Blackburn vs Newcastle – The Aftermath
Posted on October 27th, 2011 | 29 Comments |
I’ve never really been one for the League Cup, seeing it mainly as the poor relation to the FA Cup, but when a place in the last 8 is looking possible it starts to become a little more important.
It was not to be however as Blackburn were up to the task, either in spite of or because of their lowly league position, and although we twice levelled the game they persevered and won out.
After the game, Alan Pardew said:
“I don’t like the tag of gallant losers but it was a fantastic effort and the fans would have appreciated the effort we have put in.
“Sometimes events just go against you and events certainly did tonight. But the players don’t know when to give in, we kept going and two great hits got us back into the game, but tiredness cost us at the end.
“If we are going to go out of the cup that’s how it should be – giving it everything.“
Whilst Blackburn boss Steve Kean said:
“Gael Givet encapsulates the whole spirit we have got here – he had a hamstring nick but would not come off. He’s a warrior, he has put his head where other people wouldn’t put their feet. He was fantastic.
“It’s tough mentally when they scored so late to go and score again but we did it.
“We are always going to score goals but we have been working day in, day out defensively so that when we lose possession we get a good shape.”
And Peter Lovenkrands has said:
“The boys did fantastically. They were good goals – the free-kick and the shot from Danny as well. I think we deserved to at least get extra-time but then of course, with their deflected goal they went ahead again.
“Then we got another goal and in the end it was a hard one on us. We were probably expecting it to go to penalties and hope to take it, but it wasn’t to be this time.
“But we won’t sit with our head in our lap and cry about it. We need to move on and focus on Stoke. That’s an important game and it can take us further ahead in the league if we get a good result.
“So we need to regroup, get everybody fit and ready and then focus on that.”
In terms of analysis, let’s try to keep things in perspective. That’s our first defeat all season and it had to happen sometime, so I don’t think it’s a reason to start hurling ourselves from rooftops. It does raise some questions though.
Pardew was forced into making a couple of changes to the game with injuries keeping Saylor and Tiote out and if that was a contributory reason for the defeat (and I’m not necessarily saying it is) then we’re clearly lacking in depth in terms of central defence and a tireless defensive midfielder like Tiote. Maybe that’s something Alan Pardew has to think about.
Equally of course, we could say that it just wasn’t our night, although that’s a poor excuse and I think the defeat warrants a deeper analysis than that, which I hope Pardew and his team will be doing.
What’s probably more of a concern in terms of the ongoing campaign is that a lot of our first team have just played 120 minutes of football ahead of what will be a tough game away to Stoke this weekend. Fortunately the game’s on Monday, affording the players the maximum rest time in terms of ‘weekend games’, so hopefully there’ll be no hangover for our trip to the Britannia Stadium.
In the grand scheme of things though, I think we’ve overperformed this season so far and I don’t think one Carling Cup defeat is cause for panic. Let’s hope we can bounce back well from it against Stoke.
Match highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10).
Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.
We missed Tiote in midfield badly and Perch is really no substitute for Taylor. We were very average for the first 25 mins and Ben Arfa particularly was disappointing throughout his time on the pitch. Marvaux had his moments but the patched up formation didn’t work until the 2nd half. We did boss the game then but the referee was shocking missing a handball in their area and the foul on Demba Ba – who was excellent all night. Other pluses were Santon who looked a class act and Colo who once again was terrific. Obertan was also much more lively than he was against Wigan. In the end it was one of those nights unfortunately – but we battled to the end.