Murphy shines in huge win for five star Mags - Newcastle 5-0 Crystal Palace

We’ve moved one step closer to securing Champions League football after a monstrous first half performance saw us blow away Crystal Palace 5-0 at St James’ Park.

It’s a huge win for Newcastle United, seeing us leapfrog Nottingham Forest, move into third and boost our goal difference considerably in another dominant home display.

We almost scored right from the get go, as an early cross just sailed over the heads of Alexander Isak and Joelinton: it was clear we meant business.

Isak was afforded another opportunity in the 7th minute, but was denied by a good stop from Dean Henderson, who despite the scoreline had himself a good game.

Just before the quarter hour mark, Kieran Trippier threaded a pass through to Jacob Murphy, who opened the proceedings with a truly thunderous strike from a tight angle into the roof of the Palace net!

A simply unbeatable strike, it serves as a pleasant reminder than only Mo Salah and Isak have had more goal contributions than Murphy since the start of December.

From here, the game still threatened to be a topsy-turvy affair, as an awkward collision between Nick Pope and Chris Richards saw the visitors awarded a penalty after a very lengthy VAR check and on-field review.

Eberechi Eze stepped up, stuttered with his run up, and tamely passed the ball almost directly into the waiting hands of Nick Pope for perhaps the easiest penalty save you’ll see this season.

And it was a missed opportunity that the Eagles would sorely regret, as the Magpies opened the floodgates.

Mere minutes later, Harvey Barnes was played in by Tino Livramento, before his attempted cross was poked in by none other than Marc Guehi to make it 2-0.

Guehi now has the unfortunate honour of being the second player in Premier League history to score an own goal against an opponent in both league games against them in the same season, after Jamie Carragher against Spurs.

With seven minutes of added time latched onto the first half, we made the most of the extra minutes and then some. Barnes got a goal of his own, firing into the far corner to continue his excellent form.

Then with seconds to go in the half, Trippier teed up Murphy for a long range free kick, whose cross met a glancing header from Fabian Schar for a fantastic fourth goal on the stroke of half time.

Early in the second half, Isak still hadn’t found himself on the scoresheet, but it wouldn’t take long to rectify that.

After some immense high pressure from Joelinton saw Lacroix lose possession of the ball, the Swedish international fired from the edge of the box to finally beat Henderson and get his 21st league goal of this remarkable campaign.

On a night when it looked like it would be a tense affair against a notoriously stubborn opponent, we’ve made one of our strongest cases yet that we deserve Champions League football next season.

Another Man of the Match performance from Jacob Murphy on the night, as he grabbed his fifth goal from his last nine league games, but special mention must go to Barnes who has been equally unplayable in recent weeks.

Now sitting in 3rd on 59 points, four clear of 5th placed Manchester City, a positive result against Aston Villa before an expected win against Ipswich will further cement our hopes of bringing Champions League football back on Tyneside.

Newcastle (4-3-3): Pope - Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento - Guimaraes, Tonali, Joelinton - Murphy, Isak, Barnes

Subs: Dubravka, Wilson*, Gordon*, Targett, Krafth*, Osula, Willock*, Longstaff*, Miley