Newcastle 3-1 Brighton

&c

Newcastle finally won on Saturday afternoon against the unlikely opponents of Brighton, but left it late to seal the win when a Brighton equaliser looked on the cards.

The win took us to the heady heights of 13th - and mathematical certainty of safety from relegation - and left captain Bruno optimistically talking about Europe after the full time whistle, with Newcastle six points off seventh place.

Deluded Geordies indeed.

In truth, the chief outcome of this game was simply the relief of ending the losing run as we rode our luck during a customary second half collapse.

Luckily by this point we were two goals to the good, Osula scoring again after quick thinking and a great cross by Murphy, then Big Dan Burn - worryingly preferred over Lewis Hall at left back again, more on which later - nodding home from a corner.

After further chances for Newcastle to score a killer third, and some excellent saves and awful footwork in equal measure from Nick Pope, the second half was all Brighton.

Hinshelwood duly halved the arrears and we were hanging on for dear life until Wissa was played in with only the keeper to beat and, oh dear.

Just like at Arsenal, he snatched at the chance and blasted it over the bar.

Thankfully, he managed to just about poke the ball to Harvey Barnes deep into added time who made no such mistake.

So an important win, but even more significant was the news after the game that Eddie Howe was set to remain in charge of the team.

While I'm a long-term champion of Eddie Howe, the main questions to my mind now are around Lewis Hall and Nick Woltemade, both omitted again today.

Eddie's quotes were that he isn't playing politics and picked a team to win the game.

Hopefully the best left back I've ever seen for Newcastle (sorry Jose) and Germany's number nine don't get cast aside in a battle of egos.

That's a matter for the summer though, and hopefully the clarity we've now seemingly got, along with a director of football and CEO, might lead to a more settled summer.

Until then, three more games of this turbulent season, all winnable on paper.