Carroll at the treble! Newcastle 6-0 Aston Villa.
Posted on August 22nd, 2010 | 135 Comments |
Not so much the game itself, as most of us knew that Newcastle would at the very least be up for the fight, but the 6-0 scoreline has to be, surely has to be, the most unexpected part of proceedings.
What I watched today enthused me no end.
The silly mistakes had disappeared and Newcastle looked quick whilst in possesion. Andy Carroll was again immense, and will go home tonight carrying the match ball after a fantastic, and yes unexpected, hat-trick.
There were some areas for concern. Our defensive line seemed very high to me, but it didn’t matter in the end which probably shows what I know. Steve Harper didn’t inspire confidence in the first half hour. His distribution was poor and he was guilty of giving away a penalty in the opening 10 minutes.
Luckily those blushes were spared as John Carew smashed the ball over the bar at the Gallowgate End on 9 minutes. The start was frenetic, form both sides, and had that penalty gone in it could have been a completely different game.
It was Newcastle who struck the first blow though through Joey Barton on 12 minutes. His right footed shot from 20 or so yards flew past Brad Friedel in the Villa goal and into the top corner of the net. That is what Joey Barton needs to do to prove his critics wrong. 1-0 Newcastle.
That opening goal seemed to dent the confidence of Aston Villa and they strated to get bullied and dominated in midfield, with Joey Barton and Alan Smith being the architects behind it. The slick passing and movement continued throughout and Newcastle found themselves 2-0 up on 31 minutes.
Jonas Gurierrez and Jose Enrique combined down the left, much like they did last season, before Enrique fired a cross towards the back post. Andy Carroll nodded the ball back to Kevin Nolan who had his first header on target blocked but managed to nod the ball in at the second time of asking.
Just 3 minutes later and it was 3-0 to the home side. Joey Barton’s corner was headed back across goal to Richard Dunne who horribly miskicked his clearance straight to Andy Carroll who half-volleyed the ball into the bottom right corner of the net and bag his first goal in his new number nine shirt in the process.
This was fantasy stuff for Newcastle, and even the most optimistic fan will have been hard pushed to predict Newcastle leading Aston Villa 3-0 at half-time.
I expected Villa to come out fighting in the second-half, but in all honesty they never got the chance to. Newcastle never game them any time on the ball to get back in the match and were the only side that actually looked like scoring.
Andy Carroll made it 4-0 on 67 minutes as he lashed a left footed volley home from around 12-yards after some good play by Mike Williamson who kept the ball alive. It really was becoming a rout, but it didn’t end there. Kevin Nolan scored his second of the game on 86 minutes to make it 5-0 after he got on the end of a loose ball in the Villa penalty area.
It was our new number nine who was to have the last say in proceedings. With virtually no time left on the clock, Xisco slid a pass through the Villa defence for Andy Carroll to latch on to. Carroll brought the ball into the box and managed to prod home past Brad Friedel to make it 6-0 and claim his first senior hat-trick.
It was a fantastic performance from the lads and they all played their part. There are still areas for improvement though, but overall I was very very impressed with what the lads had to offer today!
Howay the lads!
Newcastle – Steve Harper, James Perch, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Wayne Routledge, Joey Barton, Alan Smith, Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll.
Subs – Tim Krul, James Tavernier, Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic, Peter Lovenkrands, Xisco, Shola Ameobi.
Aston Villa – Brad Friedel, Luke Young, Richard Dunne, Ciaran Clark, Stephen Warnock, Ashley Young, Marc Albrighton, Stiliyan Petrov, Stewart Downing, John Carew.
Subs – Brad Guzan, Habib Beye, Eric Lichaj, Barry Bannan, Nigel Reo-Coker, Nathan Delfouneso, Emile Heskey.
Attendance – 43,546.
Referee – Martin Atkinson.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
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