Manchester City, Liverpool and.....Brighton. Three names to strike terror into the hearts of travelling Mags in the Premier League era. Saturday brought some all-too-familiar Falmer failings for United, as their winless run in this part of Sussex was deservedly lengthened to nine top-flight visits.

And having netted in last season's league and FA Cup victories at Gallowgate, Danny Welbeck was once again tormentor-in-chief for Albion - twice perfectly positioned to fire in his first home goals since last February - the winner coming as his number was quite literally up at pitchside.

Fortunate to be only one behind, Eddie Howe's side did belatedly make a game if it, levelling through another astute finish from Nick Woltemade; their first away goal since Alexander Isak had propelled the ball into the same Amex Stadium net 437 minutes earlier.

However the green-clad Magpies failed to hold out, soon-to-be 35-year old Welbeck repeating his trick depriving Eddie Howe's side to what would have been a fourth successive draw on the road.

Bruno Guimaraes almost gave an unchanged United side the lead in the sixth minute but narrowly put the ball wide while at the other end, Nick Pope denied Welbeck and Georginio Rutter in a game that was some way short of a classic.

Albion had begun by targeting stand-in left back Dan Burn, frequently setting ex-Magpie Yankuba Minteh at him. However the Seagulls conjured up an opening goal by simply wandering through the middle of the visiting defence; Rutter setting up Welbeck four minutes before half-time.

Back after the break without the anonymous Anthony Elanga and underwhelming (or unfit) Joelinton, United improved and looked to have exploited Brighton's failure to press home their advantage in what seemed like a pivotal passage of play.

Beginning with a valid-looking 73rd minute penalty shout discounted by VAR, United levelled through Woltemade before Dan Burn agonisingly failed to connect with a loose ball in front of goal

At that point United had their tails up and had roused the travelling support, but Brighton responded with a match-winning move; Burn blocking Mats Wieffer only for Welbeck to sweep the loose ball into the far corner of the net.

There were to be late chances and another strong handball appeal for the visitors but they failed to conjure up a second equaliser; Malick Thiaw close but not close enough again with a header. Quite simply though, we didn't play well enough for long enough to take anything from the game and once again failed to hang on after reaching a position to take a point or more.

Defeat saw Newcastle drop one place to 12th position, Aston Villa's victory at Spurs on Sunday then making that 13th and Brentford's Monday night success leaving us 14th.

With the little matter of Benfica in the Champions League kicking off a week-long trio of home games on Tuesday there's barely time to pause for reflection, save for noting that we could still be back here twice this season, there's a cheery thought....

Squad issues evident at the start of the season remain: the lack of forward choices caused by the Wissa injury and the inability to integrate Elanga with the rest of the side as yet. The full back shortage adds to that imbalance, affecting forward momentum and defensive confidence.

Midfield inadequacies also persist, but a steady return for Jacob Ramsey after a false start to his Magpies career gives another option there. And although Joe Willock is as useful to us currently as Mark Gillespie or John Ruddy, Lewis Miley showed that he can contribute if given pitch time. As to whether he'll get that is largely up to him and how serious the manager is about rotating.

Dispiriting, but hardly the end of the world and far from the first time we've endured a slow start in recent seasons.

Biffa