Home discomforts? Newcastle 0-0 Fulham.

Posted on November 13th, 2010 | 15 Comments |

Another impressive performance form Carroll.
Another impressive performance form Carroll.
Newcastle huffed and puffed their way to draw against Fulham this afternoon in a match that lacked that little bit of quality from both sides.

Both Newcastle and Fulham had chances to break the deadlock, but it wasn’t to be and Newcastle will have to settle for a point from the match which means we slip down to 7th in the table.

Chris Hughton made two enforced changes to the team, with Danny Guthrie coming in for the suspended Joey Barton, and Peter Lovenkrands partnering Andy Carroll up front due to the absence of Shola Ameobi, but neither player did enough to break down a stubborn and well organised Fulham side. On this evidence it is clear to see why Fulham have only lost three games so far this season.

Newcastle started off bright enough but were unable to capitalise during those early exchanges and Fulham clawed their way back into the game.

The hosts could probably consider themselves unlucky not to have taken the lead in a first-half that was largely devoid of goalmouth action after Kevin Nolan blocked Andy Carroll’s goal-bound effort only for Peter Lovekrands to fire the rebound straight at Mark Schwarzer in the Fulham goal.

All in all, despite some nice exchanges of play from both sides, neither side could find a breakthrough and the teams went in at half-time at 0-0.

Newcastle tried to force the issue in the second-half and went close through Peter Lovenkrands whilst Andy Carroll forced a fine save from Schwarzer from a 25-yard drive. Lovenkrands was following up but was unable to get there in time and the visitors cleared the ball.

Fulham still carried a threat however with Clint Dempsey taking a number of pot-shots on goal, although luckily Tim Krul was equal to the vast majority of them. The woodwork also came to Newcastle’s rescue as Moussa Dembele smashed an effort against the bar from eight-yards out.

Newcastle brought on Nile Ranger and Wayne Routledge with the aim of freshening things up and injecting a bit more pace, but alas it was to no avail and the sore remained deadlocked at 0-0.

Despite the performance, which wasn’t the best it could be, I still feel that Newcastle did enough to win the game, but I also can’t grumble with a draw. It doesn’t change the fact that we have dropped yet more points at home though, and I hope that it doesn’t come back to haunt us come the end of the season in May.

Andy Carroll was good again, did what he had to do and was unlucky not to score. It isn’t all positive news though as Cheick Tiote picked up his fifth booking of the season, definately this time, and will now miss the trip to Bolton as he serves a one-match suspension.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle – Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Checik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Andy Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands.

Subs – Ole Soderberg, Steven Taylor, Sol Campbell, Alan Smith, Xisco, Wayne Routledge, Nile Ranger.

Fulham – Mark Schwarzer, Stephen Kelly, Brade Hangeland, Aaron Hughes, Zoltan Gera, Danny Murphy, Damien Duff, Simon Davies, Clint Dempsey, Andy Johnson, Moussa Dembele.

Subs – David Stockdale, John Pantsil, Diomansy Kamara, Dickson Etuhu, Eddie Johnson, Jonathan Greening, Matthew Briggs.

Attendance – 44,686.

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

15 Responses

  2. Toonsy as you say they have only lost 3 games as they are a hard side to beat, and a point is better than nowt. Atlest Tiote gets that out of the way

  3. Meant to add I thought Guthrie done well and thought that he should have stayed on, and maybe brought Tiote off as it was only a matter of time before he got booked
    but as I said it gets it out of the way. Does he come back with a clean slate after the 1 game ban ?

  4. Poor game but at least we have a point, I know he didn’t play much for us but we really miss Benny with that little bit of magic to unlock defences.
    The general rule with teams in the prem now seems to be don’t concede then owt else is a bonus.

  5. Dave….he’s got enough games to pick up another ban before New Year ;-) I think yellow cards and bans are something we’ll have to accept with Tiote, thats just the way he plays.

  6. Gladly ILM.

    If that is the best league in the world, according to some people, I wouldn’t want to watch the worst. Four teams don’t make a league. The fact is, if we had won these two home game it would probably be because we lost the two previous away games. Where do I start…

    If the FA deem Lee Probert to be a top level referee than I might have a go at starting out myself, it wasn’t really that the guy got key decisions wrong, he just looked nieve and trully clueless to the tricks players try. He seemed totally oblivious to the time wasting and how can only 4 mins have been added on where the Villa-Man U game got 5! That game never stopped in the last half an hour or so that I watched.

    Lovenkrands played ok actually, That’s not to say I think he has a future at this club, or this level for that matter. I can’t believe C.H went with Guthrie out wide, he actually wasn’t bad though apart from being a bit rusty at times, his corners ect. were fine. Jonas continues to try and beat to many people and in this league the 3rd or 4th man always seem to get him, which frustrates the crowd time after time. We are too predictable and I think in this game really missed Benny. We can’t just rely on this ball to Andy Carroll all the time.

    All in all it was actually quite decent enough individual performances but just not playing well enough as a team which is worrying coz I thought it would be the reverse. We are nearly at 20 points and should be around 30 by Christmas considering the difficult fixture list. We should have no problems staying up. But this team is still very much a work in progress and we are relying on players like Krul, Tiote, Carroll and Ranger to stay and come good over time for us. I still think we need a striker. Someone like Gyan actually, but if they cost £13M these days I can’t see it happening. So all in all not too much critism from me today but continued frustrating home form.

  7. As the commentators quite fairly pointed out today with regards to Tiote, It’s not that he tackles badly, he just mistimes them every now and again, purely out of determination. He’ll never give up on a loose ball and if a midfielder has it, he wants to be the one to take it off him. He’s not necessarily a bad tackler, more that he is just regularly pulled up for little shoulder to shoulder exchanges etc, that eventually mount up and he’s shown a card.
    The immediate yellow card in the Scum game for example, was ridiculous.

    I’m not disappointed with the performance at all today, just disappointed that we couldn’t nick a goal. I agree with others that we need a plan B because teams will just gang up on Carroll if he’s our only outlet when it comes to goal, but at the same time on any other day, our efforts at using “plan A” (so to speak) that were shown today, would have worked. Schwarzer pulled out some excellent saves from Carroll, there were balls scrambled off the line..We were unlucky not to grab a goal. Apart from 10/15 minutes we also completly bossed the second half. Passed the ball well alot of the time and Loven was also unlucky, forcing a few canny saves.

    It’s a point, for me 2 lost, but it’s still a game we didn’t lose. Our home form has to improve but as long as we’re not losing weekly in our first season back in the PL, you wont hear me complaining too much.

  8. Guthrie was a huge plus and Lovenkrands was much improved. We lacked real options. Ben Arfa was our only ace in the hole – or shaved knuckle. I still have not forgotten the seasons prior to relegation where our football was awful and we played with no heart. We play some good football now and there is never a lack of committment. Those who ask for more have short memories and no patience. I also dont see how people can question Hughton’s inability to switch tactics. He simply did not have that option today. A good point imo.

  9. DJG-Gyan was an impulse buy after the WC, is nowhere near worth 13 million and his current goalscoring run is exactly that, just a run. I personally don’t think he’s the striker he’s made out to be. If we’re talking about the mackems though..Darren Bent…
    Cheeky bid at the end of the season if we finish better off then them? lol

  10. Well at least its a point , 18 from 13 games is not that bad but we have to start winning at home . Second half we deserved a win imo but today proves we need to find a creative player from somewhere when the transfer window opens .

  11. DJG….aye mate ref was terrible again, for future reference the stewards divnt like ya calling the ref a “cheating c@nt” :-)

  12. Look, stoke have beat Liverpool. It just goes to prove that any team can beat any other team this season.
    I sometimes think I’m reading a manu blog with all the arrogance being shown on here. A bit more humility might actually stop the deluded fans tag.

  13. You lads cannae be serious when you say Lovenkrands played alright.He was useless. Missed an absolute sitter of a header.
    Guthrie was just Guthrie unable to go past a man. Turns half a circle and does a short pass side ways or backwards.The wrong choice on the right side of midfield. His delivery from corners or free kicks never cleared the front man or wall.
    The sad thing is for wide right we don’t have any other option. For the striker position if Shoala is out Vuckic is the best option followed by Ranger, Best and Xisco then Lovenkrands

  14. I’m a big Hughton fan but he unfortunately got it wrong today – Guthrie belongs in the middle not the right – dosent everyone know that? Lovencrands? Not been picked fir weeks so why start over Ranger? He was a total waste of time and did nothing – like against Wigan. Why wait til 76 mins to make a change when everyone knew after an hour the formation and system wasn’t working? Anyhoo points a points in the Premiership. One final point – why is there a mackem on here? Wouldyou ever go one Sunderland blog? Sad obsession with the toon

  15. Lovenkrands got way too much playing time. His rust showed up in poor timing and was frequently out of position in the box. Ranger/Routledge should have had more time. Also not enough action deep in the box. We were shallow there way too much. We got lucky with one point.