Just over the line! Newcastle United vs Wigan match report/highlights
Posted on October 22nd, 2011 | 20 Comments |
Date: Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Neil Swarbrick.
A fairly lacklustre first half was followed by a livelier second half that saw Yohan Cabaye get his first PL goal, and Newcastle United snatch victory by the narrowest of margins.
The first half looked like it was going to be a stormer after two and half minutes when Ba, Best and Jonas created a chance on the break. However Jonas’s cross wasn’t particularly good and the half turned into a bit of a damp squib after that from a Newcastle point of view.
There were some worrying moments for the lads when Victor Moses made a great run, passed to Emmerson Boyce. Moses then cut inside swiftly in a great piece of interplay with Boyce giving the ball back for Moses to hit a great shot at Krul, forcing yet another excellent save from the Flying Dutchman. Wigan’s Mohamed Diame also appeared to have been fouled either just outside or just inside the box but nothing was given. But then it seemed to be a case of both sides either not getting the final ball in or wasting it when they did.
Gutierrez and Obertan made the running up the right and left as usual but couldn’t get either themselves or anyone else on for a finish.
That Moses shot apart, Wigan were no better in the finishing department. During a period of Wigan domination at about the 15 minute mark, Rodallega crossed poorly or shot wildy a few times in quick succession. Rodallega did have one decent chance after leaving our defence standing but once again couldn’t hit the target.
The game did sway back into our favour a little and Obertan tried to get a few crosses in but there was nobody to collect them. Cabaye did likewise from other side and then shortly afterwards picked up a yellow card for putting his boot – accidentally – into Rodallega’s knee.
Raylor had a free kick deflected by the wall and then Best placed the perfect cross to the feet of Jonas but he just couldn’t fire the shot off. Thus the pattern for the first half continued with us often getting into decent positions but making nothing of them and Wigan were reduced to long shots from Victor Moses that rarely troubled Tim Krul.
Half time and it was 0-0 and whilst it might be unfair to say that the half was boring, it didn’t exactly light my fire. Wigan could have claimed that they edged this period if anything, creating slightly more oppotunities but wasting them with some less than perfect finishing. If they had that, we may have even found our fourth placed side with with egg on their faces against the relegation scrappers.
Srcond half
Fortunately the second half was a bit livelier with both teams playing a more open, attacking game. To his credit, Alan Pardew saw that changes were needed and brought on Ben Arfa for the second half in place of Leon Best and I’d say we were starting to get a little more of the game. Jonas put in a good cross for Obertan who swung his leg wildly at it and failed to trouble anything but a couple of passing pigeons. Our best chance of the game so far came when Ba headed the ball towards Al-Habsi who looked like he might have taken it over the line like Friedel did last week, he hadn’t but it was pretty close!
Taylor then headed wide from a Simpson free kick and shortly afterwards got his nose bloodied trying to head the ball back into the box. The ref made him clear off and get the blood cleaned up.
We seemed to be dominating a bit more now and both Jonas and Ben Arfa had shots blocked.
Hugo Rodallega was still trying to apply pressure to our goal but was either pressured out wide by our defenders or reduced to taking long shots that didn’t unduly bother Krul, who was putting in another very good shift for the Magpies.
At 65 minutes Ba was taken off and Shola was brought on and the pace of the game seemed to be picking up again. Jonas won us a corner but nothing could be made of it and at the other end we had to clear up a corner that saw Jones getting into a good position for a shot.
On 76 minutes Obertan was taken off and Marveaux was brought on. Ben Arfa laid a cracking strike on goal but it was directly at the keeper.
Then came the bit that won us the game. Taylor crossed the ball, Marveaux chested it down and passed it to Yohan Cabaye who hit a cracker into the top left corner of the net for his first Premier League goal and there was much Geordie relief all round! Newcastle United 1-0 Wigan Athletic.
Time was running down now and were trying our best to help it on its way. Moses made a dangerous run and rolled the ball across the goal just out of Krul’s reach but unfortunately for Wigan they had nobody there to attempt the shot. Diame missed a header and Figueroa wasted a long shot, but then we took it up into the corner long enough to get whistle and all 3 points.
Conclusion
I thought there was a lot of mediocrity in the game and for large parts of it Wigan matched us. Martinez might have some justification for thinking they should have come away with a point, but amongst a lack of fluency from both teams we managed to produce a moment of elegance and get the goal and that might just be enough to consider ourselves worthy victors.
Final score: Newcastle United 1 – 0 Wigan Athletic.
Goals: Yohan Cabaye 81.
Yellow cards:
Newcastle United: Yohan Cabaye (21), Leon Best (44)
Wigan Athletic: David Jones (26), Maynor Figueroa (90+4)
Red cards: None
Teams
Newcastle United (4-4-2): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor, Gabriel Obertan (Sylvain Marveaux 77), Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best (Hatem Ben Arfa 46), Demba Ba (Shola Ameobi 68).
Subs: Sylvain Marveaux, Hatem Ben Arfa, James Perch, Shola Ameobi, Davide Santon, Steve Harper, Alan Smith.
Wigan Athletic (4-3-3): Ali Al Habsi, Emmerson Boyce, Antolin Alcaraz, Gary Caldwell, Maynor Figueroa, David Jones, Ben Watson, Mohamed Diame, Victor Moses, Hugo Rodallega, Albert Crusat (Connor Sammon 82).
Subs: Adrian Lopez, Conor Sammon, Jordi Gomez, Hendry Thomas, Michael Pollitt, Shaun Maloney, James McArthur.
Match highlights and post match interview with Alan Pardew
Extended (12 minute) highlights of the game.
Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew, hails “lovely lad” Yohan Cabaye for getting his first goal for Newcastle United and grabbing three points for us in a fairly tight game. He also describes today’s performance from his team as “Light Ale” football rather than “Champagne football”, which was largely true. However it’s another three points in the bag anyway so Howay the lads!
NB: If you are having trouble playing the Alan Pardew video, and you just get a big grey patch instead of the man himself, then click on that and at least the audio will play. Alternatively, click this link. Divven’t knaa what the problem is.
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.
To be honest, Wigan did deserve a point there and it was a very even game for 4th vs 19th, with 4th at home. Whilst we’ve done some good things undoubtedly, we are still getting the rub of the green a little bit.
I’m glad Pardew made changes in the second half, and that budget sides tend to lack clinical finishers, though they did possibly test Krul a bit more than the report suggests, otherwise he wouldn’t have been one of the top players in the game, which he was (again).
Nice report though Hugh overall.