It was a gritty win that may yet define Newcastle United's season. On an afternoon where the race for the Champions League could have taken a fresh twist, following Manchester United and Spurs' wins, the Magpies ended up staying in third after coming from behind to beat Brentford 2-1.
Newcastle have now won five games on the bounce and picked up a maximum nine points from three matches in just six days. This latest victory saw Newcastle become the first team to win at the Gtech Community Stadium since league leaders Arsenal in September after defeating a Brentford side who had been unbeaten in all 32 top-flight fixtures in which they had previously taken the lead.
It felt like another acid test had been passed. Sluggish Newcastle were awful in the first half on Saturday and could have found themselves 3-0 down at the break, but the visitors did not give up after Ivan Toney's opener and recovered to claim all three points thanks to an own goal from David Raya and a superb winner from Alexander Isak.
