St James’ Park awaits in FA Cup – Newcastle v Brighton preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Brighton preview.

FA Cup 5th Round

Sunday 2nd March-  1.45pm kick-off

Newcastle United will be hoping to reach their second successive FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday, when they host Brighton and Hove Albion at an obscure kick-off time to facilitate the demands of terrestrial TV.

Newcastle have already made the League Cup final and would make club history if reaching two finals in the same season.

There’s a lot of football to be played before the Toon can start dreaming of another Wembley visit and Brighton will be looking to win their second match of the season against NUFC at St James’ Park, having enjoyed a somewhat fortuitous 1-0 success the last time the two sides met on Tyneside.

Newcastle have survived scares to see off both Bromley and Birmingham in the FA Cup so far. Conceding early on to both teams, the Toon battled back to win 3-1 and 3-2 respectively. In addition, we’ve also seen off Nottingham Forest, AFC Wimbledon, Chelsea, Bournemouth and Arsenal in a run to the League Cup Final, where Liverpool await in just two weeks time.

Brighton have beaten both Norwich and Chelsea to reach this stage of the FA Cup and will be hoping to reach their fourth quarter-final in just eight seasons. They’ve also beaten Crawley and Wolves in the League Cup before exiting the competition with an unlucky 3-2 defeat at home to holders Liverpool, who will hopefully have to settle for being runners-up this time around.

The Toon geared up for this one with a League Cup final dress rehearsal away at Liverpool and conceded early on to go 1-0 down. Hope wasn’t entirely lost however as Callum Wilson, in for the injured Alexander Isak, found himself through on goal but unfortunately put the ball past the post when an equaliser seemed likely. Liverpool made the points safe with a second-half goal to win the match 2-0.

Brighton hosted Bournemouth on Tuesday night and were able to secure an impressive 2-1 win that fired them up to eighth in the league, level on points with the Cherries and just a point behind the Toon in an incredibly tight race for European qualification. Both teams share dreams and aspirations of competing in the Champions League.

Brighton have exited the fifth round of the FA Cup in two of the past four seasons, losing 1-0 to Leicester in 2021 and to Wolves by the same scoreline in 2024.

Newcastle have won their last ten FA Cup fifth round ties.

Newcastle have played Brighton six times in the FA Cup, losing four, drawing one and winning just once in 1930.

Memorable match

In 2019/20, Steve Bruce’s Newcastle were looking to make the quarter-final of the FA Cup for the first time in fourteen years. Standing in their way was a fifth-round tie away at championship side West Brom who were eyeing an upset live on TV.

Newcastle started brightly and Saint-Maximin crashed an effort off the bar early on. The first half would belong to Miggy Almiron who ran the show and scored two good goals to put United 2-0 up and looking menacing. When Lazaro bundled home an effort at the start of the second half, it seemed a foregone conclusion that NUFC would be in the quarter-final draw. I doubt anyone of a black and white persuasion was counting their chickens however, things are never that straight forward with Newcastle United! Two late goals for West Brom alongside a legitimate penalty shout made this a very nervy occasion. Thankfully the Toon hung on and were able to celebrate a fine away win and place in the next round at home to Manchester City. Final Score West Brom 2-3 Newcastle.

Paul Kitson was signed from Derby County by Kevin Keegan in 1994 for over two million pounds. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2-0 win over Man United in the League Cup. He spent most of his time at NUFC as a backup for Andy Cole and then Sir Les Ferdinand but maintained a keen eye for goal and netted a hat-trick in an FA Cup tie against Swansea City. He signed for West Ham in January 1997. He would go on to play ten matches for Brighton near the end of his career in 2002, scoring twice.

Aaron Hughes played eight seasons for NUFC after memorably making his debut at the Nou Camp on a rainy night in 1997. Praised for his versatility and consistency, it was a shock when Greame Souness decided to offload the captain of Northern Ireland to Aston Villa for just one million pounds in 2005. He’d go on to spend a season at Brighton in 2014, playing a handful of matches in the first few months of that campaign.

Tim Krul made his NUFC debut as an eighteen year old away at Palermo in the UEFA Cup under Glenn Roader in 2006. His man of the match performance included a string of superb saves as United recorded a stunning 1-0 win against the Italian table-toppers. Krul would have to wait a few years for his next Toon appearance but would eventually establish himself as our regular number one and made one of the best ever Premier league goalkeeping performances, when shutting out Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in a match that simply defied belief. He recorded fourteen saves in a 1-0 win on a day when he just refused to be beaten. He spent some time in Holland before moving to Brighton in 2017. He played five matches before a transfer to Norwich City.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 2-0 defeat away at Liverpool:

“We played OK tonight, decent performance. Disappointed with goals we conceded. The first goal we don’t track him into the box. We’re fighting in the game after that to try and get the next goal. But then we do exactly the same thing. Two soft goals…You always learn, sometimes you learn more in defeat than victory and two games against them this season we’ve been competitive but we have to perform better than today if we want to win the trophy. We need to find our best rhythm again, we have a few players out missing hopefully we can get them back. Big games, big moments in our season. We’re still in both cups and we want to stay that way.”

Fabian Hurzeler after 2-1 win at home to Bournemouth:

“It was a very intense game, both teams tried to score and tried to win. The second half was an open game and in the end we were a lucky winner. We reflected on the Nottingham Forest game and we were honest and took responsibility for the loss and tried to get back to the basics so credit to the players and we’re really happy with this reaction.’

Charity

Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.

For further info and/or to donate online go HERE.

This is a tough one to call for a number of reasons.

I’ve a feeling that Eddie Howe will be resting a fair few players with the Toon having half an eye on the League Cup final.

Brighton are a good team and both sides will be thinking this could be a huge opportunity to go all the way in the cup.

With Isak nursing a groin injury and Wilson not yet fit, this could be the perfect time for Osula to shine. He’s looked good in previous Cup games and I fancy him to be the match winner in this one. He’ll bag a brace, firstly to ensure a 1-1 draw after ninety minutes and then to win the match for NUFC in extra time. Final Score Newcastle 2-1 Brighton (AET)