Joe Buck reacts to Newcastle United's 4-2 win against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. That win, secured by goals from Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy, Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes ensured a 7th place Premier League finish. The Conference League awaits next season if Manchester City defeat Manchester United in the FA Cup final.
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00:00 So Newcastle United's Premier League season has come to an end with a 4-2 win here against
00:06 Brentford at the Duke Tech Community Stadium. That win means Newcastle United finish in
00:09 seventh place in the Premier League and we'll talk about the game in a minute but first
00:14 permutations what that means for Newcastle and the European football. Right now Newcastle
00:18 United don't know if they're going to be playing European football next year. That relies on
00:22 Manchester City beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final next weekend. If that does
00:26 happen, Man City completely double and defeat Man U in the FA Cup final then Newcastle United
00:31 will be playing Conference League football next year. If Manchester United win the FA
00:34 Cup then there'll be no European football. But forget it, that's out of their control.
00:41 Back to the positives and what was a brilliant day for Newcastle United today. They came
00:45 to Brentford on the back of obviously that defeated Old Trafford on Wednesday due to
00:49 Brighton last weekend so you did worry that had those setbacks derailed them a little
00:53 bit. We all know their form on the road isn't brilliant either so how would they react to
00:58 that but they did really well barring about five minutes at the beginning and about ten
01:02 minutes by the second half Newcastle United were fantastic today. See at the end of the
01:07 game as I mentioned right at the beginning they didn't start off brilliantly. Ivan Tony
01:11 scored within the first couple of minutes as he was just against the Old Club and you
01:14 felt at that point 'woah what kind of day is this going to be?' It was a big game. Newcastle
01:18 haven't been the best in big games over the last couple of years but fortunately for them
01:23 that Tony goal was ruled out for offside. It was Brian Mbwemo down here on the right
01:27 that was called offside. It was a very tight call and I don't think there were many in
01:31 the stadium that thought there was an offside problem there but obviously the VAR checked
01:36 it and it was offside and that was a real let off for Newcastle. Moments later Tony
01:40 was denied by Nick Poe who was making his first start since December so that's another
01:44 bit of good news for Newcastle. Once you got that shock off the system that they really
01:51 performed brilliantly for the next 80 odd minutes. They were really good today. Joel
01:57 Hinton had a chance he missed. It was a good chance and again at that point you think 'is
02:01 this going to come back to cost them?' but it didn't. They were really good. They got
02:05 the opener, probably deserved opener through Harvey Barnes. Bruno Guimaraes crossed from
02:10 the right. It was quite a floated cross and I'm surprised Barnes was able to get the power
02:14 but it was a brilliant header. He managed to get a header into the top corner. Gave
02:17 Newcastle the lead and that was the start they needed. That sort of settled the nerves
02:21 I think with a lot of people. Yeah, sort of settled them down a little bit and you felt
02:27 that actually they weathered that storm right at the beginning. They played themselves into
02:30 the game. They were on top. They were dominating possession and getting that goal really helped.
02:34 Then Jacob Murphy made it 2-0 about 10 minutes later. Alexander Isaac, brilliant to dispossess
02:39 the Brentford defender. He miscontrolled it. He managed to get back but Isaac drove on
02:45 to the box, left footed cross, found Jacob Murphy at the back post, side home and it
02:50 was 2-0. It was brilliant and you think at that point 'can they go and get another?'
02:53 because Eddie Howe's teams are at their best when they're ruthless, when they get those
02:56 opportunities. Time and time again we've seen them score 1-2-3 really quick goals and they
03:01 did that. Again, almost straight from the kick-off a couple of minutes later, Jacob Murphy dispossesses
03:05 one of the Brentford defenders high up the pitch. He gives it to Bruno. Bruno, nice pass
03:11 to Alexander Isaac. Isaac does what he does best, finishes it in the bottom corner and
03:14 all of a sudden you've got a 3-0 up and in control of the game. That was the first half
03:19 really. They were in control of the game. They went into half-time in control. You didn't
03:23 think they were going to let it slip. We've seen them go, sort of have games like that
03:26 against Burnley recently where they went into half-time with big leads and they didn't let
03:30 it slip on that occasion. But Brentford are a level above Burnley and to be fair, Brentford
03:34 came out of the second half firing. They pulled one back quite quickly and that's when the
03:40 nerves again started hiccuping. 3-1, what's the state of play here? What's going to happen?
03:46 The fans would be checking the Chelsea score. Chelsea 1-2-1 against Bournemouth. They were
03:51 2-0 up so that game didn't really matter. That wasn't going to knock them out of Europe.
03:54 It was the Manchester United one that did. And then when news from Manchester United,
03:59 first goal against Brighton started, felt that through. Brentford then got another goal
04:03 through Yohan Wissam. To be fair, he got a big goal out of the score. It was a fantastic
04:05 goal. He does really well to hold off Dan Byrne and the defenders. He comes around to his
04:10 right and smacks, curls it into the backcourt. It was a fantastic finish to be fair. And
04:14 at that point, it's 3-2. Brentford and Newcastle. Same old Newcastle. You're getting those
04:18 feelings as if it's going to be another one where they just fall short. But again, like
04:24 they did in the first half, they just weathered the storm a little bit, calmed things down.
04:26 Had a couple of scares of course. He had a couple of scares. But then they managed to
04:30 get the fourth through Bruno Guimaraes. Now, they thought they had been given a penalty.
04:34 Lewis Hall was fouled. It was a pretty clear penalty. I think everyone in the stadium knew
04:38 it was a penalty. Could see it was a penalty. Foul, sorry. But then VAR checked to see whether
04:42 it was outside the box. And it was outside the box. Now, what was interesting, it flashed
04:45 up on the screen here at Brentford. And I think there was a lot of Newcastle players
04:49 complaining at that point. They'd seen it on the screen. They didn't think it was outside
04:52 the box. It was very close to the line. But the referee ultimately changed the decision.
04:56 He decided to, he decided, oh sorry, the VAR intervened and told him that it was on the
05:01 edge of the box. So there was a free kick rather than a penalty. But fortunately for
05:05 Newcastle, it didn't matter. Isak's free kick hit the wall. Sorry, didn't hit the wall.
05:09 Isak's free kick was saved brilliantly by Mark Fleckman. But unfortunately, his save
05:12 went straight in the path of Bruno Guimaraes who stabbed home. And that was at 4-2. And
05:16 Newcastle could breathe a sigh of relief. Because for about five or six minutes at that
05:19 period when Brentford, Manchester United scored, Brentford had scored. Before that, it was
05:23 looking real dodgy and you didn't know it was going to happen. Newcastle United got
05:26 that fourth goal and that just calmed everything. They saw out the game brilliantly. Had a couple
05:31 of breaks. Didn't really test and keep it too much. Brentford didn't really offer too
05:34 much in the dying stages. As I said, they were on, they weren't on the beach to be fair.
05:38 That's really harsh. I think Thomas Franks had put in as good as they have. Sixteenth
05:44 place is a bit of a false position for them. I think if they'd had Tony at the beginning
05:47 of the season, I think they would have finished higher. But yeah, it was a proper professional
05:53 performance from Newcastle today and what they needed. And one star, actually they haven't
05:56 done too many times and anyhow they've done it. They put in a good performance and got
06:00 a result when they needed it. When the pressure was on, they've really done it and that was
06:03 fantastic. So, as I said, it doesn't guarantee European football just yet. We'll have to
06:07 wait for the FA Cup final for that. But they've done all they could do. Manchester United
06:11 didn't do them any favours. Chelsea didn't do them any favours. So they had to win and
06:15 they've done that in style at Brentford. A place that has actually been a quite happy
06:19 hunting ground for them recently. 4-2. The players afterwards all went over to the group
06:24 of fans that will be in that section there just behind me. They got a massive applause.
06:29 Of course, Bruno was a star of that. Joe Linton was a star of that. I mentioned for Bruno's
06:34 celebration where he picked up a bucket hat from the crowd. There's a great couple of
06:37 pictures on social media. You'll see them. It was a real together moment at the end and
06:44 I think the players recognised that they'd done something big. Is it the heights of last
06:47 season? No, but in the grand scheme of things, when you look at the season as a whole, I
06:50 think seventh place is a good finish. It's a fantastic finish for them. Now, they've
06:54 just got to hope that Manchester City can do them a favour next week, which you would
06:58 think that would happen. And then they'll be playing Conference League football next
07:02 year. Of course, I'm not going to end on a sour note, but of course, as I mentioned,
07:05 Isak and Guy Marais, they got on the score sheet today. Now, we hope and I hope and a
07:10 lot of people hope that that wasn't their last performance against United because they
07:13 are class. They are Champions League class. You're not going to find better than them
07:20 too. So hopefully, they can keep hold of them. But yeah, European football, if they can get
07:23 it, if Manchester City can get the job done next week, European football is a big thing
07:28 in their arsenal. Try and hold on to these players and sign more. And yeah, it was a
07:32 good, solid end to the season and one which will please a lot of fans, a lot of players,
07:36 Eddie Howe and all of his staff. So yeah, it was a brilliant end to the season. They've
07:41 done their job. They didn't have to rely on anything else and I think they deserve massive
07:44 credit for that. So yeah, Newcastle United 4, Brentford 2, Newcastle United finishing
07:48 seventh place and now have seven days, seven agonising days away to see if that is enough
07:52 for European, Europa Conference League football next season.
07:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]