The party’s over: Norwich City v Newcastle United match report/highlights/interviews etc…
Posted on December 11th, 2011 | 30 Comments |
Highlights of our disappointing 4-2 defeat at the hands of Delia Smith’s Canaries at Carrow Road. As usual, I will endeavour to update these when better, longer ones become available.
Alan Pardew went into this game matching his opponents with a two big lads upfront appraoch, forsaking Ben Arfa for the silky skills of Shola Ameobi. However despite their good work upfront, a patched up Magpies’ defence found themselves outmuscled in the air by the powerful Norwich frontmen, Steve Morison and Grant Holt, who scored three goals between them in this 4-2 victory for the home side.
Newcastle did settle into the game more quickly than Norwich in the first ten minutes, but there were no big chances either way. The first real shot coming from Cabaye in the ninth minute after a fairly poor lay off from Ba, but it was straight at the Norwich keeper. However there was a scary moment for the Magpies fairly early in the game when Davide Santon handled the ball in the area. The referee didn’t give a penalty, but after looking at it a few times, both Santon and Newcastle United were very lucky to get away with that one!
However the game finally started to go Norwich’s way in the 39th minute. Referee Martin Atkinson judged that Krul carried the ball over thene, but it didn’t look like he had from what I could see. In what was to become a pattern, the resulting corner which shouldn’t have been was lofted into the box for a header. This one didn’t go in first time, but rebounded for a scrappy exchange close to Tim Krul’s goal line. Hoolahan got a final touch which eventually took it over for Norwich’s first goal. Norwich City 1 – 0 Newcastle United.
Only a few minutes later though, Ba struck back as the half time whistle loomed. After being picked out with a great Cabaye pass he assuredly took the ball down with his first touch, then dispatched a cool finish below the legs goalkeeper John Ruddy and into the bottom corner.
Half time: Norwich City 1 – 1 Newcastle United.
Second half.
On the hour mark, a truly disastrous spell for the Magpies got underway when Grant Holt put the home side into the lead once more. His initial headed effort was well saved by Tim Krul, however it came back to him and he made no mistake with his second header as Newcastle were dominated in the air. Norwich City 2 – 1 Newcastle United.
Only two or three minutes later, Steve Morison then piled on the agony for us with another header. After Dan Gosling ran on to ball, kicking it forward much too powerfully and handing possession straight to Norwich midfielder Andrew Crofts. Crofts then proceeded to put in an excellent cross into the box for Steve Morison to head home with an equally excellent finish. Norwich City 3 – 1 Newcastle United.
Things didn’t get any easier either when Dan Gosling got himself sent off either for a late, feet up challenge on Russell Martin. He was already on a yellow for an earlier indiscretion, but this was a straight red (and a three game suspension) in what was a fairly awful afternoon generally for the ex Evertonian. A long spell on Alan Pardew’s naughty step beckons, or it should anyway.
It wasn’t quite over though. To our credit, we did a fairly remarkable job of keeping Norwich under some fairly decent spells of pressure with only ten men, and Demba Ba pulled another one back five minutes after the sending off in the 70th minute. Ameobi saw the ball early, dispossessing Norwich’s Zak Whitbread then picking out Ba brilliantly with his great diagonal pass through the Norwich defence. This left Ba to jink past one Norwich defender, then dispatching another great finish past Ruddy in the Norwich goal. Some very good attacking play overall from the big lads upfront, It was just a shame that we were conceeding goals more quickly than we could score them! Norwich City 3 – 2 Newcastle United.
It was not to be however. Although Ba pulled back a couple, it was not enough to make up for our deficiencies at the other end. In the 83rd minute, the Coup de grace was finally administered with another typical Norwich goal, another close range free header when Grant Holt connected with an excellent Andrew Crofts corner. All that was left was a very quick trot around for Alan Smith and Shane Ferguson in injury time, and that was that.
Final Score: Norwich City 4 – 2 Newcastle United.
Conclusion
Despite Norwich’s undoubted aerial dominance in the box, there should be no witchhunt for our makeshift centre backs, Perch and Simpson. Whilst they hardly excelled, not all of the blame should for the defeat should rest on their shoulders just because they were the replacements for Steven Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini. If anything, Krul who was having a fairly poor game by his previously high standards too, along with Dan Gosling of course. On the back of so many excellent performances from the flying Dutchman, I suppose it had to come at some stage though. There were one or two others too, but certainly not Demba Ba and Shola Ameobi.
Whilst Demba Ba will be one of the few to win plaudits from this game for yet another brace of goals, a special mention really should go to Shola Ameobi for his good passing, distribution and the way he worked with Ba in attack. Not least when the Fenham Eusebio brilliantly dispossessed Norwich’s Whitbread and laid on Ba for that second goal described above.
Finally, my apologies for the relatively brief match report this week, though some will be thankful for that no doubt!
Teams
Norwich City (4-4-2): John Ruddy (G), Russell Martin, Steve Morison, Zak Whitbread, Andrew Crofts, Grant Holt (C), Andrew Surman (Oli Johnson 80), Wes Hoolahan, David Fox, Marc Tierney, Kyle Naughton.
Subs: Declan Rudd, Oli Johnson, Simeon Jackson, Anthony Pilkington, Elliot Bennett, Leon Barnett, Aaron Wilbraham.
Newcastle United (4-4-2): Tim Krul (G), Ryan Taylor, James Perch, Danny Simpson, Davide Santon; Gabriel Obertan (Sammy Ameobi 82), Dan Gosling, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez (c), Shola Ameobi, Demba Ba
Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, Alan Smith, Sammy Ameobi, Hatem Ben Arfa, Peter Lovenkrands, Leon Best
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Match Stats
Goals: Wes Hoolahan (39), Demba Ba (45, 70), Grant Holt (60, 83), Steve Morison (63).
Yellow cards: Andrew Crofts (15), David Fox (35), Shola Ameobi (40), Wes Hoolahan (54), Dan Gosling (57).
Red cards: Dan Gosling (straight red – 70).
Possession: Norwich City 52.4%, Newcastle United 47.6%.
Post match interviews.
Alan Pardew has another moan at injuries refs and such.
Norwich City manager, Paul Lambert, thinks his side thouroughly deserved the win.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.
Half of the team played poorly. Obertan was guilty a number of times of darting away and then not looking up and missing opportunities. He needs to take a look at Sholas pass to Ba for the second goal.
One good thing this run has shown is that it has shown where we are lacking in the squad. We desperately need another class centre half, another winger and another striker.