‘Goomba’ getting stronger all the time says Hughton.

Posted on November 29th, 2009 | 32 Comments |

Harewood: Getting stronger all the time.
Harewood: Getting stronger all the time.
Newcastle United manager, Chris Hughton seems to be very pleased with the progress of rusty on loan hitman, Marlon Harewood after his two goals against Swansea City yesterday.

Harewood, who saw virtually no first team action at Villa this season before arriving on loan, and missed most of pre-season through injury, has been marked out as a target by Newcastle United’s contingent of boo boys as he has struggled to regain full match fitness, though his two goals yesterday will probably shut the petulant, imbecillic section of the crowd up for a while.

On Harewood’s struggle, and his performance yesterday, Hughton declared:

“He missed a big chunk of pre-season at Aston Villa through injury, but he’s getting stronger all the time.

“He wasn’t happy to be taken off in the second half – I would be surprised if he was – because he would have liked the opportunity to get a third goal.

“But it’s all about the team, and I just felt we needed to freshen things up in a period when Swansea were having the better of the ball.”

Hughton then moved on to versatile Dane, Peter Lovenkrands, who has had similar problems to Harewood with lack of pre-season and lack of first team appearences, and has also endured family problems due to his father’s illness recently. Due to Andy Carroll’s recent ill-health, which saw him beign taken off in our last match against Preston, Lovenkrands started the Swansea game yesterday. On the pacy winger / striker, Hughton said:

“I was also delighted for Peter Lovenkrands, who’s had a difficult time as well recently, but really gives us a different option with his pace.”

On the more general picture with Newcastle’s recent success in remaining in the top two automatic promotion places, Hughton continued:

“We’re very pleased. It’s the most important gap – on third place – and all we can do is continue to do what we’re doing and be hopeful that other results go for us.”

Finally, moving on to the ‘game of two halves’ aspect of yesterdays game, when we brutally hammered the Swans in the first half hour, then slowly slipped back and spent much of the remaider of the game on the backfoot as Swansea recovered their composure, Hughton concluded:

“You’ve always got to look over 94 minutes and to come away with three goals at home in a very good first-half period and not to concede… you can’t ask for any more.

“You’ll see numerous games where a team takes the lead and the score finishes the same as it was at half-time, especially against a team in the form of Swansea.

“They showed it’s no coincidence they are where they are. They caused us more problems in the second half, but we defended superbly.”

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

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32 Responses

  3. Worky I dont think he was getting stick for not being fully fit I think it was more to do with his attitude and the fact he didnt look as if he gave a sh*te, then he was blaming other players

  4. Good to have more players contributing goals.
    But the negative was neither harewood or lovenkrands did much in the second half. Lovenkrands set up smith but that was it. Should have done better in first minute but his touch was elephant like

  5. batty says:
    November 29, 2009 at 5:26 pm
    andy couldnt give a fck if  we scrape 1 nil wins for the rest of the season its because of fans like u we sacked big sam and got relegated
    ——————————-

    You don’t know what you’re talking about at all. I fully backed Allardyce and have always said the top and bottom problem at this club is impatience, but you try and define Newcastle’s style of play.

    Are we attacking, counter attacking, do we use the wings well, creativity through the middle, long ball? None really, we wing it – we just scrape goals with seemingly no plan B.

    Maybe it’s enough to put us a top a poor league, but it’s never ever going to keep us in the Prem. We have basically the same squad as the relegation side of last season minus some very good players.

  7. Andynufc personally i thought allardice was cack as well, but agree with the struggle in the prem if we get there. players who were crap last season look good now, how obvious when they took a step down, the step back up could be a very rude awakening indeed.

  9. Aye, all joking aside worky (re my sarcy comment in the report), Harewood was getting grief because he looked like he couldn’t be ar*ed.

    It is difficult to argue with two goals, because that’s what you’re looking for in a striker? However, he literally couldn’t have missed those chances yesterday, and everyone knows it. So he still has some way to go to prove that his goalscoring will outweigh his obvious laidback attitude.

    And his first touch is poor but I haven’t booed him or suggested sending him packing. He just needs to put in a couple of decent shifts to turn the tide of opinion on him.

  10. JJ although Allardyce wasn’t suited to the sort of football we like to see, there’s no doubt he can get results at the right level and should have been given more time. That isn’t contradicting what I said before. If you can do it at Premiership level, win ugly, then great, but don’t think these performances will hold up once we make the step up.

  11. BBM how about you giving young Ranger some abuse mate that should bag him his 1st goal then we could draw up a list for you ;)

  12. Andy “Are we attacking, counter attacking, do we use the wings well, creativity through the middle, long ball? None really, we wing it – we just scrape goals with seemingly no plan B”

    Are you saying playing predictably is the answer? Surely unpredictability, goals from all over the aprk with a strong defence is the best way to win regularly.

    Look at all the top teams – if their star men arent performing – goals can come from anywhere?

    Looks to me that you yearn to be the entertainers again before you want to be successful?

  14. I think over the last couple of years we have relied on our strikers to much, So I think its about time we started scoring through other players in our team.
    As for our team getting promoted I think that should be our sole aim the season. We can start planning then and once we know if MA is going to put us back on the market.

  17. Have to agree to a point with Andys summation, however you can`t do certain things without the horses and that`s something we lack.
    In which case I believe Houghton  tends to keeps it simple.
    Think Robert and Norberto then Jonas and Lovenkrands, two players who could change the direction of a game vs two very direct players who have little but pace, whadaya gonna do ?
    Up the middle where`s the playmaker, nothing but brute force, Nolan, Harewood, Carroll, perhaps we need to give Pancracio an opportunity ?
    Although we appear to be doing ok, scraping by ugly (and hopefully it will continue) it probably say`s more about the league than NUFC.
    Be honest,  to go into the PL with this side is risking a quick return to second tier.
    The introduction of someone with a bit of flair and play making ability is badly needed,  plus a real scoring threat,   there is also  too much dead wood in the side and if promotion comes it will require unloading and bringing in a number of players.
    Otherwise we  could very easily become the new W/ Brom.

  18. Stardy.
    In case you were unaware, during most games,   there`s usually a team plan, it`s called tactics.
    For instance one would have a very different tactical approach while playing against a Sam Allardyce,  long ball , set piece team, with players all over six feet and built like heavyweights.
    Than say an  Arsene Wenger  side of mostly little guys with amazing technical abilities,    who as apposed to Sams teams,    keep the ball on the ground.
    One club can bore you to death and survives the PL, the other entertains and wins things,  but what you can take to the bank is the fact they are both in a sense predictable, that is as to how they play the game.
    Is it really your answer,  for a side to be successful as a football team,   that they have a strong defense and  an unpredictable rest of the team, hmmmmmm interesting.
     

  19. andynufc…re: batty i agree 100% ….. & with regards to your post/posts..your also full of shite.

  20. I also cannot work out our style of play.

    We certainly don’t pass it about like some of the teams we’ve played against ie QPR, Swansea, WBA ect…

    But the main thing is were top of the league.

    I’m still really worried IF we go up.  I think everyone knows Ashley doesn’t really want to be at the club, so if we go up he’ll more than likely put us back up for sale and then we have no pre season again and go through all this shite again.

    I see the iceberg ahead but lets get on the ship first.

  21. Its simple when Shola is fit he ll be back in the side for harewood ,we can then release harewood back to villa freeing up his wages to bring in another player . We will then have Shola , Lovenkrands , Carroll & Ranger to pick from up front . That is enough to get us promoted 

  22. andy u knob we havent got wingers hughton is useing what tools hes got and as for next season lets deal with that when it comes most prob prem or maybe championship

  23. A simple question the article alluded to – how can we be three up inhalf an hour then do nowt for the rest of the game?  What happened? 

  24. Complacency lesh. They took their foot off the gas and some players started trying things which didn’t come off and it led to poor spells in the second half.

  25. Thanks BBM @ 24 – sounds as though a kick up the a**e was called for a half-time.

    Assuming CH delivered said same at half time and told ’em to stop trying to be clever, then he’s done a good job.  

    Given the way WBA are knockin’ em in, we may well need to start keeping the foot on the gas and taking advantage of such a lead to demoralise the opposition.

    Whatever, whether a good, bad or indifferent performance, 3-0 and 3 points makes it a good result.

    Slightly off thread, I wonder if Ranger’s feeling the pressure a bit and his desire to score’s making him nervous and prone to missing?  Maybe it’s time to give him a break from the heat of the cauldron?

  26. Lesh,

    Ranger shouldn’t be felling any pressure due to not scoring.  You cannot score from the bench and it would be vey difficult for a seasoned striker to come off the bench and score all the time.

    Remember he has only started about 3 or 4 games.

  27. Stuart, there was no criticism of Ranger and correct, he can’t score from the bench!  What I was driving at, is he feeling pressure when he comes off the bench – think about the chances he’s fluffed! 

    I just wonder if he’s putting himself under too much pressure when there’s a real danger his self-confodence could  suffer. 

    If there is a problem, this is an area where Shearer could’ve helped with one-to-one mentoring – or dare I say it, Gazza since he’s got a berth in the Academy set up?

  28. Lesh,

    I personally think it’s the managers responsibility to overcome this issue(if there is one).  The chance he missed on Saturday appeared to be a little high for him so I don’t really blame him for missing that.

    If he is low on confidence I think it has more to do with the fact he was left out of the side after 3 or 4 good performances.
    He’s scored goals at every level he’s played so I have no worries regarding that.  I do think he needs to start some games though.
     

  29. Shit!
    Desist with the pointless predictions for next season FFS.
    How many of you moaners claimed we’d be mid-table in this league by now?
    If y’did, you were wrong, so keep it to y’self.
    We won, kept a clean sheet, again. & the gig was up by 30 mins.
    FFS!

  30. Clint- I agree.  3-0 by half time, job done.
    Here’s to the meanest defence in the championship.

  32. Fraid Ranger is not ready to be a starter, however we should be attempting to give him as much experience as possible, especially in games we are well out in front.
    The game against Swansea where we were up by three would have been perfect, then again not going to second guess Houghton as the lad may not be entirely fit.
    Whats up with Shola, need match fitness ?
    At least we are getting some production up front, even though I dont believe there are many keepers among them, see what happens come the Jan. window.
    Like the idea of going after young up and comming players from the top clubs, never know may hit paydirt, as most are just beginning to mature.
    Sometimes  a good one ( Mathew Upson) slips through the cracks.
    nothing ventured , nothing gained.