Ram-shackle Newcastle have no answers at Pride Park.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 | 50 Comments |
After spending the day having a lot banter with the Forest fans who were on jury duty with me telling them all we had to do was produce something like the performance we did against Cardiff a few days earlier and I would be a very happy bunny thank you very much. But that was the killer punch. We didn’t produce the performance and looked for large parts of the match like a team of strangers, which is not surprising when half the team didn’t know each other just over one week ago.It also seems we don’t like travelling to the East Midlands, with results this season against Forest, Leicester and now Derby all being testament to that.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I thought I would be late for this one so foot down, get parked 5 mins from the ground and race in. No time for anything to eat or drink and just got to my seat as the teams were being announced. Joy of joys, the same team as Friday evening. Hughton going 4-4-2 away from home, Nolan captain and Smudge on the bench.
After attempts by the announcer to whoop up the crowd – the dramatic ‘the teams are in the tunnel’, 2 mins until the team appear etc, out they both trotted into the cold night air with the Mags in their now familiar mustard and custard ensemble. I waited with bated breath for the same high tempo 15 minute opening witnessed at St James’s only a few days earlier, but in fairness it never arrived.
Maybe my expectations were too high, but Derby were averaging only one goal a game, had a poor defensive record, had lost half of all matches played this season and were 18th place in the league at the start of the game, so I guess I could be forgiven for thinking we were in with a reasonable chance of taking all 3 points. However the only ones who looked up for the match were Derby who certainly had the upper hand for the first half hour. Only a couple of minutes into the match and a penalty was demanded but rejected for Jake Buxton’s shove on Andy Carroll who had been trying to get on the end of a Routledge cross. Not for the first time that night the decision didn’t go our way.
The first half hour were dominated by Derby. I didn’t think Danny Simpson had a good game at all as he made lots of errors and was caught for pace on several occassions. He did look as if he was injured again early in the match but played on, so whether that was at the root of his performance I don’t know, but certainly not his best game in a black and white shirt.
Fitz Hall had a decent performance and seemed to distribute the ball pretty well. I wasn’t sure about him early in the match but thought he improved as the game went on.
Kevin Nolan was his usual slow self and made 35 year old Robbie Savage look like a 21 year taking on our midfiled. Savage was booked mid way through the first half for a dodgy challenge on Routledge and was fortunate not to be red carded. This was followed by the usually derisory catcalls towards Savage from our lot.
The inevitable first goal from Derby arrived in the fortieth minute, knocked in from a few yards out by striker Rob Hulse. Ironically that produced our best spell, with Stephen Bywater saving from both Wayne Routledge and Kevin Nolan. So we went in for the first half 1-0 down.
Second half was pretty much of the same although we did start quite brightly. Carroll had the ball in the net within a few minutes only to see the referee give a free-kick for a foul on Routledge in the build up. Hunt then blocked a goalbound effort from Nolan. Gutierrez started to torment the Derby right back and put in his usual massive amount of running but sadly to no avail.
Unfortunately, Guti was deemed to be at fault for bringing down Michael Tonge in the area in the 58th minute. I didn’t think the ref was going to give it but the linesman and crowd thought otherwise and he capitulated. Soon, the penalty was slotted straight past Harper by the best man on the pitch in my opinion, their number 10, Kris Commons, who played a key part in each of their three goals. Nolan protested too much and found his name in the book. To be fair it was a very soft penalty and they were really lucky to get it.
The third goal arrived courtesy of Shaun Barker soon after the penalty and it looked like we could have gone into meltdown. We seemed to have no real answers and certainly needed to try something different. The constant hoofing the ball up the field was embarrasing although Wayne Routledge did have a decent game and at least it was good to see someone run with the ball down that side.
Hughton decided to go for bust with a triple substitution soon after the penalty and Ameobi, Lovenkrands and Smudge came on to try to change things but to be fair it ws a mountain to climb. Danny Guthrie did force a late save from Bywater but it was immaterial really. We were really outclassed and outfought and certainly didn’t look like league leaders. Mind, by this point we weren’t top any longer as West Brom had taken three points from their match and replaced us in number one spot.
Well, we just have to put it behind us and chalk it down as one of those nights. To me we looked like a bunch of strangers playing football, which I guess is inevitable when you look at all the new faces in the team. Despite the running and the effort we achieved nothing and Hughton needs to have a long hard think about how to rectify some of the issues before our visit to Swansea on Saturday, which will be another one beamed live across the country.
Some of the usual problems were there for all to see with the lack of the creative midfield player still apparent, but this time our defence didnt play well as a unit which inevitably lead to their three goals. No short term solutions on that issue due to the length of time some of our regulars will be out.
Oh well, this is Newcastle so these results are to be expected. Thrashing a top league side 5-1, then a few days later being soundly beaten 3-0 from a team hovering over the relegation zone.
Some things never change.
UPDATE: Match highlights video.
NUFCBlog Author: geordie deb
geordie deb has written 38 articles on this blog.
well you can only call it as you see it,well at times we tend to lift our game against better teams heres hoping