Newcastle 1 (Wilson 64 pen) Brentford 0
Where might Newcastle be without Callum Wilson? In three years on Tyneside he has scored 41 goals in 80 appearances, playing a key role in a couple of relegation escapes before helping secure Champions League qualification last season.
Without Wilson here, Newcastle’s winless run would almost certainly have stretched to four matches. Instead his impeccable second-half penalty was a rare moment of perfection, camouflaging the fast-developing faultlines running through a side possibly distracted by an impending European adventure.
Much as Newcastle fans have discovered that the logistics of travelling to Milan for Tuesday’s opening Champions League group stage game are somewhat trickier than expected, their players are finding the Premier League infinitely tougher going than they had envisaged.
While an absence of direct flights from the north-east to Italy’s fashion capital dictate that those supporters must make complicated and costly Continental connections, Newcastle kicked off here on the back of three straight league defeats.
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Given that they only suffered five in the whole of last season, they began in slightly dazed and confused mode. As Brentford counterattacked with speed and incision, the tactical switches that Bruno Guimarães and company flicked with instinctive ease as they cantered to fourth place last term suddenly seemed to be jamming.
When Newcastle were not struggling to cope with the impressive Mathias Jensen’s intelligent midfield manoeuvres, they spent the first half struggling to break down Brentford’s meticulously organised five-man defence.
Almost half an hour had passed before Brentford’s goalkeeper, Mark Flekken, was called to arms. When Kieran Trippier delivered his side’s first corner of the game to Guimarães, the Brazilian – who has recently been out of sorts – headed downwards, forcing Flekken to save smartly with his feet.
With Joelinton sidelined by a knee injury and thigh trouble dictating that Sandro Tonali was merely fit enough to start on the bench, Sean Longstaff and Elliot Anderson were offered rare starts on either side of Guimarães in midfield but they were largely eclipsed by Jensen and friends.
Brentford though had failed to make the most of a couple of decent early chances on the break – most notably when Nick Pope denied Aaron Hickey – and were disrupted when Rico Henry sustained a potentially serious-looking knee injury after tangling with Trippier near a corner flag.
Given the left wing-back’s excellence during his side’s unbeaten start to the season, that represented quite a blow for his manager, Thomas Frank – not to mention a player believed to be in realistic contention for an England call-up from Gareth Southgate.
Without Henry Brentford were less imaginative but continued to create – and miss – the odd inviting opening. It perhaps helped their cause that Newcastle’s press, so ferocious last season, was clearly malfunctioning. Maybe they are missing the injured Joe Willock even more than they would have imagined.
Eddie Howe had restored Wilson to centre-forward, dropping Alexander Isak to the bench. Wilson thought he had repaid his manager’s faith by stabbing the ball home after a 58th-minute goalmouth scramble.
Much to the home side’s disgust that effort was disallowed for a foul on the arguably fortunate goalkeeper by Wilson, but six minutes later the England striker made no mistake from the penalty spot.
This time Flekken, played into trouble by Hickey’s ill-advised backpass, felled Anthony Gordon in the box. Considering that the winger was heading away from goal Flekken had no cause to make that hot-headed intervention, and he duly paid the price as Wilson’s penalty sailed beyond his reach.
Frank had reason to rue the incident even more when Vitaly Janelt missed a close-range header. Janelt was swiftly withdrawn as Frank made a triple substitution but Newcastle were determined to cling on to their lead. They might have doubled it had a VAR review not convinced Craig Pawson to overturn his initial decision to award them a second penalty for Bryan Mbeumo’s perceived handball.
