Magpies on song – Cisse & Benny goals secure 3 points
Posted on March 25th, 2012 | 89 Comments |
Within the first 5 minutes of kick-off I was wondering where our players had gone and who the imposters in orange were. We looked skillful, confident and fluent in possession, in complete contrast to the team I’ve been watching for that last 4 or 5 weeks. And it paid off too.
Within 2 minutes Jonas placed a pinpoint perfect pass at Perch’s feet in a great position in the box to the left of goal – unfortunately Perch just couldn’t control it. A few minutes later Cisse’s run down the left set up a shot from Demba Ba who forced a save by Ben Foster.
Strike 1 came on 6 minutes. Cabaye took a short corner, passed it to Benny who put in a cross, only for it to be cleared as far as Jonas. Jonas passed it through the defence and to the left for Benny who passed across the goal mouth; Ba stretched for it but couldn’t reach so it was left for Cisse to tap it in. 0-1
A couple of minutes later Benny worked himself into the centre from the right and had a crack at goal from about 5 yards outside the area but it sailed harmlessly high.
Strike 2 came just 6 minutes after the first. Colo had run the ball out for a West Brom throw-in out to our left and inside the area. Andrews crossed the ball in for West Brom and Colo cleared the ball out of defence to Benny who flicked it quickly to Cabaye and started the charge forwards. Benny got the ball back from Cabaye and continued forwards, passed it to Cisse who passed it back to Benny who wrong-footed a defender with a little jink and found the bottom left corner of the net. 0-2 and it was as good a goal as I’ve seen from us this season.
West Brom tried to get a foothold in the game and at times they looked fairly fluent and assured in possession themselves, although they lacked for any sort of quality finishing. They had a spell of more even possession resulting in a series of corners that were difficult for Krul with the sun in his eyes but the best they could manage was a header over the bar from Ridgewell and slamming shot from Morrison that went wide.
Cabaye got on the end of a goal kick from Krul – nodded down by either Ba or the WBA defender, I couldn’t tell which – but thumped it out wide from a long way out. Fortune had a chance at the other end when a cross found his head but he put it over the bar.
West Brom had the ball in the net on 32 minutes after Fortune’s cross was turned in by a West Brom player I couldn’t make out but it was offside anyway.
Strike 3 came on 34 minutes after Danny Simpson’s throw-in in our own half was, after some fumbling around, won by Ben Arfa. He passed it to Demba Ba in the centre who passed it back to Benny, who had carried on running. Benny passed it back to Ba who was now in the box to the left. Ba back-heeled it to Benny who had looped around behind him, Benny pulled it back from the goal line towards Ba. Ba went to ground but Cisse was on hand once again to put it in the bottom corner of the net. 0-3
Shortly after the goal there was a bit of a worry as Colo seemed to be suffering from a hamstring problem. There seemed to be some communication with the bench and Santon was warming up at one point, although he sat back down again and Colo gingerly played out the first half. Anyway, that was pretty much all the points of interest in the first 45.
Half Time
Colo was in fact substituted for Santon at the start of the second half and West Brom made two tactical substitutions themselves, replacing Andrews with Long and Thomas with Brunt and West Brom came out of the traps for the second half like a bat out of hell which would be gone when the morning comes and they had us taking rearguard action for most of the first 10 minutes. A shot from Morrison went wide and a shot from Mulumbu was deflected by Williamson out of its path towards goal.
On 49 minutes, though, Cisse was played in by Cabaye and only had Foster to beat to get his hat-trick. However, he hit the shot low and Foster’s prone defence was enough to keep it out. Personally, I think Cisse is far better on the end of shots where he has no time to think about things and instead lives on his reactions.
On about 52 minutes we let West Brom claw one back thanks to a major defensive cock-up. A long ball from the West Brom half saw Odemwingie and Williamson shoulder to shoulder chasing a ball into our area. Krul came forward to take the ball but Williamson inexplicably headed it out of Krul’s reach straight into the path of Shane Long who simply had to side foot it into an open net. 1-3.
West Brom kept applying pressure with headers going wide, Krul having to save a shot and Odemwingie plaguing Williamson (although to be fair to Willo he was taking no chances now and solidly clearing to the by-line when he could).
Finally, getting a breather, Ben Arfa made another great run at West Brom, taking the ball from deep inside our own half to just inside their area but his shot was saved by Foster. A few minutes later Ba found himself with a chance to break his dry spell but his attempt to curl it to the left of Foster was soft and easily saved.
We were nowhere near as dominant this half and without Colo we looked a bit more disorganised in defence. West Brom tried to take advantage of this but couldn’t.
On 68 minutes Williamson picked up a yellow card for elbowing Shane Long in the back of the head and this seemed to spark a spate of injuries that slowed the game right down. First of all Mulumbu pulled up with some sort of leg problem – hamstring maybe – and was substituted for Paul Scharner. Then Cisse was stretchered off with what the commentator thought was cramp in both calves and replaced by young Shane Ferguson. Then Morrison came off second best in a challenge with Demba Ba, so he limped off down the tunnel to be replaced by nobody as West Brom had used up all their substitutions. Just for good measure, Shola smacked Ridgewell in the heed, although Ridgewell was okay to continue after a few minutes. Somewhere in the middle of all that Yohan Cabaye took a free kick from 5 or 6 yards outside the box but put it well over and Ben Arfa was replaced by Shola Ameobi, although not because he was injured.
All these stoppages seemed to put a stop to West Brom’s efforts to get back at us, although they continued to try. It was to no avail though as after 7 minutes of injury time the ref signalled the end of the game at 1-3 to us.
It seems that so many times this season we’ve played in so-called “games of two halves” and this was a bit like that too, although perhaps not quite as bad as some have been. Our original front 3 were excellent today though and I reckon they’d be a handful for any team. Benny just seems to be getting better all the time; clearly he’s an attacker first and defender second but he’s certainly not afraid to put in the tackles too when it’s necessary.
Roll on Liverpool!
Match Details
Goals: Papiss Cissé (6, 34), Ben Arfa (12) Shane Long (52).
Yellow cards: Mike Williamson (65).
Red cards: None.
Possession: West Brom 50.6%, Newcastle United 49.4%.
Shots on Target: West Brom 2, Newcastle United 7.
Shots off Target: West Brom 9, Newcastle United 3.
Teams
West Bromwich Albion (4-5-1): Ben Foster (G), Billy Jones, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Liam Ridgewell; Peter Odemwingie, Youssouf Mulumbu (Paul Scharner 69), James Morrison, Keith Andrews (Shane Long HT), Jerome Thomas (Chris Brunt HT), Marc-Antoine Fortune.
Substitutes: Luke Daniels, Nicky Shorey, Craig Dawson, Paul Scharner, Chris Brunt, Simon Cox, Shane Long.
Newcastle United (4-3-3): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (C, Davide Santon 62), James Perch, Hatem Ben Arfa (Shola Ameobi 71), Yohan Cabaye, Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez, Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse (Shane Ferguson 74).
Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, Davide Santon, Mehdi Abeid, Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic, Shola Ameobi.
WBA v Newcastle United Match highlights.
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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.
“Within the first 5 minutes of kick-off I was wondering where our players had gone and who the imposters in orange were. We looked skillful, confident and fluent in possession, in complete contrast to the team I’ve been watching for that last 4 or 5 weeks. And it paid off too.”
I was thinking it was the Netherlands with a couple of strips of black insulating tape stuck on top of their shirts Hugh, though not the Kung Fu thugs that were in the World Cup. It did seem to be a much better approach from the Silver Supremo than our usual away strategies though it was still six and two threes. West Brom absolutely hummed in the first half and did make it very easy for us. Second half was different.