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Late goals from Callum Wilson and Joelinton gave Newcastle further success in the capital after a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace.
A monotonous Premier League match looked destined to end goalless before Steve Bruce saw his forward pair deliver the goods.
FULL MATCH DETAILS
Wilson’s seventh goal of the season with two minutes remaining seemed enough to earn all three points before Joelinton’s tireless display was rewarded with a deflected shot a minute later.
After back-to-back defeats, Newcastle returned to winning ways and are undefeated in three meetings in London this season, while Roy Hodgson stayed to reflect on a bitterly disappointing night for his team.
Given that these teams scored only 69 times during 76 league games combined last season, a goalfest was not expected in South East London.
The chances of a thriller were further diminished when Allan Saint-Maximin joined Wilfried Zaha on the absentee list, and both clubs lost the creativity of their players.
Bruce made four changes to the team that lost at home to Chelsea last weekend and it initially had the desired effect.
After proceedings began after a minute of applause for Diego Maradona, who died at the age of 60 on Wednesday, Joelinton signaled his intention with three early attempts.
The first two after Newcastle’s record 40 million pound signing were diverted, but the third at least forced Vicente Guaita to make a routine save.
Palace had allowed the Magpies to dictate possession during the initial exchanges, but was briefly launched midway through thanks to Ebere Eze.
The summer signing forced Karl Darlow to make an excellent save with an effort drilled in the 25th minute heading for the top corner.
The Newcastle keeper was called in again four minutes later and produced another timely intervention to avoid Jeffrey Schlupp’s low effort.
Schlupp had been a surprise inclusion over Michy Batshuayi and had the last attempt of the half but failed to direct his header into goal.
More good work from the winger gave fellow Ghana international Jordan Ayew a half chance in the 54th minute, but the attacker was only able to open the home stretch.
By the time Eze’s volley almost veered off for a pitch, Hodgson had seen enough and introduced himself to Jairo Riedewald and Christian Benteke to try and spice up the crash.
Visiting boss Bruce did something similar and substitute Matt Ritchie produced a wonderful ball into the box with 18 minutes to go, but Joelinton got his jump off the mark and nodded wide.
Sean Longstaff’s fine run from within his own half created another opportunity for Newcastle in the 79th minute after he was knocked down, and yet Ritchie was only able to fire a neat routine of free kicks directly at Guaita.
Benteke was the next substitute to threaten, but his downward header was excellently parried by Darlow before Federico Fernandez bravely blocked Cheikhou Kouyate’s effort.
Palace seemed more likely and Patrick van Aanholt should have found Batshuayi with a cross five minutes from time, which proved decisive.
With time nearly up, Joelinton stepped forward and slipped Wilson, who coldly placed himself between Guaita’s legs with 88 minutes left.
However, Newcastle didn’t finish there, and Brazilian Joelinton closed the points with a deflected shot in the 90th minute after another good run to move the Magpies to 10th place.
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