Newcastle picked up a crucial 1-0 road victory on Monday at the bet365 Stadium against Stoke City, bringing the Magpies up to 13th place in the Premier League.
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Ayoze Perez was the hero for the Magpies in the attacking third, after finishing off Jacob Murphy’s low cross. Perez did well to get a right foot to the bouncing ball, and smashed it past Jack Butland.
Meanwhile, Karl Darlow’s brilliance in net helped preserve the Newcastle lead on the road despite a massive amount of pressure from Stoke’s attack in the second half.
The Magpies were the far superior side in the opening half, with Christian Atsu providing a great deal of pressure early and often against goalkeeper Butland and Stoke.
Atsu’s best chance came in the 14th minute, when he broke free down the right side before forcing a brilliant save by Butland with his legs.
At the half hour mark, Ciaran Clark had a wonderful opportunity to break the deadlock after Ayoze Perez flicked on the initial corner kick, however, Clark put the close-range effort over the crossbar.
The second half surely flipped more in favor of the hosts though as Stoke began to test goalkeeper Darlow on a more regular basis.
Maxim Choupo-Moting nearly gave Darlow a fit six minutes into the second stanza, but the keeper did well close down the attacker and made the subsequent save.
Kurt Zouma had a legitimate header that trickled just wide off of a free kick in the 68th minute, which kept Stoke off the scoresheet.