Relief! Newcastle United 4 – 1 Wolves (match report).
Posted on April 3rd, 2011 | 26 Comments |
After the kickoff, Newcastle seemed to get off to a fairly brisk start with Peter Lovenkrands leading an attack on the Wolves goal as he chased down a long kick from Steve Harper, cutting through the Wolves defemce. The ball is safely gathered by by Wolves goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessy however, and the ball is soon up at the other end of the pitch where Wolves striker, Sylvan Ebanks Blake, worries Harper in the Newcastle goal. Once again though, the ball was gathered and the panic was over but it was “end to end stuff” as they say. There were in general quite a few long punts producing action at both ends of the pitch, at least in the early stages of the game.
Somewhat predictably, Wolves midfielder, Karl Henry, was given a less than hospitable welcome by the St James’s faithful as he took his first touch of the ball, a reminder of rather “robust” treatment of Joey Barton in the last encounter between the two sides at Molineux earlier in the season. This time, there seem to be some rather clumsy challenges going in all round though, with Henry himself on the receiving end of a rather clumsy one from Shola Ameobi in the ninth minute of the game. Just after that though, Ameobi almost went on to score as he charges on to Christophe Berra’s clearance and a lucky deflection almost loops over Hennessy. Luckily for him and Wolves though, he manages to get his hand on it, preventing a certain goal.
Nineteen minutes into the game there was a fairly nasty clash of heads as Wolves Left Back, George Elokobi made a very clunsy aerial challenge on Peter Lovenkrands inside the area in what could possibly have been a Newcastle penalty. Both players ended up receiving treatment, gathering their thoughts and then getting on with the game.
After Ameobi’s earlier near goal, Newcastle were eventutually hit the spot after 22 minutes. A move which started when Danny Simpson cracked off a long ball from his right back position, with Ameobi executing an excellent flick on with his head to Nolan. The portly midfield goal machine then proceeded to run with the ball at quite some speed (for him anyway) from the centre circle straight through an AWOL Wolves defence, calmly slottong the ball past Hennessy. It was an excellent move in general from the Newcastle trio, however Wolves’ defending was poor in the extreme, and made things much easier than they could have been for the Magpies. 1 – 0 to Newcastle United
Several minutes after the goal, Wolves manager, Mick McCarthy brought on striker, Steven Fletcher for some more attacking impetus as Newcastle were certainly appearing to be the dominant team at this point, with some fairly sustained pressure on the visitors. Their existing striker, Sylvan Ebanks Blake, was looking somewhat isolated upfromt so McCarthy went for a formation change to 4-4-2. It was at this stage when some might have said that Wolves could have had a pemalty shout too, with Simpson possibly handling the ball in the Newcastle area. It was hard to see in real time without the benefit of replays though.
The game continued in a characteristically robust fashion until the half time interval loomed, though Wolves’ Ebanks Blake, could be commended for his honesty in failing to go down after some fairly vigorous shirt pulling in the area from Newcastle laft back, Shane Ferguson, who was standing in for the crocked Jose Enrique. This could have been another penalty on different day. Then, when the first half was all but over, The Magpies turned the screw even further, with Ameobi finally getting on the scoresheet for Newcastle’s second goal. Lovenkrands floated in a brilliant long cross from the left on to Ameobi’s charging head, from which he headed the ball in powerfully at fairly close range over a once again hapless Wolves defence. Half Time – 2 – 0 to Newcastle United.
After the second half got underway, it wasn’t too long before Wolves were receiving more punishment, with Lovenkrands having a productive spell for the Magpies. Firstly, he hits the outside of the post from a very tight angle after getting round Wayne Hennessy, then, very soon after that, Coloccini, after some excellent footwork to keep the ball, threaded a pass to Barton on the right wing. Bartom in turn crosses the ball to an offside / onside Lovenkrands who, making something of a mockery of FIFA’s current offside rule, then sidefoots the ball casually into the Wolves goal for Newcastle United’s third. 3 – 0 to Newcastle.
To Wolves’ credit, their heads didn’t go down at this though. The lamentable defending continued, but after a poorly taken Wolves chance from on loan midfielder, Jamie O’Hara, Ebanks Blake eventually struck gold and clawed one back for the visitors after some great play from Matthew Jarvis. After a great, jinking run down the left, he moved towards the area, getting in an excellent pass for Ebanks-Blake, who had the space to finish the move with a goal fairly easily. Newcastle 3 – 1 Wolves.
After this, it looked the boot was on the other foot for a while, as the Midlanders took the game to the home side with a bit of their own sustained pressure. However, lack of a good finish saw them unable to add to their first goal. Once again, as the half, and the game, was drawing to a close, it was Newcastle who were the ones to score the final goal, with winger, Jonas Gutierrez, making a good run from the left hand side to crack off an excellent low but slightly curving ball of some power past a shell shocked Wayne Hennessy, who could do little to stop it. 4 – 1 Newcastle United.
All in all, while Newcastle did display some moments of great endeavour in what was a fairly robust encounter, but it was also a case of Wolves being very poor on the day too with some abject defending which helped the Mags to chalk up a very comfortable victory and a much needed 3 points in a game which could have been a turning point in our season.
Howay the Lads!
Newcastle United: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Danny Guthrie, Joey Barton, Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Nolan, Shane Ferguson, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi.
Subs: James Perch, James Tavernier, Nile Ranger, Shefki Kuqi, Sol Campbell, Steven Taylor, Tim Krul.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Wayne Hennessey, Christophe Berra, George Elokobi, Kevin Foley, Richard Stearman, Adam Hammill, Jamie O’Hara, Karl Henry, Matthew Jarvis, Nenad Milijas, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.
Subs: David Jones, Jody Craddock, Marcus Hahnemann, Michael Kightly, Michael Mancienne, Stephen Ward, Steven Fletcher.
Referee: Mike Dean.
Match highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1089 articles on this blog.
nice to know karl henry was on the end of a shola trip left him in a pile :) in a way but good result lads