Newcastle United beat Rotherham United 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Newcastle United returned to the top of the Championship table with a convincing 4-0 home win over Rotherham United on Saturday afternoon.
The Magpies had dropped to second after Brighton’s win over Sheffield Wednesday on Friday evening, but were expected to return to the summit of the league as they took on bottom of the table Rotherham United.
Newcastle United’s Daryl Murphy celebrates scoring
It proved to be a comfortable victory for Rafael Benitez’s side, as Daryl Murphy opened the scoring before half time, before Matt Ritchie made it 2-0, Ayoze Perez added a third and Ritchie scored his second to hand Newcastle a 4-0 win.
It’s now three wins in four for Newcastle, who continue to look like the favourites for the Championship title, and they appear to have found an unlikely hero in striker Murphy.
Newcastle United’s Daryl Murphy celebrates scoring their first goal with team mates
The Irishman joined Newcastle from Ipswich Town back in August, but had spent most of the season as something of a forgotten man as he was only a backup to Dwight Gayle and Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Murphy, 33, hadn’t even started a game for Newcastle before this month’s FA Cup clash with Birmingham City, but he’s now hit three goals in three starts to become a new fan favourite at St. James’ Park.
After the final whistle against Rotherham, fans took to Twitter to praise Murphy, hailing not only his performance but also his attitude, having quietly dealt with being on the fringes of the team before taking his chance when it arrived.
Others noted that Murphy offers more as a target man than Mitrovic, suggesting that the Serbian could learn a lot just by watching the veteran striker, even claiming that Murphy is simply better than Mitrovic right now.
What did you think of Murphy’s performance against Rotherham?
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