened, with Dunk scoring the header from a corner on 55 minutes that looked as though it had handed the visitors the opportunity to come back and get at least a point.

However, Big Dan Burn was anything but a dope, indeed a class above his two former Brighton centre-back teammates. That pair were comfortable when the ball was hit long and high but when Newcastle did break or press with conviction, it looked any number of times as if NUFC could score.

Wood did so well to release Murphy behind the lumbering Brighton central defenders and his effort coming back off the post for Fraser to score the follow up. Then at 2-0 up, when he was pressed inside his own box and in possession, Dunk slipped and fell to the ground, leaving Murphy the easy task of squaring for Fraser to score from eight yards out right in front of the middle of the goal. However, Murphy inexplicably decided to try and score himself and wasted the golden chance. That kind of summed up the game, Newcastle could have been five up by half-time if taking their chances and / or making the right decision / pass.

Whilst at the other end, the likes of Burn and Schar were so good, they helped restrict Brighton to only four efforts on target.

Graham Potter having to admit the painful truth…’Over the course of the game I thought we were the better team, but the better team really is the one who scores the most goals, and that was Newcastle today.’

Graham Potter has now seen his Brighton team win only three of their last twenty two Premier League matches, though they have drawn plenty (12) of them.

In contrast, Eddie Howe has now instilled an incredible will to win in this team that had looked so broken under the mismanagement of Steve Bruce. It is now five wins in the last six games and whether playing well, average…or battling it out, his players are massively playing for the Head Coach, the fans and the shirt.

Such a good feeling when you are watching on from the stands.

Graham Potter speaking after Newcastle 2 Brighton 1:

“Performance-wise we did a lot well.

“However…football is about scoring more than your opponent.

“It was a blow to go two down so quickly after being the better team but we recovered, then in the second half improved and pushed.

“It was a big improvement from the last two games.

“The boys are suffering in terms of results but we will learn.

“It is a bad run, four defeats, before that we had not lost many.

“To find ourselves two down, at the speed that we did, was a bit of a body blow.

“We suffered from a bad goal and then a set play, it came from nowhere really, given we started the game the better team.

“We kept going but it’s hard when you’re 2-0 down all of a sudden.

“Over the course of the game I thought we were the better team, but the better team really is the one who scores the most goals, and that was Newcastle today.

“We stepped up a gear in the second half, even though I didn’t think we were poor in the first half, it was just the scoreline went against us.

“We had some good chances, good opportunities, and there was plenty to be pleased with.

“You could see the spirit of the team was there, the players keep going until the end and we just ran out of time.

“We need to learn from the pain of the defeat, we need to try and get better, but there were lots of things that were positive.

“It was a step forward in terms of our performance level but obviously we’re disappointed with the result.”

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 2 Brighton 1 – Saturday 5 March 3pm

Goals:

Brighton:

Dunk 55

Newcastle:

Fraser 12, Schar 14

Possession was Brighton 68% Newcastle 32%

Total shots were Brighton 15 Newcastle 10

Shots on target were Brighton 4 Newcastle 4

Corners were Brighton 7 Newcastle 4

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Crowd: 52,214

Newcastle United:

Dubravka, Krafth, Schar, Burn, Targett, Willock (Longstaff 90+4), Shelvey, Joelinton, Fraser (Guimaraes 79), Murphy (Saint-Maximin 64), Wood

Unused Subs:

Darlow, Dummett, Manquillo, Gayle, Lascelles, Almiron

(Newcastle 2 Brighton 1 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 2 Brighton 1 – Instant NUFC fan / writer reaction to Saturday’s massive victory – Read HERE)

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