Newcastle continued their excellent for as they powered to a comfortable 4-1 win over Brighton at St james’ Park on Thursday night to give their quest for Champions League football a major shot in the arm.

Two goals in each half saw the Magpies easing comfortably past the Seagulls who could only manage a solitary score through Deniz Undav.

Meanwhile Newcastle’s goal came from an Undav own goal, Dan Burn, Callum Wilson and Bruno Guimaraes. The opening goals were both from set-pieces while the in-form Wilson who provided the assist for the fourth goal, also scored what was his 18th Premier League goal of the season, the most by a Magpies player in a season since Alan Shearer scored 22 in 2003-04. Since the start of April, Wilson has netted 11 Premier League goals, three more than any other player.

Speaking after the win Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said: “The Champions League is so close, but so far away as well. We will enjoy tonight but we are focused on our next match.

“We were just pleased with the performance, to beat a side of their quality. We are not looking too far ahead.

“When it’s done, I’ll talk about it for fun if you want.

“It’s a huge win for us. I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but it won’t mean anything if we don’t back it up on Monday night and that’s an incredibly difficult game. After the high of today and what we’ve given in the match, we know we have to repeat it.

“Nothing is given to you in the Premier League. We know Leicester’s qualities, so we have to be very calm, recover well and we have to have the same focus and mentality that we had today.

“The excitement stuff doesn’t really exist in this job because you know there’s just another game and another challenge and it won’t stop even if we hit our goal. There’ll just be another challenge and it will hit us in the face next season.”