Newcastle 0-1 Brighton: Hosts drop to bottom after fifth home defeat in a row

Newcastle dropped to the bottom of the Premier League table after a fifth home defeat in a row in a 1-0 loss to Brighton.

A nasty clash of heads saw Glenn Murray stretchered off and taken straight to hospital, delaying the match for around eight minutes early on, but it was not long before the visitors got themselves in front after Beram Kayal diverted Jose Izquierdo's strike into the net in the 29th minute.

Newcastle pressed for that leveller, but were either frustrated by some fine goalkeeping from Mat Ryan, or their own wayward finishing. In truth, Brighton saw out a first away league win in almost a year with relative ease.

Two points from nine matches sees Newcastle continue their worst-ever start to a top-flight season, with boos audible from all around as Newcastle dropped below Cardiff to sit bottom of the table. Brighton climbed one place to 12th after a second successive win.

• As it happened
• Murray 'talking' in hosptial

The match started at a decent pace, with Ayoze Perez forcing a fine save out of Ryan from point-blank range early on, before Murray went up for a high ball with Federico Fernandez, clashed heads, and seemed to lose consciousness as he hit the ground.

After lengthy treatment on the pitch, Murray was stretchered off, but the club later confirmed he had regained consciousness and was talking. That seemed to slow the tempo of the match in the aftermath, until Brighton took the lead in somewhat fortuitous circumstances.

Shane Duffy headed a corner back to the edge of the Newcastle penalty area, Jose Izquierdo - making his first start of the season - arrived right on cue, drilled for goal, it took one deflection, before then coming off Kayal and finding the net. That final nick took the effort away from Martin Dubravka in the home goal.

The chances kept coming and going for Newcastle, with Jonjo Shelvey denied by another fine save from Ryan, before Kenedy fired for goal, only to see the ball skim the top of the crossbar and fly over the top.

After the break, Newcastle put plenty of crosses into the box, but created very few real openings of note. Kenedy's decision to try a rabona shot at goal, when in a good position, which he got badly wrong, summed up their afternoon's efforts.

Brighton could have made the result much more comfortable, but Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Yves Bissouma could not convert when clean through. Nonetheless, they held on to pile the misery on the St James' Park masses.

Opta stats

• Newcastle are just the fourth team in English top-flight history to lose their first five home league games of the season.
• Brighton had just two shots on target in this match - their goal in the 29th minute and then a saved shot two minutes into second-half injury time.
• Newcastle attempted 27 shots without finding the net - their most in a Premier League game without scoring since February 2014 (28 vs Sunderland).
• Beram Kayal became the second Israeli player to score a Premier League goal for Brighton (after Tomer Hemed). No club has had more players from Israel score in the competition (Bolton, Liverpool and West Ham also two).

Man of the match - Mat Ryan

The Australian international frustrated Newcastle in this fixture last season, and again provided stubborn resistance in the north east. His save early on to deny Perez was crucial, while his overall command of his penalty area, handling from crosses and distribution were on point.

What's next?

Newcastle travel to Southampton next Saturday, while Brighton host Wolves.