Ipswich Town’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed as Newcastle strengthened their push for Champions League football with victory at St James’ Park.
Ipswich needed to beat the Magpies and hope West Ham lost at Brighton to delay their inevitable fall into the Championship, but their hopes of getting the result they needed were dealt a major blow late in the first half when Ben Johnson was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Bruno Guimaraes had had a close-range effort disallowed midway through the half for a foul on goalkeeper Alex Palmer, but Alexander Isak’s penalty – awarded following a pitchside review by referee Michael Salisbury – finally broke Ipswich’s crumbling resistance deep into added time.
It was one-way traffic in the second period and Dan Burn, one of Newcastle’s goalscorers in last month’s Carabao Cup final victory over Liverpool, doubled their advantage 10 minutes after the restart with a point-blank header from Kieran Trippier’s looping cross.
Second-half substitute Will Osula headed home his first Premier league goal with 10 minutes remaining as the Magpies marked the return of head coach Eddie Howe – who had missed the previous three games with pneumonia – with a resounding win which lifts them up to third in the table.
Ipswich’s defeat means this is the first time in Premier League history that all relegations have been confirmed with as many as four games remaining.
Johnson dismissal costly as Magpies seal Town’s fate
For Kieran McKenna and his players, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
The Ipswich boss admitted relegation was likely after watching his team lose 2-1 at home to Wolves earlier this month, a defeat which left them 12 points adrift of safety with seven matches remaining.
They have lost further ground on the teams above them in the weeks since, with Saturday’s defeat at St James’ Park sealing the Tractor Boys’ fate with four games left.
The visitors matched Newcastle for long spells of the first half, but Johnson’s 37th-minute red card – just seven minutes after he was booked for diving under Burn’s challenge – swung what had been an uneventful contest in the Magpies’ favour.
The wideman is the fifth Ipswich player to be given his marching orders this season – only Arsenal have been shown more red cards in the 2024-25 season.
Luke Woolfenden cleared an acrobatic Guimaraes effort off the line and Sandro Tonali rattled the crossbar from the edge of the box as Newcastle started to turn the screw, before Isak converted from the spot to leave the visitors staring at defeat.
Ipswich defended doggedly in the second half and managed to restrict Newcastle to only a few clear-cut openings, but the Magpies’ lead was never under threat.
Newcastle continue Champions League push as Isak climbs above Haaland
Isak’s effort on the stroke of half-time lifted him on to 22 Premier league goals in 2024-25 – more than Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and fewer only than Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
It is the highest top-flight tally by a Newcastle player since Alan Shearer netted 22 in the 2003-04 campaign.
The Swedish international – like the rest of his team-mates – had struggled to threaten Palmer’s goal up to that point, heading a Harvey Barnes cross well off target before volleying a Jacob Murphy cross over the bar.
But his penalty in first-half stoppage time – awarded after Julio Enciso was ruled to have tugged down Murphy – settled Newcastle’s nerves and all but ended Ipswich’s hopes of pulling off an upset.
Trippier’s exquisite cross left Burn with the simple task of nodding in his first Premier League goal of the season, before Osula headed in his first top-flight goal from another Trippier delivery to complete the scoring.
The icing on the cake for Newcastle was the late introduction of defender Sven Botman, who made only his fourth Premier League appearance of the season – and first since January – after recovering from a long-standing knee issue.
The Magpies now have a two-point cushion over sixth place but face a tough end to the campaign, with games against Brighton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Everton coming up in May.
Player of the match
K. Trippier