Newcastle climbed back into the top four after coming from behind to beat lowly Southampton 3-1 at St Mary’s.
Jan Bednarek’s header put Saints – who are now 11 points from Premier League safety – in front, but Alexander Isak’s double and Sandro Tonali’s third did the job for Eddie Howe’s men on the south coast.
Red-hot Isak has now scored 14 goals in his last 11 games in all competitions.
The Magpies pressed from the start, keen to avenge last week’s 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth, but it was Southampton who took the lead against the run of play inside 10 minutes when James Bree headed home powerfully. unmarked Bednarek.
Saints’ first goal in St. Mary’s on December 4th he brought the home crowd and lifted, as well as former Toon player Adam Armstrong, who hit one shot at Martin Dubravka and the other by a hair’s breadth. But he soon had to rue those misses as Newcastle quickly turned the game on its head.
The visitors were awarded a first-time penalty following a VAR review, with Joe Aribo adjudged to have made “sufficient contact” with Isak as the pair jostled inside the penalty area, despite referee Sam Barrott initially awarding a corner. He went to the monitor to confirm the decision, and Isak made no mistake and rolled the spot kick into the bottom left corner.
Isak doubled the lead with a cool finish into the opposite corner of the net, thanks to a wonderful assist from Jacob Murphy, and it could have been three shortly after when Joelinton’s shot from the post beat Alex McCarthy.
The visitors extended their lead five minutes after the restart – and the third was executed in such slick fashion; Isak shouldered the ball to Anthony Gordon, and Gordon then flicked the first ball into the path of Tonali, who came out of nowhere, drove and shot low past McCarthy.
Saints dug in and perhaps showed more courage than in previous weeks and months, but that means little without the results to go with it – and they were denied the chance of a late comeback when Matheus Fernandes’ late strike was ruled out by VAR, who judged strayed marginally offside in the build-up.
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