Late Thiago double earns comeback win for Brentford against 10-man Newcastle

Something is seriously wrong with Newcastle on the road. It is all well and good raising their game for the biggest Champions League occasions at St James’ Park, but if they continue to play like they did against Brentford – just as they did in defeat at West Ham a week earlier, and countless times over a concerning number of months – those European nights may well become a distant memory.

That they ended this game with a numerical disadvantage after Dan Burn’s sending off was of little relevance to a defeat that they fully deserved. Harvey Barnes’s goal aside they were utterly impotent, offering only that solitary shot on target all match.

Their winless run away from home now stretches to nine Premier League matches, dating back to April. Most worryingly, there was no sign of it ending here. What is this travel malady that so afflicts them when leaving the north-east?

To Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa, Brentford can now add Newcastle to the list of notable clubs they have defeated at home this season. In a game only pockmarked by moments of quality, it was a victory their dominance merited.

Keith Andrews must have wondered how his team even managed to fall behind in the first place. They dictated the flow of an often pedestrian game for the vast majority of proceedings, largely looking at ease at the back and gently threatening going forward.

Yet, out of precious little, Eddie Howe’s travel-sick team took the lead just before the half-hour. A neat passing move – Newcastle’s only notable one of the game – culminated in Barnes picking the ball up just inside Brentford’s penalty area. A wonderful shift of body weight sent two Brentford defenders the wrong way, gaining space to drill home between Caoimhín Kelleher’s legs. With Anthony Gordon ruled out because of a hip niggle, it was an opportune time for Barnes’s first league goal of the campaign.

Dan Burn brings down Dango Ouattara and is sent off after receiving a second yellow card. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA

But there appeared a sense of inevitability about the Brentford comeback. To the hosts’ credit, they had exhibited their ball-playing prowess numerous times without any luck before equalising through the familiar route of a set piece. When Nick Pope failed to connect with an attempted punch from Michael Kayode’s long throw, the resulting flick-on reached Kevin Schade, who nodded in from close range.

Thereafter followed a truly extraordinary sequence, featuring the same two protagonists in consecutive incidents. That Brentford were first denied a penalty when Dango Ouattara was felled by Burn will remain a matter of some bemusement, certainly after the video assistant referee suggested replays of the Newcastle defender’s studs nestling into the attacker’s ankle constituted “minimal contact”. Ouattara was even booked for diving.

Yet moments later, Burn received his comeuppance. Played through over the top, Ouattara reached the ball first, again, and was brought down by the Newcastle full-back, again. This time, the referee delivered a different verdict: penalty and a second yellow card for Burn. Igor Thiago duly stepped up and stroked the ball past Aaron Ramsdale, who had come off the bench to replace the injured Pope only after the penalty had been awarded.

With Newcastle all but buried, the Brazilian striker even managed to add an eighth league goal of a brilliant personal campaign deep into injury time. A Malick Thiaw slide tackle managed to cut out a long pass through the middle of the pitch, but his interception only diverted the ball straight into the course of Thiago’s run. Another calm finish followed.