Taking Papiss! Newcastle United 2, Aston Villa 1.
Posted on February 7th, 2012 | 65 Comments |
Date: 5th February 2012
Kick Off: 1.30pm
Referee: Mark Halsey.
Well, it was another three points in the bag for the Magpies as they passed the supposedly “magical” 40 point mark, with no less than 14 games of the Premiership season to go. Apart from this though, the most obvious salient point of this game was the debut of our second Senegal sharp shooter, Papiss Cisse, who took a mere 72 minutes to open his account for Newcastle United in spectacular style.
Starting the game on the bench, with Leon Best starting upfront alongside Demba Ba, it was expected that he would be given a run out some time in the second half just to get acclimatised for a probable start in the next game. However, assuming that was the general idea, and I think it’s safe to assume that it was, the plan had to be brought forward significantly when Leon Best was blocked from taking a shot by Villa’s Stephen Warnock. Best’s leg awkwardly struck Warnock’s blocking lower leg instead of the ball, with the striker picking up a Warnock knee knock in the process. Eleven minutes and he was out as Alan Pardew faced a very tough call, whether to select Cisse or Fenham’s very own goal machine, Shola Ameobi, as they both warmed up on the touchline. Of course, the Silver Supremo would have probably been flayed alive if he didn’t stick with the script, albeit with the star of the show taking his call earlier than expected.
First half
To return to the beginning, Pardew went back to basics on the tactical front after recent experiments left us exposed and losing twice against Fulham and Brighton respectively. Though the last game, against Blackburn, was a victory, the 2-0 scoreline painted a deceptive picture of a game where Blackburn frequently dominated general play. So, it was back to the no nonsense, direct and workmanlike 4-4-2 which brought the team it’s long unbeaten run earlier in the season, and with none of this Ben Arfa style foreign funny business.
It was a fairly quiet game until Best went down. With the Magpies temporarily down to ten men, Tim Krul saw his first real action of the game when Villa’s on loan Robbie Keane expertly threaded through the ball to fellow striker Darren Bent near the left post of Krul’s goal, Best’s short ranged effort was well blocked by the legs of the flying Dutchman though. However Krul’s block sent the ball back into play and it was eventually blasted back at him by Villa’s Stiliyan Petrov in what were probably their best two chances of the game so far. Krul finally gathered the ball after Petrov’s long range blast but it was one of those which could have trickled under. The next break in play finally saw Cisse coming on to great applause before he’d even kicked the ball.
It wasn’t long until we saw him introduce himself with a decent header in the 15th minute but it was at Shay Given in the Villa goal. From the moment Cisse came on he was full of running, and his sheer athleticism proved to be a bigger handful than Katie Price for Villa from the time he trotted on. His movement was very good in that it was intelligent as well as enthuastic, and he also showed some bravery too in sticking his heed in for one or two chances where others may have backed off.
It was his Senagalese partner in crime, Demba Ba, who was the first to hit the back of the net though, something which is almost obligatory now for the prodigious scorer. Although Aston Villa were generally gaining in confidence and creating some decent chances at this point (around half an hour into the game), Ba soon shut them up after Ryan Taylor dug the ball out for him to supply an assist in the box. Just after making the pass though, Villa’s Steven Warnock caught the Scouse utilty man’s shin, with Taylor somersaulting over Warnock nand out of the game. This meant that Warnock had now claimed his second Magpie victim after Best’s exit thorugh a similar incident with the Lancashire left-back’s leg. Newcastle United 1 – 0 Aston Villa.
Though both sides were coming up with some decent passages of play and creating a few chances in a roughly even game, it was probably the Magpies who were just a little more threatening where it counted overall. The half wasn’t over by any means however. Due to Stephen Warnock’s Magpie massacre and all the stretcher action, referee Halsey declared that there would be no less than six minutes extra time for the first half alone. In the last of those minutes, a defensive lapse by Coloccini and Williamson allowed Toon old boy Charles N’Zogbia to thread through a cross from the left to Robbie Keane, who then hit home from point blank range in a real poacher’s effort. That was that for the first half. Half time: Newcastle United 1 – 1 Aston Villa.
Second half
Cisse’s menacing ways continued in the second period, however he wasn’t the only one to shine by any means. Danny Guthrie also had an excellent game overall. With James Perch once again putting in a respectable no nonsense performance in the defensive midfield role, Guthrie could concentrate more on playmaking in the middle of the park, and it was he who gave Cisse Newcastle’s first real chance after the break. After a few half chances for the Magpies, Guthrie eventually found Cisse’s head for what looked like a free header and an excellent chance, however the new boy just couldn’t quite get his head over and the ball was lofted over the crossbar. can’t win ’em all though.
Overall, the second half was generally more exciting than the first, with the game seemingly getting better as it progressed. The Villans had some periods where they were putting us under some strong pressure too. Villa manager Alex McLeish decided to pull off a fairly effective N’Zogbia for Emile heskey, cue boos from the home crowd for the ex Mag. Arguably though, it was probably on loan Robbie Keane (from LA Galaxy), who had the best case as Villa’s man of the match. However Villa weren’t getting the ball to Keane quite as much in the second half as thay were in the first. On the Magpies’ side though, as well as having our two first choice frontmen back, they were also receiving much better service in general than Best and Ameobi were in their absence.
Moving on to “the main event,” Cisse’s debut goal for the Magpies, it came from a very nice cross from Gutierrez, something he is often criticised for by many armchair critics. Nice cross though it was, it seemed as if Richard Dunne should have cleared it really. He seemed to lunge at it half heartedly with his left leg but came up a little short, missing the ball completely. The ball uncleared, the debutant then proceeded to chest the ball down skilfully to the left, then firing a left foot volley of great power and accuracy right into the corner of Shay Given’s goal, giving the Irish shot stopper no chance whatsoever. The Geordies in the crowd then proceeded to go bananas at what was a top-notch goal to open his account with, though not untypical. Having watched the player in the Bundesliga for quite some time, it certainly didn’t surprise me, and I can also confirm that he can be lethal with both feet too! Newcastle United 2 – 1 Aston Villa.
Also worthy of mentioning in dispatches was a thirty yard screaming bender from James Perch, which wasn’t far wide of the Villa goal. He’s had a forest’s worth of stick from the above mentioned armchair critics in the past, but he’s been doing a really good job of shutting them up now he’s been played in a defensive midfield position, which seems to suit him very well indeed on the evidence of the last couple of games, especially the one preceeding this one, where he was probably Newcastle United’s best player. Time will tell.
Once again, this game wasn’t over by any means after our second goal, as the visitors continued to threaten for the remainder of the game. Most notably, it took another one of the flying Dutchman’s wondersaves to keep out the Villans in the 87th minute. An excellent Barry Bannan long range cross was swung in to the most dangerous of areas, with Craig Gardner diving in to glance the ball with his head. Krul showed his excellent shot stopping reflexes again when he parried Gardner’s point blank attempt, however it wasn’t over yet. The Dutch wonderstopper now faced an Emile Heskey sized missile (which isn’t small) flying in at him with some speed. With that big lump flying in at him, after brilliantly parrying Gardner’s effort, he now had to make a second save, gathering the ball with great aplomb before the bulky forward moved in for sloppy seconds. It was a magnificent double save, however if Krul had failed to gather, Heskey being Heskey, he may still have managed to blaze it over the bar from a yard or two outside the goal line!
Thankfully though, we scraped through in the end to chalk up yet another victory with a one goal margin. Overall, it was a reasonably even game with qualities and faults on both sides, though I think we just about deserved the win overall.
Teams and stats
Newcastle United (4-4-2): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Ryan Taylor (Gabriel Obertan 33), Davide Santon, James Perch, Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best (Papiss Cisse 14), Demba Ba (shola Ameobi 89).
Subs: Rob Elliot (G), Shane Ferguson, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Hatem Ben Arfa, Shola Ameobi, Papiss Cisse.
Aston Villa (4-4-1-1): Shay Given (G), Alan Hutton, Richard Dunne (c), Carlos Cuellar, Stephen Warnock; Stephen Ireland (Barry Bannan HT), Ciaran Clark (Craig Gardner 85), Stiliyan Petrov, Charles N’Zogbia (Emile Heskey 66), Robbie Keane, Darren Bent.
Subs: Brad Guzan, Andreas Weimann, Eric Lichaj, Gary Gardner, Barry Bannan, Nathan Baker, Emile Heskey.
Goals: Demba Ba (30), Robbie Keane (45+5), Papiss Cisse (72).
Yellow cards: Danny Simpson (37), Richard Dunne (39), Darren Bent (68).
Red cards: None.
Possession: Newcastle United 51%, Aston Villa 49%.
Newcastle United v Aston Villa full match link.
Newcastle United v Aston Villa long highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.
It now appears that “Demba” is derived from an ancient root of the Jedi Knights and means “A Dark Lord of The Toon” – so the arrival of two full Dembas at NUFC is both prophetic and inevitable – the Force is with us !