Nolan leads the way! Reading 1 Newcastle 2
Posted on April 13th, 2010 | 304 Comments |
Kevin Nolan helped Newcastle United step within one point of picking up the Coca Cola Championship title, with a brace tonight against Reading at the Madejski Stadium. In a game which saw us below par, Reading may feel hard done by that any lingering hopes they had of making the play-offs all but disappeared with our victory by the odd goal.
However, as with many teams this season, Newcastle’s ability to score goals and grind out the result meant Reading would have to have a go and they were left wanting when it came to a cutting edge. In fact, it took a combination of Steve Harper, Jose Enrique and Danny Simpson producing an own goal before Reading got off the mark. At the other end, Kevin Nolan re-established himself as the club’s leading goalscorer with another two crucial goals, taking his tally for the season to 18 in all competitions.
Chris Hughton was forced into making changes following Tamas Kadar’s knock at the weekend and with Enrique still struggling, the gaffer opted for the defence which finished the game against Blackpool, with Danny Simpson at left back and Ryan Taylor replacing him on the right. Elsewhere, Hughton opted to combat what he obviously expected to be an attacking approach from Reading by dropping Lovenkrands for Alan Smith who dropped into Nolan’s position, while Nolan played in his advanced midfield role and Shola replaced Andy Carroll upfront.
And despite Reading starting the brighter and looking the more likely to take a lead and perhaps should have through Shane Long, it was Kevin Nolan who gave Newcastle the lead against the run of play on 20 minutes. A long punt from Harper was helped on by Ameobi and when Nolan found himself on the edge of the box, he held off the challenge of the defender before firing a left foot shot past Federici to make it 1-0.
That seemed to spur Newcastle into life but Reading continued to dominate proceedings and so it was again against the run of play in the 42nd minute when Nolan increased the lead. Having missed a chance of his own, Routledge was played in brilliantly by Guthrie and the winger crossed for Nolan to volley in for his brace. And he should have grabbed a hat-trick after the break when Routledge sent in another great delivery but his header came back off the post.
With Coloccini off injured at half-time, Simpson filled in for him in the middle of defence with Enrique slotting back into his usual left back position. And it was he who conspired, with the aid of Harper and Simpson to reduce the deficit for the hosts. When Reading forced a corner in the 72nd minute, Harper should have dealt better but pushed the ball down and when Enrique struck to clear it, he could only cannon the ball off a helpless Danny Simpson and into the Newcastle net.
Reading threw caution to the wind and Chris Hughton made changes to shore things up, bringing on Barton and Carroll for Guthrie and Routledge. And we could have sneaked a bonus at the end, as Reading took chances by pushing everyone forward for set plays, both Nolan and Gutierrez coming close to taking advantage of breakaways.
The win puts us nine points clear with three games remaining, meaning that we would have to lose all remaining games for West Brom to take the title on goal difference. We now need only one point to claim the Championship trophy and ironically our smog neighbours could do us the favour of putting that beyond any doubt with their televised game on Saturday by taking anything off the Baggies. If not, then we go into our own televised game on Monday against Plymouth, with the knowledge that anything but defeat will mean we go up with honours.
I should make note that despite my reservations about his general fitness and weight, which I still stand by, Kevin Nolan has impressed me no end this season. With his crucial goals, his overall attitude and apparent influence around the club, wherever we go from here, Kevin Nolan’s contribution to this difficult season should not be underestimated.
Us – Steve Harper, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Simpson, Wayne Routledge, Alan Smith (c), Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Nolan, Shola Ameobi.
Subs – Tim Krul, Joey Barton, Leon Best, Jose Enrique, Andy Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands, Fabrice Pancrate.
Reading – Adam Federici, Andy Griffin, Bryn Gunnarsson, Alex Pearce, Ryan Bertrand, Jay Tabb, Bryan Howard, Gylffi Sigurdsson, Jimmy Kebe, Jobi McAnuff, Shane Long.
Subs – Kalifa Cisse, James Henry, Simon Church, Hal Robson-Kanu, Jem Karacan, Ben Harmer, Grzegorz Rasiak.
Att – 22,000 (with 4,000 Mags in attendance)
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
Job done :)