- Magpies take 2-0 halftime lead
- Saints’ Pellegrino job in danger
- Ritchie adds insurance
Kenedy scored two first half goals and Newcastle United went a long way toward saving their Premier League status with a 3-0 win over Southampton at St. James’ Park on Saturday.
Matt Ritchie also scored for the Magpies, who got one of Jonjo Shelvey’s good days in winning the match.
Newcastle moves five points clear of the drop zone, into 13th, while Saints remain 17th.
[ MORE: Watch full PL match replays ]
Jonjo Shelvey started the opener, sending a long ball to Kenedy that the Brazilian chested down, turned Cedric Soares and grounded a shot past Alex McCarthy inside the far post.
Dwight Gayle had a pair of chances to make it 2-0. His first was saved, and his second would’ve been better left to Ayoze Perez. Gayle instead his a tame effort to McCarthy.
It was 2-0 when Perez was played down the middle of the pitch and used a slowing of the pace and a deft feed to Gayle, who cut across for a Kenedy tap-in.
[ MORE: Latest Premier League standings ]
2 - Kenedy is the first Newcastle player to score a brace at St James' Park in the Premier League since Georginio Wijnaldum in May 2016. Orthodontist. pic.twitter.com/m5RBTkVlPr
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 10, 2018
[ MORE: Full lineups, stats, box score ]
The Magpies weren’t finished, thanks largely to some baffling defense from Southampton.
The third goal came courtesy of some passive defending atop the 18, with Shelvey given seemingly hours to operate and find a screaming and unmarked Ritchie. The Scotsman beat McCarthy to the far post for 3-0.
Martin Dubravka made a fine save as Saints had a 77th minute chance, and credit to them there wasn’t a let-off despite the three-goal hole.
A truly horrendous day for Southampton. Surely the end for Mauricio Pellegrino. #SaintsFC have been in steady decline for some time & being 3-0 down at Newcastle sums it up. A sad state of affairs.
— Joe Prince-Wright (@JPW_NBCSports) March 10, 2018
