Newcastle Beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park With Second Half Goals From Osula and Barnes

Newcastle United beat Crystal Palace 2-0 at Selhurst Park on Sunday in Premier League Matchday 8. The first half finished goalless, and both Newcastle goals came in the second half. William Osula scored in the 47th minute, two minutes after the restart, and Harvey Barnes scored in the 58th minute to complete the win. Between the two goals, Joe Willock had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside, so Newcastle were denied a third scoring moment on an afternoon when they still took all three points.

Two goals in eleven minutes

The match had no goals at half time. Palace had held Newcastle through a goalless first half at home, and the game was level when the sides came back out at Selhurst Park. The breakthrough came at the start of the second half. Osula scored in the 47th minute to put Newcastle 1-0 ahead, changing the match two minutes after the restart and forcing Palace to chase a game they had kept level for the full first half.

Eleven minutes later the second goal arrived. Barnes scored in the 58th minute to make it 2-0, and from there Newcastle had the control that a two goal lead gives an away side. Palace needed two goals in the time that remained to take anything from the match, and they scored none. The match finished 2-0, with all of the scoring packed into the first thirteen minutes of the second half after a first half that produced no goals at all.

Willock denied between the goals

The final score could have been wider. Between the Osula and Barnes goals, Willock put the ball in the net for Newcastle, and the goal was ruled out by VAR for offside. The decision kept the score at 1-0 at that point and kept Palace within one goal while the match was still in reach for the home side. When Barnes scored in the 58th minute, the second goal stood, and the gap that the ruled out goal would have opened earlier arrived anyway. Newcastle finished with two counted goals and one ruled out, and Palace finished with none.

Osula keeps scoring

Osula's opening goal continued a strong scoring run for the Newcastle forward. The goal was his seventh in his last 13 Premier League matches. That return follows a much slower start to his scoring in the league, when he scored two goals in his first 50 Premier League matches. Seven in 13, after two in his first 50, is the mark of a player whose finishing has changed across his time in the division, and his latest goal set Newcastle on their way at Selhurst Park before Barnes added the second.

Pressure grows on Sage

For Palace, the defeat is their fifth loss of the Premier League season, and it piles pressure on manager Pierre Sage. The loss comes a week after Palace lost 5-0 at Brighton, so the home crowd at Selhurst Park watched a second straight defeat follow a heavy one away from home. Two defeats in a week, one of them by five goals, leaves Sage answering questions about results with his team losing for the fifth time this season. Reuters also reported Newcastle's 2-0 win at Palace in its Sunday Premier League roundup. Newcastle leave south London with three points and a clean sheet, and Palace leave the field still carrying the weight of the Brighton defeat and now a home loss on top of it.