A walk in the Park? QPR 0-1 Newcastle United.
Posted on May 3rd, 2010 | 49 Comments |
After a minute’s applause for recently deceased QPR legend, Tony Ingham, the kick-off was taken. There was some excitement as Newcastle went on the offensive almost from the off. Wayne Routledge fired in a cross, which was headed behind the goal by QPR’s Leigertwood. The resultant corner was also dropped invitingly into the area, this time by Guthrie, but the effort was cleared. A few minutes after this (about five oir six minutes in after checking), Guthrie attempted to supply Ameobi with what would have been an excellent chance, but the ball was out of control, which may have had as much to do with the highly ‘greasy’ playing surface as anything else. Around a couple of minutes later, Routledge made a decent turn and shoot, but, alas, he fired stright into the arms of the QPR goalkeeper, Radek Cerny.
After ten or so minutes of minor excitement though, I soon sank back into my reverie, for, to be honest, the play was pretty pedestrian and boring for most of the first half, and the above mentioned pitch conditions didn’t help a great deal either. It seemed to be very slippery, with news earlier that it had to pass an inspection before the game could go ahead, and it was still raining to add more fuel to the fire.
Conditions apart, it also had the feel of a ‘dead rubber’, with both sides having little to play for. With Newcastle having already acheived what they needed to for the season, their performance generally had the feel of a training game at Benton as they went through the motions somewhat. After all that though, there were still points of interest. For example, QPR had their chances too, which brought out an encouraging performance from Steve Harper’s goalkeeping understudy, Tim Krul, who parried or smothered whatever what the “Hoops” had to throw at him, taking his rare chance in the first team goal with great aplomb. All in all a great improvement on the last time I saw him at Leyton, where he and Fraser Forster seemed to spend most of the game on all fours, fishing the ball out the back of the net! Back to this game though. Wayne Routledge and Joey Barton also deserved some credit for providing much of the creative impetus for the Magpies in this pretty dour first half. As the first half was drawing to a close, a very respectable free kick cracked off by Guthrie saw Cerny needing to give the ball a good fisting, only for Guthrie to take possession again, feeding Best who shot wide. Enough of the first half though, time for a drink. A non alcoholic one unfortunately by order of the doctor. But wait! The first half wasn’t quite over after all! Some mischievious Geordie with a whistle brought the first half to a false end, persuading Danny Simpson to pick up the ball. Referee, Darren Deadman, decided to resolve the situation with a ball drop.
The second half certainly had an exciting start, as Leon Best threads a pass through the QPR backline to Shola. As the Fenham Eusebio attempts to pick up the ball for what would have been a clear scoring opportunity, ex Magpie, Peter Ramage, slid through Ameobi, and was consequently sent off with a straight red card. “This should open up the game a little” I said to myself, and so it did! Well, a bit anyway.
Shortly after that (after 52 minutes to be precise), the Great Dane himself, Peter Lovenkrands enters the fray, replacing Leon Best who seemed to have picked up some kind of mild knock. Meanwhile, both sets of fans started giving a good account of themselves, with the QPR lot (with one silent Geordie in the middle of them all!) getting behind their ten man team, and my estranged compatriots just seemed to be enjoying the party after a campaign well fought by all sides, players, management and supporters.
Getting back to the pitch though, The Hoops show that their threat hasn’t been completely extinguished, despite being a man down. About an hour into the game, QPR’s Hungarian striker, Tamás Priskin, shoots wide when he should have passed it really.
Tens minutes after that came the main event of the afternoon, as Joey Barton and Peter Lovenkrands show the Championship what a bit of Premiership quality in front of goal looks like. Barton laid off a ball very nicely into space, with Lovenkrands pouncing on it and dispatching a remarkable chip past Cerny for the only goal of the afternoon.
A couple of minutes later, QPR attempt to prove that there’s still life in the old dog yet, as Jay Simpson breaks through to attempt a chip of his own past Krul. Krul was well up to the challenge though, and the threat is extinguished by the large frame of the Dutchman.
Shortly after, Routledge, Guthrie and Barton once again show some Premiership class with an excellent attacking move. Routledge made a great pass which Guthrie gently knocs into the path of Barton, who sadly couldn’t convert.
Moving on, my telepathic relationship with Chris Hughton came to the fore. I was just thinking “stick Vuckic on Chris, so I can have another look at him” and lo and behold, a large young Slovenian starts readying himself for action! Gatesheed’s favourite radgie beanpole was also warming up, and both trotted on to the pitch in due course.
The Slovenian Pedro almost made his mark immediately, as Routledge laid the ball into the young maestro’s path about 10-15 yards from the goal. Vuckic adjusted himself to take the shot with his favoured left foot, and rattled off a curling shot which ends up just wide of the post.
All that was left was a Ryan Taylor booking, another decent stab from Lovenkrands, saved by Cerny this time, and the general party time atmosphere among the Toon faithful, with much singing and general good spirits. Finally, the “Proud to be a Geordie, We’ll support you ever more” banner was unfurled, under much happier circumstnces than the last game of our previous season at Villa Park. A fairly fitting end to the season.
Howay the Lads!
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1096 articles on this blog.
Hmm. A lot of innuendo in there, Worky. All this talk of players on all fours, or players cracking off, or fisting 8O