Isak has final word from spot after VAR's refusals

Three times the referee Craig Pawson awarded penalties to Newcastle in the second half.

- Jonathan Wilson

Three times the referee Craig Pawson awarded penalties to Newcastle in the second half. Twice they were overturned by VAR but the third one stood, and Alexander Isak converted to earn Newcastle a vital point in the race for Champions League football.

They had not played well, but they never do against Brighton, and in that context a draw earned with an 89th-minute equaliser was extremely welcome.

"Keeping our composure and making sure our performance wasn't affected by the outcomes [of the VAR decisions] was key," said the Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, who acknowledged the VAR was right to rule out the first two penalties. "If you look at the season as a whole we probably haven't dug out enough points from games that are in the balance."

Arsenal's defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday had opened up another possibility; if Newcastle won their final four games of the season, including at Arsenal in two weeks, they would finish second for the first time since 1996-97. Perhaps that added a layer of pressure: for a long time this didn't look like a side that had won seven of their previous eight games in all competitions, never mind the second-best side in the country.