Sizzling Danish too hot to handle! Newcastle 3 Plymouth 0.
Posted on January 13th, 2010 | 193 Comments |
Well maybe not yet, but after Newcastle cruised to a 3-0 win over Plymouth in our FA Cup 3rd Round replay, it’s hard not to get a little carried away. But then again it’s hard to imagine the opposition being such pushovers in the next round. And the hardy group of Argyle fans, perched in Level 4 of the Leazes, looking for all the world like the last, unwanted one in a box of Milk Tray, amongst a sparsely populated Leazes, must have been bitterly disappointed with what their side offered, or didn’t as it were.
But however horrible Plymouth were, Newcastle’s win was emphatic and the scoreline should really have been more damning, though it benefitted yours truly that it wasn’t, as 3-0 pocketed me a nice little return on my modest flutter. And tonight it wasn’t just about the result, which was impressive, but the way we went about the game.
Hughton made seven changes to the previous game, as Danny Simpson was left out of the squad and made way for the returning Enrique. Steven Taylor replaced Tamas Kadar, although he was due to replace Coloccini, until Kadar picked up an illness close to kick off. In came Nolan and Gutierrez, as Guthrie and Smith made way, the latter apparently not passed fit after coming off in the original tie. Carroll and Lovenkrands replaced Ameobi and Ranger upfront.
After a slow five minutes, we started looking hungry and determined, and Peter Lovenkrands marked his comeback, after just ten minutes, chipping the ball over the keeper after a clever run onto a lovely ball slipped into the box by Gutierrez.
We really should have had another couple of goals not longer after, but chances were spurned first of all by Carroll after some good build up play, blazing over from the edge of the box when he should have done better. Another well worked opportunity found Nolan a little closer in, but he too couldn’t keep his shot down.
There were more and more opportunities as the away side gave us far too much room on the wings, and two deliveries went begging across the face of goal. The second goal, just before half-time, came again after good approach play and a delivery from Gutierrez, this time swung in from the left as Lovenkrands rose to head deftly past the keeper. Argyle offered little in the way of a threat and were limited to harmless, speculative long range efforts.
The second half started off quite brightly for both sides, but it wasn’t long before we turned the screw and began to pass them off the park. Stopping short of showboating, we demonstrated massive gulfs between the quality of the respective sides. In fact, it might have come as some light relief to the away fans, that their attention was turned to some over-zealous stewarding, overseeing the ejection of two supporters in the Gallowgate, who’s heinous crime appeared to amount to no more than standing.
Despite showing willing, Pancrate’s distribution was wayward and it was no surprise that he was replaced by Guthrie. And no sooner had Guthrie entered the field, Lovenkrands had his perfect ‘trick’. The third came with a quarter of the game remaining, yet more good work on the left and Enrique delivered deep to the far post. Andy Carroll managed to head down to Kevin Nolan who helped the ball on, and Lovenkrands hooked home.
On reflection of an impressive response to our recent goal drought and search for the answer, you could ask have we found it? Chris Hughton was impressed by Lovenkrands’ performance:
“They were three very well-taken goals,”
“And, of course, what he has to be is in the positions to put them in and that is what Peter has got a knack of doing.
“He’s got that pace to get beyond defenders and I have to say the first goal was the one I enjoyed the most because it shows what Peter can do once he gets in behind teams.
“Jonas has done well for Peter’s first two goals and the second was a good header.
“I know he was hungry for that hat-trick after half-time and I was delighted for him when he got it.
“It’s thoroughly deserved and showed what an important player Peter is for us.”
If the game was a boxing match, it would have been stopped in the 72nd minute, after Lovenkrands’ final goal when the possession must have been hard to bare for the travelling supporters. And playing some very tidy football and at times when moving up a gear, we completely carved them open without any apparent answer to the onslaught. We didn’t add to our tally yet the win was no less comprehensive.
A dominant display then, with some notably impressive performances, but watched by our lowest competitive crowd for a while. The eerie atmosphere was initially peculiar but didn’t seem to put off the players and it livened up in the second half with some good play and the removal of the ‘local heroes’ from the South East corner.
Yes, Plymouth were poor, but we took full advantage for a change instead of pussyfooting around and got the job well and truly done. Are we not bothered about the FA Cup?
Hughton had this to say:
“Significantly, you will not find one player who does not want to play against West Brom the following Saturday in the FA Cup.
“It’s a massive game. It’s exciting and it is starting to hot up.
“We’re delighted to be in the next round and there is no doubt that it holds something really special, and I’m sure every other team would want to be in round four.
“The priority is Monday against West Brom but we can go into the cup with confidence with the right result.”
Well as far as I’m concerned, that’s us in the 4th Round, and I can start to dream of Wembley…
Us – Krul 7, R Taylor 7, S Taylor 8, Coloccini 8, Jose Enrique 9, Pancrate 6, Nolan 8, Butt 7, Gutierrez 9, Carroll 6, Lovenkrands 9.
Subs – Harper, Ameobi, Tozer, Ferguson, Guthrie 8, Ranger 7, Donaldson 7.
Plymouth – Larrieu, Duguid, Arnason, Barker, Sawyer, Judge, Fletcher, Summerfield, Clark, Fallon, Barnes
Subs – Saxton, Noone, Gow, Folly, McNamee, Sheridan, Wright-Phillips.
Att – 15,805 (with a ‘slightly-larger-than-average Stag Do’ of Plymouth fans, who to their credit, outsung a deathy silent home crowd. Maximum respect for making the journey up).
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
BBM something to think about, when was the last time we had 3 different players score hat-tricks in 1 season?