Second Best – Newcastle United v Everton match report.
Posted on March 5th, 2011 | 27 Comments |
After Newcastle kicked off though, the game proceeded in a fairly scrappy fashion mostly for the first fifteen minutes or so. Tiote seemed no time in getting stuck in (as usual) bringing down Everton’s Phil Neville (seemingly playing in midfield today) with a very firm challenge in virtually no time.
There was a bit of cut and thrust both ways, but with no moves going very far on either side really. It wasn’t until almost a quarter hour into the game when Everton goalkeeper, Tim Howard, gets his hands on the ball for the first time. It was also Everton who had the first real chance of the game after seventeen minutes. Starting with Kevin Nolan lashing the the ball across the Toffees goal with no one to connect, Ex Magpie, Sylvain Distin (or “Sacha Distel” as Bobby Robson used to call him) scrambles the ball away, launching an very good Everton counterattack. With another ex Magpie, Louis Saha eventually finding Mikel Arteta in space on the right flank. Arteta, a candidate for man of the match by the time the game was done, cuts the ball towards goal, forcing an excellent save from Steve Harper. The resulting corner sees Everton’s Leon Osman having another crack, but that effort was also unsuccessful, going just wide of the Newcastle goal.
However it was Newcastle who were the first to find the back of the net. The pressure from the Toffees seemed to act as some kind of “wake up call” to the Newcastle players, who started to elevate their game somewhat at this point. 23 minutes into the game, a Gutierrez pass found Mike Williamson who then passed to Kevin Nolan. His shot was fended off by Tim Howard, but unfortunately for them, he only parried it on to the head of Best, who headed in from close to chalk up his sixth league goal this season, and also proving that he wasn’t such an unwise investment for previous manager, Chris Hughton, after all. 1-0.
Everything started to look quite rosy at this point, at least for the next few minutes with Best almost putting another one away minutes after the first goal, but sadly, it was not to be. Then, Leon Osman went and equalised against the general run of play. With Osman both starting and finishing the move, he easily, and unexpectedly skips past a usually vigilant Cheik Tiote around the centre of the pitch. He then finds the excellent Mikel Arteta. He, in turn, dances past Steven Taylor, who was another one seemingly playing outside of his usual position today, at right back. Arteta then feeds Osman again with a great ball to sidefoot past Harper. 1-1.
That wasn’t the end of the punishment for the Magpies though. Around five minutes after the previous goal, Tiote’s trip on Arteta resulted in Referee, Howard Webb, awarding a free kick to the Toffees, and the man I tipped as the Everton man to watch in this game, their excellent left back, Leighton Baines, took a great free kick, putting in the just the right area. Although Everton strikers, Jermaine Beckford and Louis Saha couldn’t reach it, an unmarked Phil Jagielka could, and proceeds to volley the ball into the back of the net. 1-2.
The pressure, and the bad news in general continued for Newcastle, as left back, Jose Enrique holds his hamstring and the Everton pressure continued as Harper, a possible Newcastle choice for “man of the match” is forced into making another excellent save. Williamson tries, and fails, to play Saha offside. With the Frenchman homing in on goal, Harper did a great job getting off his line to make a save.
Meanwhile, Enrique limped back to the dressing room. He will be a great miss for Newcastle in future games if he is out. Eventually, when Enrique’s understudy, the yound Shane Ferguson is expected to replace him as he warms up on the touchline, up pops the man in the mask, Shola Ameobi to replace the left back, with Danny Simpson slipping over to left in Enrique’s place, and Lovenkrands moving back to the middle of the park.
As half time approached, Tiote redeems himself for his previous failure prior to the Everton equaliser with a great stop to deprive Everton of another shooting chance. After four minutes of extra time, that was the end of the first half.
After the restart, Ameobi gets himself settled into the game with some good work upfront, forcing two saves from Howard in the Everton goal and keeping them pinned back in their own half for a few minutes. As the pendulum eventually swings the other way though, minutes after that, Arteta slipped past a hapless Steven Taylor once again before firing in a floating cross which finds the head of Saha this time. Thankfully it went over the crossbar. Arteta continued his excellent work for the Blues however, as did Harper for the Magpies. Arteta, along with Everton goalscorer, Leon Osman, fashioned an excellent chance by setting Jermaine Beckford free to crack one off, forcing yet another great save from the Easington shot stopper.
Cue the introduction of Everton’s Victor Anichebe, whose recent lawsuit against Newcastle United for a very bad two footed challenge by Kevin Nolan the season before last, inspires boos from a rather disgruntled Geordie faithful. The two parties (Anichebe and Nolan) then proceed to continue hostilities, with the pair being booked for an off the ball incident.
Then there was hope for Newcastle! Leon Best met a good Danny Simpson cross, heading the ball into the back of the net once again, only to see the goal disallowed by Howard Webb for pushing Jagielka. It’s hard to write this, but the decision was probably fair.
And so it ended. Europe must wait!
Teams
Newcastle United: Steve Harper, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Sanchez Jose Enrique, Danny Simpson, Cheik Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrands.
Subs: Danny Guthrie, Shola Ameobi, Michael Richardson, Shefki Kuqi, Tim Krul, Shane Ferguson, James Perch.
Everton: Tim Howard, Tony Hibbert, Phil Jagielka, Sylvain Distin, Leighton Baines, Leon Osman, Phil Neville, Jack Rodwell, Mikel Arteta, Jermaine Beckford, Louis Saha.
Subs: Jose Baxter, Seamus Coleman, Victor Anichebe, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Johnny Heitinga, Shane Duffy, Jan Mucha.
Referee: Howard Webb.
Match highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.
a tricky run in lads for the last couple of games of the season would of really wanted to get points out of the everton game being at home and all how do you think everything will pan out after the everton game with a trip to stoke next!