Hull went four games unbeaten, and Newcastle scored twice in the first seven minutes
Two Harvey Barnes assists inside seven minutes decided a Premier League afternoon that Hull City spent the second half trying to rescue.
Sep 20, 2026
Joe Willock scored in the third minute and Lewis Hall in the seventh, both of them set up by Harvey Barnes, and Hull City’s unbeaten start to life back in the Premier League was gone before the away end at St James’ Park had properly sat down.
Seven minutes
Barnes played Willock through and he finished past Konstantinos Tzolakis. Four minutes later Barnes found Hall, a left-back, arriving on the edge of the box, and the finish went into the bottom left corner. Two goals, two assists, seven minutes, and a Newcastle side that had been beaten 4-1 at Leeds on Monday looked like a completely different team.
Matthias Jaissle has nine players injured. He has also now won two of his first five league games in charge, which is not a crisis by any measure, though the 4-1 at Elland Road had made the question worth asking.
The penalty that should have ended it
Just before half time Sorba Thomas made a grab at Jacob Murphy’s foot in the box. The referee pointed to the spot, VAR looked at it and left the decision alone, and Yoane Wissa stepped up. Tzolakis went the right way and pushed it away.
Three-nil at the break would have been the end of the afternoon. Two-nil was not.
Cho gave Hull an hour of it
Sergej Jakirovic sent on Mohamed-Ali Cho and he scored within a few minutes of arriving, a finish in the 67th that came off the post on its way in. Hull spent the last twenty minutes camped in the Newcastle half. Tim Iroegbunam got a volley away from close range in the closing stages and put it over the bar.
Nothing else landed. Newcastle had scored their goals when Hull were not ready and defended them when Hull were.
Hull are still above Newcastle
This is the part that will annoy Newcastle supporters. Hull took eight points from their first four matches, including a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge and a win over Manchester United, and they lost on Saturday and still sit seventh, one place and two goals of difference ahead of the team that beat them. Newcastle are eighth on the same eight points with a goal difference of zero.
Sergej Jakirovic took charge at Hull in the summer of 2025, when the club had just stayed in the Championship on goal difference. Inside a season he had them at Wembley, where Oli McBurnie scored in the 95th minute against Middlesbrough and sent them back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017. Losing 2-1 away to Newcastle, having given them a seven-minute head start, is the kind of afternoon most promoted sides would take.