Newcastle humiliated! Bolton 5-1 Newcastle.
Posted on November 20th, 2010 | 102 Comments |
Bolton deserved their win, of that there can be no doubt, but they were helped along by some awful individual performances, some poor defending, and some poor decisions from World Cup final referee, Howard Webb.
One thing that has left me seething is the apparent lack of desire on show from the majority of our players. In fact the only player I would give any kind of credit to is Andy Carroll who managed to bag himself a goal and could have had another had his shot been a couple of inches lower and hit the underside of the crossbar instead.
Newcastle started off quite brightly and kept possesion well without causing any real problems for the home side. The balance of power shifted on 15 minutes though when Bolton were awarded a penalty after Kevin Nolan handballed.
I would call it a stonewall penalty as Nolan did move his arm towards the ball, but to be fair he should never have been put in that position in the first place as the defence had numerous chances to clear the ball but failed to do the simplest thing imaginable. I was taught to ‘kick it out if in doubt’ when I was five-years-old, and that appears to be something that our defence needs to learn. Kevin Davies sent Tim Krul the wrong way to put the home side in front.
The match ebbed and flowed from then on although Newcastle continued to look off the pace. There was further misery heaped onto the away side on 39 minutes when Bolton made 2-0. Matt Taylor smashed a free-kick against the bar which fell to the Newcastle defence who had the option to clear the ball.
Again they dallied and again they paid the price. Johann Elmander knocked the ball away from Danny Simpson and into the path of an unmarked Lee Chung-Yong who finished cooly from ten yards. Replays suggest that the South Korean was offside, but Newcastle didn’t get the decision and the goal stood leaving Bolton winning 2-0 at half-time.
There was to be no upturn in performance from the away side after the break either, and just five minutes into the second-half it was 3-0. Kevin Davies slipped the ball through to Johann Elamander who rounded Tim Krul and applied the finish.
There was a brief bright spot in a dull afternoon when Andy Carroll pulled a goal back on 52 minutes after being put through by a combination of Bolton’s Stuart Holden and Shola Ameobi. It was a smart finish that was indicative of a player in form and it was perhaps quite fitting that the only player worthy of wearing our shirt today grabbed himself another goal.
It was 4-1 on 72 minutes after another defensive shocker from the away side, this time from Fabricio Coloccini. The Argentine defender, who has been largely excellent this season, allowed a long ball up front to bounce, which was the only invitation that Johann Elamnder needed to get after him and muscle him off the ball leaving the Swede to run unopposed on goal and cooly finish past Krul.
There was worse to come from Coloccini just four minutes later after he smashed his elbow into the face of Elmander. Howard Webb consulted his linesman and together they reached the decision to send Coloccini off. Replays have shown that it was the correct decision, and Coloccini will now be missing for the next three games as he serves a suspension for violent conduct.
Insult was added to injury in stoppage time when Bolton were awarded another penalty after Jose Enrique brought down Kevin Davies in the penalty area. The Spaniard was booked for his troubles, although it appeared that Enrique got the ball. Davies again sent Krul the wrong way to round off an afternoon of misery for Newcastle.
In summary, Andy Carroll was impressive again, although he got let down by his team-mates quite dramatically today. Bolton played well, but we were also the architects of our own downfall to a certain extent. The only real complaint I have about the referee is the decision to award the final penalty, although losing 4-1 or 5-1 is like asking me if I prefer my right or left testicle.
Still, every team has an off day and hopefully this was ours. We have dished out some thumpings so far this season so I guess we just have to take this one on the chin and hope it can give the lads the kick up the arse their performance today warrants.
Howay the lads!
Bolton – Jussi Jaaskelainen, Sam Ricketts, Zat Knight, Gary Cahill, Paul Robinson, Lee Chung-Yong, Fabrice Muamba, Stuart Holden, Matt Taylor, Johann Elmander, Kevin Davies.
Subs – Adam Bogdan, Gretar Steinsson, Mark Davies, Martin Petrov, Rodrigo, Robbie Blake, Ivan Klasnic.
Newcastle – Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Alan Smith, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Andy Carroll.
Subs – Ole Soderberg, James Perch, Steven Taylor, Sol Campbell, Wayne Routledge, Peter Lovenkrands, Nile Ranger.
Referee – Howard Webb.
Attendance – 22,203.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Att: 22,203
Bloody hell man! We deserve better than this. C.H sort it out fast and don’t let a couple of wins get to your head. The team must have been asleep today.
A couple of injuries and suspentions shouldn’t have this much of an effect, we have one of the biggest squads in the league. Embarrasing performance today. It has taken Sunderland almost no time to go from humiliated to laughing at us again, thanks C.H and all the first team. x