Newcastle United 1 Southampton 0: Ten-man Magpies win at St James'

Fabian Schar’s 28th-minute dismissal handed his team-mates the most difficult of tasks, with the Swiss centre-half seeing red for a headbutt on Ben Brereton Diaz. The Southampton striker’s theatrical reaction to Schar leaning his head into him was ridiculous, but the Newcastle defender should not have reacted so petulantly after being pushed.

Faced with having to play for the final hour with ten men, the Magpies looked to be up against it, but Alexander Isak pounced on a goalkeeping error at the end of the first half to set up Joelinton for a simple finish.

Could Newcastle hold on to their lead throughout the second half? Yes, thanks largely to some tigerish midfield play from Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes and Sean Longstaff, and some superb last-ditch defending from Dan Burn and Emil Krafth, who came on after Schar’s dismissal.

Eddie Howe’s players deserve huge credit for the way they dug in to claim victory, even if the quality of some of their play left a fair bit to be desired.

The key moment of the game came in the 28th minute, although Newcastle had hardly been playing well when they had 11 men on the field, failing to create anything in the final third. Nevertheless, Schar’s moment of madness ensured the Magpies would face an uphill task for more than an hour.

The Swiss centre-half was clearly enraged by Brereton Diaz’s barge into him, with his first reaction being to push the Southampton centre-half. Had he stopped there, things would have been fine, but Schar moved closer to Brereton Diaz, pushing his head towards the Chilean striker.

Contact between the pair was minimal, but Brereton Diaz went down theatrically clutching his face, resulting in referee Craig Pawson reaching for a straight red card. Brereton Diaz hardly covered himself in glory as he fell to the floor, but as an experienced international, Schar should have known much better. He will now face an automatic three-match ban at a time when Newcastle are already short of centre-halves.

With his side down to ten men, Howe withdrew Jacob Murphy in order to bring on Krafth to strengthen his defence.

Brereton Diaz was booed vociferously whenever he touched the ball, and the crowd reaction appeared to unsettle the striker, who headed well wide just before the interval after meeting a cross from the right-hand side inside the six-yard box.

Newcastle needed something to steady them, and it arrived courtesy of Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy as they opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time.

McCarthy plaved a dreadful pass in his own area, conceding possession to Isak. The Newcastle striker squared the ball across the box, and Joelinton was able to stroke home a low finish.

With an advantage to defend, Newcastle’s task in the second half was to try to keep Southampton out despite their man disadvantage.

The Saints came close five minutes into the second half, but while Adam Armstrong swept Joe Aribo’s cross towards goal, Lewis Hall produced a brilliant goalline clearance. Brereton Diaz fired the rebound wide of the post.

Two minutes later, and Armstrong, a former Newcastle striker, was going close again, drilling in a rising drive that Nick Pope did brilliantly to turn around the post.

Understandably, Newcastle spent most of the second half camped deep inside their own territory, but they defended outstandingly. Longstaff, Guimares and Joelinton all ran themselves into the ground in midfield, while Burn was a colossus at the heart of the back four.

Hall made way for debutant Lloyd Kelly with 20 minutes remaining, but Newcastle continued to dig deep, with Pope getting down to his left to keep out Carlos Alcaraz’s late header.