Newcastle United match winner Alexander Isak admitted he was not at his best during Sunday’s 2-1 win over Premier League rivals Spurs at St James’ Park.
Harvey Barnes marked his first start of the season with an excellent finish to give the Magpies the lead, converting Lloyd Kelly’s accurate cross.
Tottenham piled on the pressure after the break in a bid to get back on level terms, which they did in the 56th minute when Dan Burn turned Brennan Johnson’s shot into his own goal.
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Despite creating chance after chance, Spurs went behind again with 13 minutes left on the clock when Joelinton played a brilliant through ball to Jacob Murphy, who laid it on to Isak for his first goal of the campaign.
“It is my first goal for the season so it’s a good feeling that I score that one and we get the win,” the Sweden striker told Sky Sports after the full-time whistle.
“Generally we weren’t expecting to have too much of the ball. We wanted to be dangerous on the counter-attack. It wasn’t the most beautiful game from our side but we defended really well and scored two so that’s good.
“You always have to be concentrated. It’s easy to get frustrated. It was a tough game and tough for me – I wasn’t at my sharpest. Jacob Murphy had a great assist, very selfless, so it was just being in the right place.
“We’ve always, at home, felt like we have that extra energy. We have spoken about using that. In the second half when we had a bit of a dip in our performance, we got some energy. Small changes made a big difference and really helped us get the win.”
Newcastle leapfrog Tottenham and sith fourth in the Premier League table on seven points from their opening three games.
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