Mauricio Pochettino is saddened by some of changes he has witnessed in English football, believing a move towards a more technical way of playing costing the Premier League some of its identity.

The manager is in his sixth full season working in England since being appointed at Southampton midway through the 2012-13 season.

He stabilised relegation-threatened Saints and pulled them clear of the drop zone before helping establishing them in the top flight the following year.

At his next job, Tottenham, he transformed the club from perennial underachievers into regular Champions League qualifiers and took them to the final in 2019, losing 2-0 to Liverpool in Madrid.

He is working his first Premier League job since being sacked by Spurs in November of that year, and is tasked with turning around Chelsea’s fortunes after a wretched campaign last season that saw them finish 12th.

The value and commercial appeal of England’s top flight has grown hugely since Pochettino replaced Nigel Adkins at St. Mary’s more than a decade ago, with the appeal and financial incentive on offer to foreign stars greater than ever.

It has influenced English football to move away from some of its traditional habits, typically thought to have been centred around stamina and physicality.

“It’s true that the Premier League is different from when we arrived at Southampton (in 2013),” said Pochettino, who takes his team to face Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday looking for only their second league win of the season.

“Improved? Yes. Every season it improves, because the potential of the Premier League to sign players from everywhere has made the teams stronger.

“But it’s true that it loses a little bit of the identity of British football, or English football. Being honest, I like (it) of course, because as coaching staff we love to play in this way.

“English football always was about to fight. But to play good football in (a) different way also is to play well, because if you want to play in a different way, you need to be clever also in how you decide a philosophy and structure of the team.”

The Premier League had only 13 foreign players – not English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish – when it was launched in 1992.

The influx of players, and just as significantly managers, from overseas has seen the league grow to resemble a more technical style previously associated with Spain, Italy and other European leagues.

Pochettino added: “Losing this type of identity I think made me a little bit sad because always in my head it was different football in England, that is true.

“People want more spectacular, more things like this. Of course, that is the evolution of society. People ask for different demands, different things, and we are adapting. Football is adapting.”

Pochettino repeated his call for Chelsea’s young squad – the youngest in the league with an average age of just over 23 – to be afforded the time they need to grow into themselves following co-owner Todd Boehly’s whirlwind £1billion recruitment drive.

He cited one famous example of a player bought for big money who took time to come good.

“It’s not fair to assess one game, two games, three games; (a player) is not performing when we play someone and say ‘they need to perform like this’.

“I always use the same example. Real Madrid paid 70, 80, 100 million for one player, Zinedine Zidane.

“After six months you can ask the fans of Real Madrid. He started to perform after seven, eight months. Zidane was 26, 27.

“When you bring in a player who is 18 or 19 or 20 or 21, be careful. They are not machines. They need to settle. We need to give time.”

Champions Barcelona thrashed Real Betis 5-0 to move to the top of LaLiga on Saturday.

Joao Felix marked his first start of the club with his first goal and Robert Lewandowski also struck as Xavi’s side took control in the first half at their temporary Olympic Stadium home.

Ferran Torres, Raphinha and Joao Cancelo wrapped up an emphatic victory in the second half.

The result took them a point clear of Real Madrid, who face Real Sociedad on Sunday, at the top of the table.

Betis, with seven points from their opening four games, had travelled with hope of causing an upset, but they were firmly put in their place by the champions despite an encouraging start.

Barca were sluggish in the opening minutes and the visitors had the first clear-cut opening when Luis Henrique fired just wide after being cleverly played in by Isco.

Barca eventually clicked into gear and Felix put them ahead after 25 minutes. He initially miskicked after meeting a cross from Oriol Romeu with an attempted volley but readjusted brilliantly to dribble round Rui Silva and slot home from an acute angle.

They then moved through the gears and doubled the lead just after the hour as Lewandowski claimed his first league goal of the season.

Felix, who is on loan from Atletico Madrid, was again involved, this time dummying from an Andreas Christensen pass to allow the Pole to run through and fire past Silva.

Betis threatened to reply before the interval as Willian Jose tested Marc-Andre ter Stegen, but Silva also had to be alert to deny Felix from a Barca counter-attack.

That proved Silva’s final contribution as he was substituted at half-time for Francisco Vieites, but his replacement was unable to halt Barcelona’s march.

Felix thought he had claimed his side’s third just before the hour only for his effort to be ruled out for offside.

The champions did not have to wait much longer, however, as Torres curled in a superb free-kick after 62 minutes.

Victory was then made absolutely certain four minutes later as Raphinha, who had replaced Torres after the third goal, scored with his first contribution. The Brazilian took a touch and then lashed in a fierce drive from the edge of the area.

Cancelo wrapped up the scoring with his first Barca goal nine minutes from time. The on-loan Manchester City full-back found space on the right and wrong-footed Juan Miranda before firing into the far corner.

Barcelona went close to adding even more in the closing moments as Raphinha forced a save from Vieites and Lewandowski backheeled narrowly wide.

Johnny Sexton smashed Ireland’s individual points record as his side edged closer to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with a crushing 59-16 bonus-point victory over Tonga in Nantes.

The influential fly-half surpassed Ronan O’Gara’s all-time tally of 1,083 in style with the fourth of his side’s eight tries on a balmy evening at Stade de la Beaujoire.

Captain Sexton also kicked a penalty and four conversions en route to moving on to a career total of 1,090 before being withdrawn from a bruising Pool B encounter at half-time ahead of next week’s crucial clash with South Africa.

Tries from Tadhg Beirne, Caelan Doris and Mack Hansen paved the way to victory, with Bundee Aki’s double and second-half scores from James Lowe and Rob Herring capping Sexton’s landmark moment.

Vaea Fifita crossed just before half-time to give Tonga hope in the aftermath of Peter O’Mahony’s yellow card, while William Havili contributed three penalties and a conversion.

But the world’s top-ranked nation comfortably maintained their 100 per cent start to the tournament and emerged relatively unscathed moving towards pivotal Paris appointments with the Springboks and Scotland.

Despite the looming threat of the reigning world champions, head coach Andy Farrell named an extremely strong starting XV showing just four personnel changes from last weekend’s thumping 12-try triumph over Romania.

His side, unfamiliar in white shirts, were once again heavily backed on the terraces and met Tonga’s Sipi Tau by taking a collective step forwards.

Sexton slotted an early penalty to increase the volume, but Havili landed a long-range reply to level before Ireland were frustrated to have an Andrew Porter try disallowed for a knock-on by Hansen.

The disappointment proved to be fleeting as Farrell’s men remained on the front foot, culminating in Beirne collecting Doris’ pass and touching down under the posts for his third score of the tournament.

Havili landed another audacious penalty from close to halfway to cut Tonga’s deficit, but their hopes of a first win over the Six Nations champions were swiftly reduced by costly indiscipline.

Lowe was clattered in his own 22 by opposing wing Solomone Kata, gifting Ireland a penalty at the other end of the field from which Doris powered over.

Hansen – one of four men recalled by Farrell – then superbly danced through the opposition defence wide on the right to stretch the scoreboard, leading to Sexton equalling O’Gara’s previous national record.

Sexton overtook his former fly-half rival in memorable fashion to secure the bonus point.

The evergreen 38-year-old rolled back the years by effortlessly slipping through Tonga’s defence to touch down and then celebrated jubilantly with fans seated behind the posts, before regaining his composure to add a simple conversion.

Ireland were threatening to blitz the stunned underdogs.

Yet Tonga roared back and, during a series of penalties close to the Irish line, O’Mahony was sin-binned before former All Black Fifita shrugged off an early injury issue to power over.

Ireland changed their entire front row at the break, while wrapping Sexton in cotton wool.

Yet replacement tighthead prop Finlay Bealham departed for a head injury assessment after Havili kicked his third penalty of the evening, requiring the swift return of Tahdg Furlong, before substitute hooker Herring had a try chalked off on review.

Lowe eventually claimed Ireland’s fifth and official man-on-the-match Aki then propelled himself to the top of the tournament’s embryonic try-scoring charts with a quick-fire brace, both converted by Sexton’s replacement Ross Byrne.

Ireland were relatively untroubled in the second period and Herring sealed another statement win – a 15th in succession overall – ahead of two critical fixtures in the French capital.

Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-Dodd failed to make an impression in the women’s shot put, as American Chase Ealy continued her superb vein of form to claim the Diamond League title in Meet Record style at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on Saturday.

While Thomas-Dodd struggled from the start and eventually placed sixth with a best throw of 19.17m, which came on her penultimate attempt, Ealy, the World Champion had no such issues.

The American on her third attempt, launched the instrument to a National Record, Meet Record and World Leading mark of 20.76m.

That throw bettered the previous World lead of 20.45m set by her compatriot Maggie Ewen in May, as well as the previous Meet record of 20.15m, set by New Zealand’s Valerie Adams in 2013. The previous American record was 20.63m set by Michelle carter in 2016.

Meanwhile, Canada’s World Championship bronze medallist Sarah Mitton was second with a best throw of 19.94, while Auriol Dongmo (19.92m) of Portugal was third.

George Ford has been working with Jonny Wilkinson to turn the drop-goal into a weapon at the World Cup.

Ford landed three as England opened the tournament with a 27-10 rout of Argentina in Marseille last Saturday and is ready to continue using them if the opportunity arises.

To assist with the tactic, the Sale fly-half has been perfecting his technique with Wilkinson, who famously landed the drop-goal that enabled England to lift the World Cup in 2003.

“Jonny’s big thing is don’t worry about the posts,” said Ford, who continues in the number 10 jersey for Sunday’s showdown with Japan in Nice.

“Obviously you need to know where they are, but the only thing you can control is what you do in terms of how you place the ball and what you do with your body.

“Jonny said you can have the ugliest drop in the world but if you get your body right and the ball is in the slot, and you get the momentum of your body towards the target, you can do it.

“How many drop goals do you see that flap over? A lot of kickers say if you speak to kids growing up they are constantly looking at the posts as if they are going move to make the ball go over.

“The drop-goal has probably been underused. You watch Jonny’s era in 2003 and 2007 and the influence drop-goals had on the game then was enormous.

“Maybe the game has tipped the balance the other side of the spectrum where everyone thinks you need to score tries every two minutes, but you need a variety of ways of scoring.

“We had spoken quite a bit about them in pre-season and how big they can be, especially at World Cups. They can be really effective and hopefully we can show that again.”

In training, Ford competes with fellow playmakers Owen Farrell and Marcus Smith to see how many drop-goals they can kick – under the watchful eye of rugby league great Kevin Sinfield, who is now England’s defence coach.

“It is interesting speaking to Kev because in rugby league you might not see as many drop-goals because it is only worth one point,” Ford said.

“But he said as soon as play-off games came around, how much they practised went through the roof because they knew they would need a couple in a semi or a final, so we are doing this thing at the minute where we kick until we miss.

“Obviously if you don’t kick many before you miss you might go again, but there is a fair bit of competition and pressure between myself, Owen and Marcus when we are doing it.

“We are bringing lads over to come and put pressure on us, because we are not daft, you are not in armchair. You need to make it as realistic as possible.”

Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson produced her usual strong finish to be crowned Diamond League champion in the women’s 100m, while compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah continues to upgrade with a season’s best time for third at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on Saturday.

Like the men’s event, the women’s dash was just as explosive, with Jackson, the World Championships silver medallists, registering her first 100m victory over American World Champion Sha’Carri Richardson to end that chapter of her season on a high.

Jackson, who is also favoured for the 200m crown, clocked 10.70s with a storming finish from lane six, as she swept by the fast-starting Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who clocked a season’s best equaling 10.75s.

Double Olympic champion Thompson-Herah once again demonstrated that she is gradually overcoming her struggles with injuries with a season’s best 10,79s.

Richardson was fifth in 10.80s, while another Jamaican Natasha Morrison clocked a big personal best 10.85s in sixth.

Cardiff ended their South Wales derby losing streak with a 2-0 Sky Bet Championship win over Swansea.

Ollie Tanner wrote his name into the history of the fixture just seconds after coming on as a 70th-minute substitute with his first Cardiff goal and then won the penalty which Aaron Ramsey converted.

The 21-year-old winger was signed from Isthmian League side Lewes in July 2022 and spent the second half of last season on loan at York, but it was his name that reverberated around the Cardiff City Stadium as Swansea were finally sunk on derby day.

Swansea had won the four previous meetings between the bitter rivals and completed the first league derby ‘doubles’ into the bargain.

But those victories came under the management of Russell Martin and new boss Michael Duff had blotted his copybook by downplaying the derby before the international break.

Duff had backtracked from those comments two days before the trip east on the M4, but a first win of his reign was necessary to lift Swansea out of the relegation zone.

Cardiff had also made an indifferent start under new manager Erol Bulut with only one win in five matches, but performances on the whole had been encouraging with the Bluebirds punished by their failure to close out games.

Duff handed debuts to deadline-day signings Jamal Lowe – back for a second stint at the club and scorer of a derby double in December 2020 – Josh Tymon and Kristian Pedersen, but suffered a blow when the experienced Joe Allen was injured in the warm-up and withdrew.

Cardiff forced the early pace with a safely-gathered Mark McGuinness header and Carl Rushworth pushing out a vicious Jamilu Collins cross, which Ike Ugbo was unable to profit from at the far post.

The best chance of a frenetic first period high on endeavour but shot on quality came in the third minute of stoppage time.

Ramsey picked out Ugbo, who showed good strength to fend off Nathan Wood. Ugbo’s header fell into the path of Yakou Meite, but his powerful snapshot was well saved by Rushworth.

Meite tested Rushworth again within seconds of the restart with a ferocious 25-yard attempt that swerved in the air, and their personal contest continued as the Swansea goalkeeper clung on to another attempt from the Ivory Coast international.

Jay Fulton was booked for a lunge on Manolis Siopis as tempers began to rise and Tymon was also spoken to by referee Sam Barrott after clattering into Ramsey.

Duff replaced Lowe and Yates with Jamie Paterson and Josh Ginnelly after 63 minutes to try and inject some life into the Swansea attack.

The pair instantly combined to good effect as Tymon fired over, but Swansea did not muster a shot on target until the 90th minute.

Cardiff carried the greater threat as Ugbo missed Ramsey’s cross and Fulton cleared Karlan Grant’s effort off the line before Tanner struck.

Tanner took possession with his first touch and then cut inside Tymon to unleash an unstoppable shot into the far corner of Rushworth’s net.

Pedersen then dragged Tanner to the ground four minutes from time and Ramsey, as he had done for Wales on Monday, stroked home the spot-kick to start the Cardiff celebrations.

Shanieka Ricketts was once again in personal best shape but it wasn’t enough to prevent Venezuelan World and Olympic Champion and world record holder, Yulimar Rojas, from claiming a third straight Diamond League trophy at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on Saturday.

Ricketts produced an excellent series with distances of 14.69m, 14.79m and 14.69m in the first, second and fourth rounds before going out to 15.00m in her fifth-round effort. The 2019 World Championship silver medallist then produced a personal best 15.03m in the sixth and final round.

Rojas had fouls in her first two attempts before going out to 14.53m in her third round. After another foul in the fourth round, the superstar produced a world leading and meet record 15.35m in the fifth to secure victory.

Jamaica’s Kimberly Williams produced her best series of the season in third. Her best distance of 14.61m was her best jump since 2021. Her full series was as follows: 14.37m, 14.50m, 14.61m, 14.31m, 14.56m and 14.45m.

Fuming Brentford boss Thomas Frank is expecting an apology from referees’ chief Howard Webb after seeing his side slip to a controversial Premier League defeat at Newcastle.

The Bees went down 1-0 at St James’ Park on Saturday evening after Callum Wilson converted a second-half penalty awarded for a foul by keeper Mark Flekken on Anthony Gordon.

Frank said: “It’s so rare that I complain about it because it’s human beings who make mistakes and we all make mistakes so that happens. But it’s extra frustrating when we do so many things right and lose because of that.

“We just got told four weeks ago when Kevin Schade went through against Tottenham, where the keeper took him out, that no, he pulled out before, so it can’t be a penalty. Mark pulled out before, now a penalty.

“It’s not the ref who has given it but the linesman, and he needs to be absolutely bang-on, 100 per cent sure if you want to decide an even game between two teams that gave each other a fantastic game, in fact.

“That means that VAR have checked, but can’t do anything because it’s not a clear and obvious failure. I’m pretty sure that Howard Webb will come back to us and say ‘Sorry, we made a mistake’.”

The penalty – one of two awarded by Craig Pawson, although the second was rescinded after he was advised to review it – came minutes after Wilson had seen a “goal” disallowed for a foul on Flekken.

The England striker dispatched his 64th-minute spot-kick with supreme confidence to claim his 14th goal in his last 17 league appearances in the final game before Newcastle launch their Champions League campaign at AC Milan on Tuesday evening.

Wilson put pen to paper on a one-year contract extension on Friday and Howe, who first signed him for Bournemouth in July 2014, has seen him grow during the intervening period.

He said: “He’s gone from, when I first signed him, a Championship player to now an international, a Premier League player, a Champions League player.

“But his character is still the same. He laughs, he jokes, he’s positive, he’s kind. He’s a really good team-mate, he’s a parent and he’s a really good father to his kids and he’s a husband, so a lot has changed in his life, but I think the general character around the person is exactly the same.”

Howe, who confirmed that Brazilian midfielder Joelinton will miss the trip to San Siro with a recurrence of a knee injury which will keep him out for several weeks, was delighted to see his team end its three-game losing streak.

He said: “It was a massive win for us, we needed it. I don’t think it was us at our free-flowing best, but there was a lot to like about the resilience, the defensive mindset, the work rate, the commitment.

“It’s not always going to be an open, attractive game and today it probably wasn’t. Brentford made it very difficult for us, but we certainly defended very well and it was great to see us keep a clean sheet.”

American Christian Coleman followed up his 9.83-second clocking in Xiamen with a similar performance at the Prefontaine Classic to claim the men’s 100m Diamond League crown in Eugene on Saturday.

It was always expected to be a breathtaking dash and despite Ackeem Blake’s false-start disqualification, the event lived up to its hype with Coleman’s time, like it did in China, again equalled the world lead of 9.83s, which was first set by Noah Lyles in August.

Lyles the World Champion, closed fast for second in 9.85s, while Kenya’s Omanyala Ferdinand was third with a similar time of 9.85s.

Jamaican Kishane Thompson, 22, in his first real competitive season got out well but faded into fourth in 9.87s. Another Jamaican Yohan Blake was sixth in 10.08s.

Wales boss Warren Gatland declared it a case of “job done” by beating Portugal 28-8 at Stade de Nice and taking another step toward the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

It was not pretty at times, and Wales only claimed the bonus-point try they coveted when number eight Taulupe Faletau scored in the dying seconds, but Gatland’s team now have 10 points from 10 in Pool C.

“If someone said you would have 10 points from the first two games, we would have been pretty happy with that,” Wales head coach Gatland said.

“Look, there were aspects of today where we probably tried to play a little too much rugby early on and didn’t play a bit more territory and be a bit more direct.

“But some of those players haven’t had a lot of rugby. I just said to them in the changing room, ‘job done’. We’ve got the five points.

“They had thrown everything at us in those first 20 minutes. They probably didn’t have the same opportunities in the second half in terms of putting us under that sort of pressure.

“When we ran hard and won those collision, that is when we looked dangerous. Probably at times we were a little bit lateral.

“It’s good we have given everyone in the squad an opportunity and some rugby. We have a little bit more time in terms of preparation before Australia and we can start looking forward to that game.”

Gatland confirmed flanker Tommy Reffell was suffering from a tight calf muscle that saw him pulled out of the starting line-up just minutes before kick-off, with Jac Morgan called up.

“Tommy said his calf was a bit tight,” Gatland added.

“I think he was still quite keen to take the field, but if he pulled that calf, that would have been his World Cup over.

“To put Jac in as a straight replacement with very limited preparation, I thought he was good.”

Gatland’s much-changed side struggled throughout for control and fluency in the contest, the highlight of which was Portugal’s attacking flair.

Wing Louis Rees-Zammit, captain Dewi Lake, Morgan and Faletau scored tries, while Leigh Halfpenny kicked three conversions and Sam Costelow landed one, yet a vast improvement will be required against Australia in Lyon next weekend.

Portugal gave as good as they got for large parts of the game and they undoubtedly deserved more than flanker Nicolas Martins’ try and a Samuel Marques penalty.

Their exciting back division stretched Wales’ defence in all directions, although wing Vincent Pinto blotted the copybook when he was red-carded late in the game following a bunker review after his boot caught Josh Adams in the face.

Asked if he was surprised by Portugal’s physicality, Lake said: “No, I don’t think we were surprised as we had done our homework on the team that we were facing.

“We understood what they were going to bring to the table from a physicality standpoint. Gats spoke in the week about them being a mini-Fiji in terms of an off-load game.

“They’ve got players who want to snipe and want to run. In terms of physicality, we won that battle over 80 minutes.”

Portugal lost 102-11 when they last played Wales in 1994, although captain Tomas Appleton struggled to mask his disappointment at the latest outcome.

“We really wanted to win this game. We really worked hard for that,” Appleton said.

“We lost many areas of the game, we didn’t have a solid scrum, we made mistakes in the backs and when we are playing at this level we get penalised and we suffer with those mistakes.

“We couldn’t quite show the rugby that we have, the good level of fast rugby we can play, and at the end of the day we are frustrated.

“We are not here to just be a presence, we are here to compete and win. When you are playing at this level you have to be cool-headed, and I think a lot of times we made bad decisions.”

Kirani James produced his best performance of the season to claim his second straight Diamond League 400m title at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on Saturday.

The 2011 World and 2012 Olympic Champion's winning time was 44.30, .14 ahead of American World Championship bronze medallist Quincy Hall in second. Another American, Vernon Norwood, ran 44.61 for third. Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald was fifth in 45.10.

This was the fourth Diamond League title for the 31-year-old who also previously won in 2011, 2015 and 2022.

 

World Championship bronze medallist Rai Benjamin finally got an elusive win over World and Olympic Champion Karsten Warholm to claim his maiden Diamond League 400m hurdles title at the Diamond League final at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on Saturday.

Benjamin, who finished second to Warholm at the 2019 and 2022 World Championships as well as the 2021 Olympics, turned the tables on the Norwegian with a world leading, meet record and diamond league record 46.39 for victory.

Warholm was second in a spectacular 46.53 while Kyron McMaster, who finished second at the World Championships in Budapest last month ahead of Benjamin and behind Warholm, ran 47.31 for third. McMaster also got a win over Warholm at the Zurich Diamond League.

Callum Wilson sent Newcastle into Champions League action on the back of a first Premier League win since the opening game of the season as they edged past Brentford at St James’ Park.

The England striker’s 64th-minute penalty proved enough to clinch the points for the Magpies, who had not won since they trounced Aston Villa 5-1 on August 12 and had since slipped to back-to-back defeats by Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton.

They will now head for Italy for their Champions League opener against AC Milan on Tuesday evening in positive mood after a victory which was achieved without the rested Sandro Tonali and Alexander Isak as head coach Eddie Howe used the depth of his squad.

The Bees will perhaps feel aggrieved at both the penalty decision and the fact that they gave at least as good as they got for long periods in front of a crowd of 51,670, although ultimately they were unable to trouble keeper Nick Pope often enough.

Brentford started brightly with Aaron Hickey and Mathias Jensen combining well down the right, and it took a good near-post save by Pope to keep out Hickey’s fourth-minute attempt from a tight angle after he had been played in by Jensen.

Newcastle enjoyed an escape when Yoane Wissa was unable to make contact with Jensen’s teasing cross as he slid in, but it was the Magpies who very nearly took the lead with 28 minutes gone.

After Fabian Schar’s long-range attempt had been deflected behind, Sven Botman got his head to Kieran Trippier’s corner and flicked the ball to the back post where Bruno Guimaraes saw his close-range effort repelled by keeper Mark Flekken.

Howe’s men, who had been methodical rather than dynamic to that point, were coming to life and Brentford’s problems increased when Rico Henry limped off with what appeared to be a knee injury and was replaced by Mads Roerslev.

Schar had to block a stoppage-time Wissa shot after he had been played in down the left by Vitaly Janelt, but there was nothing to choose between the sides when the half-time whistle sounded.

The second half unfolded much as the first had ended, with Newcastle enjoying the greater share of possession but unable to move the ball quickly or decisively enough to pierce the massed ranks of blue shirts. Brentford were playing on the counter but lacking precision when it mattered.

Schar and Harvey Barnes delivered menacing crosses in quick succession, but neither was able to pick out a team-mate, and although the Magpies did have the ball in the net with 57 minutes gone, referee Craig Pawson disallowed Wilson’s close-range finish for a foul on Flekken during the build-up.

However, they finally forced their way in front seven minutes later with Flekken and Wilson once again the central characters in the drama.

The Netherlands international keeper’s clumsy challenge on Anthony Gordon as full-back Hickey attempted to shield the ball back to him was adjudged by Pawson to be worthy of a penalty.

Wilson, who was made to wait before taking the spot-kick, did not waver as he blasted it high to Flekken’s left to open the scoring.

He thought he had been handed a chance to repeat the dose with 11 minutes remaining when Pawson pointed to the spot for a second time after Barnes’ header had hit the unwitting Bryan Mbeumo’s arm but after being asked to review his decision, the official changed his mind – although Newcastle eased across the finishing line with few real scares.

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