Newcastle survived a second-half scare to beat Brentford 4-2 and secure seventh place in the Premier League table. They will now hope for a Manchester City win in Saturday's FA Cup final which would seal them a UEFA Conference League place next season. The visitors looked shaky against a carefree Brentford early on, with Ivan Toney sending a bicycle kick over inside a minute before seeing a close-range finish seconds later ruled out by VAR for offside in the build-up.
But Harvey Barnes' header into the top corner from Bruno Guimaraes' fine cross settled the nerves and a quickfire double inspired by Alexander Isak put the Magpies in complete control before the break. The Swede teed up Jacob Murphy to convert Newcastle's second before adding the third himself after Murphy and Guimaraes combined. But Vitaly Janelt struck swiftly after the restart for a fired-up home side and although Nick Pope saved brilliantly from Toney, Yoane Wissa bent in a beauty to make it 3-2 and reignite those Newcastle nerves.
With news of Man Utd going ahead at Brighton coming through, the pressure was on the visitors to hold onto their lead but Bruno Guimaraes finally settled the contest by putting in the rebound from Isak's free-kick after Lewis Hall had seen a penalty award controversially overturned by VAR. The Brazilian is the subject of speculation over his future ahead of the summer transfer window but raced to the travelling supporters and celebrated passionately, even donning a bucket hat thro.
