Newcastle United 5-1 Sunderland – The Final Inquest.
Posted on November 1st, 2010 | 52 Comments |
A certain amount of trepidation had begun to creep in on the generally buoyant Geordie spirit after a series of mixed results. At the same time, there was a lot of paper talk that the club had decided that Chris Hughton’s time at the helm was quickly approaching an end. The club promptly went out, decided to be more vocal (about time too), and stated where they stood regarding the situation. With the expectations higher than ever, the need to put more points on the board, and a manager clearly favoured by the board, the excitement surrounding the always enticing ‘Tyne-Wear Derby’ had now reached fever pitch.
In fact, I wonder whether Chris’ contract talks are already fairly advanced and more lucrative than before. For a man apparently working for peanuts, that was a pretty sharp suit he was wearing.
Anyway, the player’s fairly outstanding performances, are summed up below:
Tim Krul – Another solid performance, and if I were Steve Harper, I’d begin getting a little worried. However, he’s far from the finished product (which itself is a mouthwatering prospect, as the sky’s the limit with this lad) as their consolation goal showed. He had his eyes solely on the ball and no awareness around him at all. Seemed astounded that Bent was anywhere near him. It’s excusable in the current circumstances, however, in games where the score line is tighter, those kind of mistakes can cost us vital points. All in all though, I believe he did well.
Danny Simpson – Great to see the lad back in a proper fixture for us. Appears to be getting back to what we saw of him at the beginning of last season, which is a good think. Nice amount of overlapping with Barton as well.
Mike Williamson & Fabricio Coloccini – Sturdy defensively yet again. This partnership is definitely one I would not break up. Whether or not we have a fully fit Steven Taylor in the squad or not. Collo almost grabbed himself another goal as well. Would loved to have either one of these two defending against Bent rather than Carrol for the goal. In all fairness to Carroll though, that was probably the first header he’d failed to win all night.
Jose Enrique – It’s getting incredibly difficult to find fault with this lad. Like Krul, he gets better every week. Great improvement in his already remarkable offensive play. Would like to see a bit more from him defensively though. A better effort from Welbeck on the break in the first half could have spelt trouble as Enrique was a tad out of position. Fortunately for us though, he managed to fluff it.
Joey Barton – Even though he was once more played out of position, on the right wing, he hasn’t looked bad in my opinion. Has an eye for a pass as well as a cross. And even when he did drift in, he caused quite a few problems. Cracking shot from him in the first half, and great save from Mignolet to be fair.
Cheick Tiote – I hope that the sections of the fans that don’t post on here appreciate him as much as we do. He plays a massive role in what has been probably our best defensive line-up in years. However, what he does, he does quietly and efficiently, and this gets overlooked far too often. Yet another great display from the lad.
Jonas Gutierrez – Has looked like a doppelganger of the man we signed two years ago. His performances in the last few games have been nothing short of a revelation as to what he can do when he’s focused. Great runs yesterday, which unlike before, had quite the end product to boot.
Kevin Nolan – Call him what you like, lazy, tugboat and what not. He may go missing for massive spans of the game, but one thing I’ve always said about this lad is that he possesses a certain quality that I wish our strikers had. He just always manages to get in the right place at the right time. And if he manages to keep these sort of performances up, he might even be that 15-20 goal a season player we’re looking for. Who knows?
Shola Ameobi – Proved that he can play in a formation with another striker, and definitely warrants a start until he proves otherwise. Knows how to find the back of the net even in adversity. Good second goal too.
Andy Carroll – Great effort from the lad. I think that Chris Hughton’s realised that we shouldn’t pressure him too much as well. Didn’t choke in the slightest, and seemed to cause their defense no end of problems with some fairly decent runs and kept popping up cause a fair bit of irritation. Linked up rather well with Ameobi. Couldn’t be fussed if he doesn’t get the goals we expect if he can help the team create them the way he did yesterday.
Can’t really say much about the subs to be honest, but I honestly can’t seem to remember when we played a team off the park the way we did yesterday. Yes, the result at Villa was better, but the game play yesterday was something else altogether.
Honestly, am not getting ahead of myself (I certainly hope not anyway), but on the back of this result, if we approach the Arsenal game with the same mindset, I wouldn’t be surprised to get something out of it. Here’s to hoping anyway.
HWTL.
P.S: My apologies for having missed the inquest for the last couple of matches, but was unavailable for a little while due to bereavement.
And as an afterthought, THANKS STEVE BRUCE!
NUFCBlog Author: fernando666
fernando666 has written 8 articles on this blog.
25% of the way through the season 33% of the points needed to survive. Not a bad performance either. what was the score. oh yes 5-1 HWTL