Handy Andy pulls no punches for Newcastle!

Posted on December 14th, 2009 | 44 Comments |

Contributing well?
Contributing well?
In contrast to recent speculation that he might be shipped out in January, Chris Hughton expects Andy Carroll to play a big part in Newcastle’s drive for promotion. This comes after a bustling performance on Saturday against Barnsley, which saw him have a hand in both our goals.

However, he also inadvertently had a hand in their first goal and also a hand in a tussle on the deck with Barnsley centre-half Moore, who seemd none to pleased with Carroll’s conduct and had to be restrained by players from both sides. The result was a booking for both, which sees Carroll miss out on Middlesbrough’s visit at the weekend.

Having been dropped for the midweek game against Coventry, Carroll was undoubtedly a surprise inclusion on Saturday. Despite being his usual awkward and rangey self and spending much of the time on his backside, he put himself about and stuck two fingers up at detractors with his contribution to our goals.

And his performance wasn’t helped with a lack of support when the ball was continually launched into him, and he did well on a number of occasions, particularly with the flick-ons for the goals. It’s perhaps harsh to blame him entirely for their first goal, because having given the ball away with a bad touch, he chased back albeit in vain when his slide tackle fell invitingly into the path of their player.

Hughton had this to say about him:

“Carroll coped very well with it. He was instrumental in both goals and gave the contribution that he did. I suppose he didn’t give us anything we don’t already know. We know he’s a handful and on his day a very good player.”

Opinion still seems divided on Carroll purely in terms of his ability on the pitch, and so he did himself no favours with the shenanigans in Blu Bambu last week, though we still await details of the incident. With Premiership teams waiting in the wings, whatever your thoughts are of Andy Carroll, we’re not in a great position to lose him in January.

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

44 Responses

  1. I thought he played well on Saturday, although my judgement may have been impaired by the diziness through the sheer noise (one particular bloke 2 rows back had a voice like a fog horn)

    We cannot afford to lose him in January, and in fact we cannot afford to lose anyone …!

    Let’s hope that Houghton sticks to his guns and demands that the squad stays together …

  2. With this squad, as long as Simpsons loan is made perm and MAYBE keeping Harewood we would be able to stay in the top two. I may be wrong but Wolves had a massive blip last year and didnt win in ten if my memory serves me correctly (probably wrong). We had a bad run of 4 so far so in all possability there will be another speed hump in the future to get over our lead at the minute could be soon eroded.

    The next 2 windows are important for different reasons, January for ensuring no one leaves and the summer as an indication on who comes in as to where we are aiming for in the future, Survival or yo yo.

  6. Surprised Simpson wasn’t playing on Sat to be honest, he’s a better option than ryan taylor, Hughtons substitutions were a bit weird on Sat tho I suppose he’s dug himself into a hole by putting four strikers on the bench.

    Carroll divides opinion simply for the fact he’s a bit of a one trick pony – i.e. physical striker whos good in the air, if he doesn’t have support from players around him it’s all a bit pointless as there’s no one to pick up flick ons etc, his hold up play aint great as he spends lots of time on his arse

  7. sorry bbm … bit slow there … the missus and the lad were noisy enough, but the bloke behind had the sort of voisce that shakes buildings … wasn’t you was it ??

  8. Ah, thought you might have been the fella in front of me, who was sitting in Row M along to the left? He had a Midlands accent(I took ‘shrews’ to be Shrewsbury?)

    But I think he was only with his missus though. Assume it wasn’t you?

  10. you are right with the shrewsbury bit, but ex ashington … and so could never be confused for a brummie …

  11. Carroll played well, a right handful in the air and in fact I haven’t seen him have a bad match yet. When you have watched the likes of ‘Mavis’ Reilly, Billy rafferty & Bobby Shinton then Carroll is class. He’s a beast for defenders to deal with and I don’t think any defense will look forward to playing him, Him and Shola will unsettle most defenses with the right service.

  12. stevep – yep, about sums up my opinion.

    I thought Hughton could probably shoulder some of the blame for making the changes he did, as I thought it unsettled us again, just when we’d got the lead back. I think Ryan Taylor was only on to feed Carroll. To be honest, it worked to an extent but Gutierrez and Pancrate didn’t get around to support him.

  13. It seems that ‘the powers that be’ (??) aren’t too impressed with his recent indiscretion and may be keen to move Carroll on (sell him!).

    If this is true, are the powers that be so stupid as to weaken the club’s negotiating position? Judging by recent player sales, the answer could well be yes.

    We’re not exactly rich with quality, experienced attacking options and in my view, Andy Carroll puts himself about, causes problems for the opposition, scores now and again, wears his black & white with pride and most importantly, should NOT be sold!

    You can bet your boots that given time, he’ll become a big big name striker and we should hold on to him and stick with the options we’ve got. Shore the defence up (LB and CB) and get a solid holding MFer and we’ll be there.

    Sell in January? No, No, NO!

  15. Carroll just needs to sort out his balance and touch as much as anything else. When he’s running at any sort of speed, he’s generally like teflon to that ball and gets thrown to the deck or just crumples in a heap.

  16. Thought their no14 (Hallfredsson) who scored their first goal looked good. Held the ball well in midfield, never lost posetion, always found a player and was creative … could do a job for a certain team at the top ???

  17. leash – Thing is, you could argue that if Carroll does get sold then that would enable Ranger to have more playing time? Something he has grasped everytime he has come on. Ive not seen Ranger play poorly yet and with Ranger you get the added dimension of pace to accompany thte power and hold up play.

    Overall, im with you, Carroll should not be sold.

  18. shrews – Aiiirrrshington? Nah, not you then!

    Just a coincidence then. Only imagined it might be me because my old man was surprised I could still speak after the game. I could, but only just.

    The atmosphere was as good as I’ve heard for a long time. Fot sheer noise, it was incredible at times.

  19. shrews – aye, Hallfredsson dictated a lot of the play, along with De Silva. Wouldn’t mind seeing someone like that here. He was a bit like a left-footed Gravesen.

  20. Agreed … the noise was superb during long periods in the game … just like the old days …!!!

    Could hardly speak yesterday.

    Pity we couldn’t hold on for the win … but before the game I would have settled for a draw given their recent form.

  21. bowburnmag says:
    December 14, 2009 at 10:47 am
    shrews – aye, Hallfredsson dictated a lot of the play, along with De Silva. Wouldn’t mind seeing someone like that here. He was a bit like a left-footed Gravesen.

    Bit of a running theme that. Someone on the other side dictated the play.

    Glad were winning but I have to say I’m not particularly enjoying watchin.

  23. Stu – aye tis a fair point.

    From memory, the little black kid for Swansea, Cleverly for Watford, Routledge for QPR to name but a few.

  24. BBM – Little black kid = Nathan Dyer

    Im gonna do a couple of threads would you be able to sort the images as i still cant upload them?

  30. shrews mag says:
    December 14, 2009 at 11:14 am
    Off to the races at Wolverhampton in 15 mins … any quick tips ???

    15:20

    Ignacu

  32. Soz shrewsmag, couldn’t resist.
    Was gonna say ‘horses for courses’ or possibly ‘horses phuk horses’ but that would be rude.
    :)

  35. AS soon as I punched ‘submit comment’ I knew I had made a mistake … lifts here I’m off … cheers and thanks for the tips …!!!

  39. toonsy says:
    December 14, 2009 at 11:08 am

    “Im gonna do a couple of threads would you be able to sort the images as i still cant upload them?”

    Didn’t you get my e.mail toonsy? Looks like you can’t post them after all. Send ‘em to me for the moment if there are any in particular you want to include. I will sort this out in the fullness of time though.

  40. bowburnmag says:
    December 14, 2009 at 3:33 pm
    Tis rather quiet…

    Know what you mean, something surely has to happen soon to ruin the tranquility.

  41. For those who are fans I thought this little snippet might liven some of you up.When I was getting off the plane from LA on Saturday lunchtime I noticed the lady in front of me with long blonde hair tottering along on her very high shoes. I was just wondering if she was mad or brave to wear such things for travelling when she turned around with a big mega watt smile and it was Pamela Anderson. Certainly got the male heads going. She was very unassuming and quite happy to schlep her own luggage etc with only one in her entourage. Anyway thought it might brighten someone’s day.

  42. Where’s His wonderfullness, Stardust today? We need his subtelty and sophistry to stimulate discussion.

    On the other hand, his alter ego could provide some sensible contributions too!

    Ah, got it, he’s briefing his little elves and other helpers while dusting down his red and white outfit!