Magpies throstled by Roy’s boys: Newcastle United 2 West Bromwich Albion 3

Posted on December 21st, 2011 | 21 Comments |

Demba Ba: Scored twice, but it wasn't enough.
Demba Ba: Scored twice, but it wasn't enough.
Going into this game, United were without Steven Taylor, Danny Guthrie and Sylvain Marveaux through injury. Dan Gosling and Yohan Cabaye were both missing through suspension.

Alan Pardew decided to play Haris Vuckic in midfield to replace Cabaye, otherwise the team was unchanged from the Swansea game. This was United’s last home game of 2011 and the mood amongst the fans seemed to be one of expectancy – a good opportunity to get back to winning ways.

The match got off to a lively start with Newcastle stroking the ball around confidently. Within the first five minutes Steven Reid of West Brom was injured and clearly unable to continue. Jonas sportingly kicked the ball out of play and was rewarded with a handshake from opposing manager Roy Hodgson. Reid was replaced by Billy Jones.

A good, open game was developing with nothing much between the sides. Then in the 20th minute, Chris Brunt slotted the ball through to Odemwingie who hit a left foot shot into the net. 1-0 to West Brom. United hit back and had the ball in the net within 3 minutes but Ba’s effort was ruled offside. Newcastle United 0 – 1 West Bromwich Albion.

On 34 minutes, Obertan went charging through the middle on one of his ranging runs and was brought down on the edge of the box. With no Ryan Taylor on the pitch, up stepped Demba Ba (who else?) to hit a peach of a free kick into the top corner to Foster’s left. Obertan’s “assist” here might get some of the boo boys off his back. We can only live in hope. Newcastle United 1 – 1 West Bromwich Albion.

The game looked to be heading for half time nicely balanced, but somebody forgot to tell Gareth McAuley. The ball was crossed into the United box and headed back by Paul Scharner from the far post for McAuley to score an easy header, with our defence as interested spectators. Newcastle United 1 – 2 West Bromwich Albion.

Ryan Taylor replaced Davide Santon at half time. The second half saw United once again make a bright start and both teams stroking the ball around and playing some good football. Alan Pardew finally decided to bring on Ben Arfa in the 62nd minute with Leon Best making way. This looked like a good move, as it was clear United needed to somehow find a way to open up the West Brom defence, which was playing well. United were on top and putting pressure on West Brom who were looking dangerous on the break. However the pressure was not producing the much-needed breakthrough.

Finally, the breakthrough came.  Ba had been working tirelessly all night and looking dangerous every time he got the ball – and in the 81st minute he got his just reward with his second goal of the night. He got on the end of a long ball forward and chested it down to Ben Arfa, who laid it back for Ba to bury in the top corner. What a player Ba is turning out to be this season! Probably another one we need to be worried about as the January transfer window approaches! Newcastle United 2 – 2 West Bromwich Albion.

Then four minutes later – disaster. A game of swings and roundabouts swung back West Brom’s way. Long glided past Collocini with ease on the right and crossed. Odemwingie knocked it down for Scharner to score. Newcastle United 2 – 3 West Bromwich Albion.

Collocini finally showed his frustration in the 90th minute after Odemwingie had beaten him again, and was booked for bringing him down.

The wheels seem to be definitely loosening on the early-season bandwagon with United’s much-vaunted defence beginning to leak too many goals in recent games. There are still some good individual performances in the team – particularly from the likes of Ba, but results, especially in the last two games, have been particularly disappointing. Our inability to see off Swansea and now West Brom at St James’ Park is worrying. Maybe it’s time to stop thinking about a “top 7” place and start to focus on where we are going to get the 13 points we need to take us to the traditional 40 points safety mark.

Teans, stats etc

Newcastle United (4-4-2) Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, James Perch, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Davide Santon, Gabriel Obertan (Shola Ameobi 73), Haris Vuckic, Cheick Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best (Hatem Ben Arfa 62), Demba Ba.

Subs Rob Elliot (G), Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Mehdi Abeid, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): Ben Foster (G), Steven Reid, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Nicky Shorey; Jerome Thomas (Graham Dorrans 69), Youssouf Mulumbu, Paul Scharner, Chris Brunt (C); Peter Odemwingie, Shane Long.

Subs Marton Fulop (G), Billy Jones, Craig Dawson, George Thorne, Graham Dorrans, Marc-Antonie Fortune.

Goals: Peter Odemwingie (21), Demba Ba (35, 80), Gareth McCauley (45), Paul Scharner (85).

Yellow cards: Fabricio Coloccini (90)

Red cards: None.

Match highlights and post match interviews.

NUFCBlog Author: UTD111 UTD111 has written 59 articles on this blog.

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

Posted on by UTD111 in category: Alan Pardew and Dan Gosling and Haris Vuckic and NUFC Match reports and UTD111 and Yohan Cabaye , with tags:
Comment on this post

21 Responses

  2. Spot on article.

    We lost because of our lack of proper defensive replacements. Pardew tried the best he could with what he had.

    Pardew didn’t put Smith any where near the team which speaks volumes, trusted Santon in keeping the LB berth, introduced Vuckic to an impressive full debut, replaced the disappointing Obertan and replaced Best with the eagerly awaited Ben Arfa. What else do you want from the man?? He did all he could. I just blame the fact we’re short on players again! If we would have had Saylor or a proven quality defender in place we would not have conceded that second goal.

    Pardew is not to blame.

    We need players in January. Defenders and a Striker is a must if we are not to slide dramatically down the table after such a promising start.

    How important is Ba and Saylor to the team ey! Ba has been magnificent and it would be a real shame to see the signing of the season’s goals to result only to a mid table finish.

    We were really unfortunate tonight as we did not play all that bad tbh. It was a weird but entertaining match to watch but Ba and Vuckic cushioned the blow a bit with the tremendous performance.

    HWTL

  3. thanks for getting this so quickly – well done mate.
    yes – throstled indeed.
    what’s the word on Santon? I think I’d have gone for Raylor from the start.

  5. Supermac says:
    December 21, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    “thanks for getting this so quickly – well done mate.”

    Supermac, United111 had it in like lightning. It would have been up much sooner but despite been banned by my quack, I’ve been back on the the bottle again because my daft mate bought me a bottle of port for Christmas and dropped it ’round earlier. If I die it’s all Alan Partridge’s fault!

    I’ll get the teams and the stats on in a few minutes, but I haven’t had a drink for years until the neet, and I seem to have got pissed very easily.

  6. JP…from The Rock says: “What else do you want from the man?? ” – I want him to play our best players in a formation that exploits their talents
    – if he hasn’t worked out how best to use HBA from the start then its a sad judgement on his managerial ability.
    Our 2 wingers are not able to supply the forwards consistantly either in a 4-4-2 without HBA or a 4-4-1-1 with HBA.
    And we don’t appear to have 4 defenders who can hold the back line without support of the wingers!
    Its a dog’s breakfast.
    With the players available tonight we could defend higher up with 5 men winning and dominating the midfield, with Tiote sweeping behind them (attacking the ball) flanked by 2 defenders covering space.
    This gives us 2-1-5-1-1 in defence or 2-6-1-1 in posession and attack.
    Or, if you’re a dinosaur, just shoe-horn unsuitable players into a 4-4-2 and watch them fail.

    HWTL

  8. Supermac says:
    December 22, 2011 at 12:17 am

    “worky – I hope its not North Korean port!”

    Supermac, divven’t knock North Korean booze. I was telling Chuck earlier that their beer is some of the very best in Asia.

    RIP Kim Jong Il

  9. Hello ladies and gentlemen. Who was the fellow who said “you can all suck my duck when you see him play” ? Referring to a one hairs Vuckic …… I did tell you he was top class. Any other day those two shots were in. To be honest tiote had a nightmare. But dilemma do you play Vuckic from the start? If so who instead of? Tiote or Cabaye ? And I think hba to start against bolton did Santon go off injured or was it tactical?

  10. prophet stephen c says:
    December 22, 2011 at 1:48 am

    “Referring to a one hairs Vuckic …… I did tell you he was top class.”

    Me n Bowburn (RIP) telt ’em aal first way back Stephen, they divven’t listen like.

  11. silly to think but should we maybe consider thinking of the dreaded r word (relegation)?? we have plenty points on the table but are next few games are some tricky ones and with no win in 6 is it to early to be worried

  12. nufc337 says:
    December 22, 2011 at 2:41 am

    “silly to think but should we maybe consider thinking of the dreaded r word (relegation)?? ”

    Phil Brown is a manager of around the same ability as Pardew, and his Hull team had a start to their first Premiership season which was similar to ours this season. They eventually just escaped relegation with 36 points in the season that we were relegated, eventually dropping down the season after. However our squad is still much stronger than Hull’s was and I really don’t think we will be relegated, or finish the season with only 36 points.

    However, there’s nothing Ashley seems to like more than a gamble and he suffers from the hubris which affects many people like him. He thinks that because he has achieved great success in one field, he fools himself that he is some kind of omnipotent, all knowing being who can achieve the same success in other fields without the same expertees. He is also an highly unscrupulous huckster who has made alot of enemies in the football world so far, and this will come back to haunt him.

    His propensity to gamble, along with this hubris and arrogance in a field he doesn’t understand is a dangerous cocktail which could see us relegated as it has in the past, there could be some more nasty surprises which could take us anywhere, as they did when we were relagated before. It would really have to be something really shocking to get us relegated this season though after the start we’ve had, and bearing in mind the players we still have at our disposal, until January at least. :-)

  13. It’s such a shame that an excellent (if unexpected) early season unbeaten run is now being squandered because of lack of investment in the squad….and we all know who’s fault THAT is!

  14. We go to Bolton in another must win game but hey if you need to kick start your season then play the toon works every time.

  15. worky: that’s “expertise”

    …gotta show that us yanks ain’t completely illiterate!

    Otherwise, what you said. Though I’m not so sure about “It would really have to be something really shocking.” At this point, all it would take is selling Ba without a suitable replacement. Or just an injury to Ba and not replacing him. Definitely within the realm of possibility.

    Fact is, we just need to get points on the board. I think AP has to take some responsibility if we’re taking our foot off the pedal. When I heard his “30 points by new year will do us fine” line, I thought what, one more win in three is good enough for you? Against Swansea, WBA and Bolton? WTF?

  17. Santon seemed to be playing in midfield most of the first half. If you look at their first goal Colo was stuck who to cover. Santon left the door wide open a few times. He just needs to up his game. He plays well on the attack though.

  18. It’s what i have been saying for ever, we are a small squad, with little quality in depth.
    It’s not as if our dear leaders are not aware of the fact, that plus our history of injuries over the last few years.
    But i guess it’s hard to put your hand in your pocket, hell quality costs, both in transfer fees then wages on top.
    Not to mention a manager who plays the same lineup game after game, using the same tactics, untill they are burnt out or end up with injuries.
    Some plan !
    Hey! if you cant beat the likes of the last three teams we have played, just who can you get a win against?

  19. chuck says:
    December 22, 2011 at 3:45 pm

    ” It’s not as if our dear leaders are not aware of the fact, that plus our history of injuries over the last few years.
    But i guess it’s hard to put your hand in your pocket, hell quality costs, both in transfer fees then wages on top.”

    Ashley is taking punts on ticking time bombs too, and if that doesn’t come off it certainly won’t help the situation with either injuries or wages. Ba’s knee has been extremely effective in helping him to propel the ball into the back of the net so far, but Marveaux’s groin is shot to pieces with five years of wages to pay.

  20. tunyc says:
    December 22, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    “worky: that’s “expertise”

    …gotta show that us yanks ain’t completely illiterate!”

    Aye, completely correct tunyc. I think it’s premature senilty on my part rather than illiteracy though.