Newcastle United’s high and low points of the season

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It has been a predominantly successful season in the Championship for Newcastle United, but not everything has gone to plan.

Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez

Newcastle United seems to be a completely different club this season to the one that were relegated from the Premier League last year.

Rafa Benitez’s men look to be well on their way to securing promotion out of the Championship, but not everything has gone to plan this term.

With that in mind, here is a look at what would arguably be deemed to be the low and high points of the campaign for the Magpies…

Low: Newcastle 1-2 Huddersfield (13th August 2016)

After suffering a surprise defeat to Fulham on the opening day of the season, Newcastle fans would have expected their season to get properly up and running against a Huddersfield side that few expected to go into this international break in automatic-promotion contention.

Nahki Wells had given the Terriers the lead after 45 minutes, but it appeared to be the motivation Newcastle needed as Dwight Gayle equalised with his first goal for the club on the hour mark.

Huddersfield Town’s Jack Payne celebrates scoring

However, Huddersfield would silence St James’ Park as Jack Payne scored with eight minutes to go to leave Newcastle with no points from their first two games and just one place outside of the bottom three.

Questions about how well Benitez would adapt to the Championship followed the game. But those questions would soon be a thing of the past.

High: Brighton 1-2 Newcastle (28th February 2017)

There may have been more impressive victories, but few will perhaps seem quite as important as the one against Brighton in February if Newcastle go up. Had the Seagulls won, Newcastle would sit four points behind Brighton and just five points ahead of Huddersfield in third, who would have had a game in hand.

Newcastle United’s Ayoze Perez celebrates scoring their second goal

It seemed like that situation may come to fruition as Glenn Murray’s penalty handed Brighton an early lead that they would hold onto until the 81st minute.

However, a freak goal from Mo Diame saw the Magpies equalise with nine minutes to go, before Christian Atsu set up Ayoze Perez in the 89th minute to complete the turnaround and strike a major psychological blow in the promotion race.