Highlights of the game. 11 minute highlights of the match.
Swansea were defending very deep in the first half of this game, with Newcastle United keeping the Swans pinned back in and around their own box for quite a few spells. However as the second half rolled on, Swansea did make something of a comeback. So after an hour or so of complete dominance by the Magpies which they failed to capitalise on, it actually started to look possible that we could have ended the game emptyhanded. It ended as “honours even” at the end though.(more…)
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! (more…)
It's three fingers Mike.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Saturday 3rd Dec, 2011. Kick-off: 12.45pm. Referee: Mike Dean.
Newcastle made just one change to the side that drew 1-1 at Old Trafford last weekend, with the suspended Jonas Gutierrez replaced by Peter Lovenkrands. For the 13th time this season, Newcastle United were able to field the same defence that has conceded the joint lowest total of goals so far in the Premier League (12).
Frank Lampard returned to the Chelsea midfield, in place of Raul Meireles, who dropped to the bench. This was the Blues only change, with striker Fernando Torres again having to settle for a place on the bench. Danger man Sturridge was chosen to play wide right with Drogba and Mata completing the front three.
The players took to the field in front of a full house at SJP and joined in with the crowd of 52,305 for a rousing minute of applause for Gary Speed. Newcastle coach John Carver was clearly upset as he had worked with Gary as recently as last season when they were at Sheffield United together. Incidentally Speed scored his first goal for Newcastle in this corresponding fixture in 1998 which ended in a 3-1 defeat of Chelsea. (more…)
Manchester United: Not getting all their own way for a change.Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester. Date: Saturday 26 November, 2011 Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Mike Jones (replaced Phil Dowd).
After such a great result was over-shadowed by the deeply sad news of the death of a true Geordie Legend, Gary Speed, I’ve found it very hard to commit to a match report. It’s with a heavy heart that I put finger to keypad to type out something that pales into insignicance in such upsetting circumstances. It times like these that football takes a backseat.
The game:
Newcastle traveled to Manchester for the second week running to pit themselves against the current champions at Old Trafford. Having not won there in almost 40 years, every pundit and their dog probably had us down for a loss. But despite playing the final 15 minutes with ten men after the senidning off of Gutierrez, and receiving everything Manchester United had to throw at us including the kitchen sink, once again it was some great last ditch defending including a few more great saves from Tim Krul helped Newcastle to snatch a rare point from Old Trafford. (more…)
Giving us a taste of what's to come?Newcastle United lose their unbeaten record for the season to Manchester City with 2 penalties and a few hundred million pounds making all the difference.
First Half
We got off to a promising start, attacking from the off up the right. Sammy put in a poor cross through and it eventually went out for a goal kick off Danny Simpson.
City spent a few minutes passing the ball amongst their back four, looking for an attack route and had their first meaningful attack after 4 and a half minutes when Milner’s shot was blocked by Guthrie. Not long after that, Richards got a good cross in and Steven Taylor had to clear the ball. Taylor was again called into action shortly afterwards to block a shot from Milner.
City had a lot of possession in the first 15 minutes but so far we’d managed to deal with them and even started to make some forward runs ourselves with Sammy dribbling nicely up the right only to finish off with a poor cross.
City came back on the counter attack and it took a block by Taylor and a nice interception by Colo to keep things intact, although on 20 minutes we were lucky when Aguero was in a good position to get a shot off and put it over the bar. (more…)
