Thom Gibbs Senior Sports Writer, at Selhurst Park

When Jean-Philippe Mateta scores a goal for Crystal Palace he executes the same routine, a run to the corner flag and a fearsome flying kick. This results not in an immediate yellow card for wanton abuse of equipment, but a simultaneous shout from his fans.

“Boom!” they yell, to match the song they sing for Mateta to the tune of Vengaboys’ Boom Boom Boom Boom. Signature celebration complete with crowd participation, these are the hallmarks of a hero. Something Mateta most certainly was not in February.

Agitating for a move away from Palace at the tail end of the transfer window, Mateta seemed likely to join AC Milan before his medical uncovered a knee issue. He hadn’t started since, until Thursday’s win against Fiorentina in the Conference League. He opened the scoring with a penalty. Boom.

Mateta was back on the bench for this borderline dead rubber against Newcastle United, 14th vs 13th in the Premier League for two teams who flew too close to the sun last season. The player sales and uneven form which have followed victories in the domestic cups are a reminder to any upwardly mobile clubs getting ideas above their station. This is what awaits if you impudently nab trophies from the superpowers.

Palace were a goal down and doing little to trouble a composed Newcastle defence before Oliver Glasner belatedly realised he would need more than his second string attack to wrestle back control. Mateta unnerved Newcastle with his application, his intelligence and his growing aura, which makes an already intimidating striker seem several inches taller.

There he was, imposing and inevitable, to head a pacey Tyrick Mitchell pass into the ground and goal to equalise. Boom. There he was again three minutes into injury time, to thump a penalty past Aaron Ramsdale. Boom. A brace of booms: the Basil Brush.

Afterwards Selhurst Park unsuccessfully reached for the high notes of Vengaboys, wholeheartedly forgiving their best striker since Andy Johnson. “I was delighted for him, I think that’s what he deserves,” said Glasner of Mateta. “As soon as it was clear he was to stay at Crystal Palace he said ‘OK, I will work very very hard to come back and help the team win and achieve all our goals’.

“I think this is what he showed and he’s now getting back to his top fitness. The Newcastle centre-backs looked very fatigued at the end because they had to work very hard against him and all of the others.”

“Mateta made a difference,” said a chastened Eddie Howe who has now watched Newcastle throw away 25 points from winning positions in the league. “It’s blighted our season, the fact that we haven’t been able to not just consolidate really good passages in games but go on and score more goals and continue to attack.

“I’ve said many times that it is not a tactical instruction we give the players. We don’t want to go 1-0 up and change to a mentality of defending, but we’ve done it so I can’t say it hasn’t happened. Then if you are going to defend we have to defend better than we did.”

That was a fair reading of Tino Livramento’s part in Palace’s first goal, missing his headed clearance to give Mitchell time to control. Then Sven Botman’s shirt-pull on Jefferson Lerma was spotted to give Palace a soft penalty which sealed the match.

It was a harsh result, but something fundamental has shifted in Howe’s team, from upward-trajectory upstarts to tired under-deliverers. A can-do attitude has become can’t. They had chances to add to William Osula’s opening goal, swept in at the second attempt two minutes before half-time after two pleasing triangles created space for a Lewis Miley cross.

Osula himself spurned the best opportunity to double Newcastle’s lead early in the second half, shooting straight at Dean Henderson after a loose Palace ball put him past the home defence. Osula’s replacement Nick Woltemade should have attacked one late cross with fury but was too placid. Mateta was the opposite, a true difference-maker capable of enlivening even the most turgid of Premier League slop.