Best gets brace, then pulled off by Pardew.After the kick off of this disappointingly attended home game (42,684), a fairly congested midfield quagmire seemed to be the order of the day in the opening section thanks to Newcastle, who once again got off to a very disappointing start.
Looking on the positive side though, Best almost fashioned a chance for himself in the eighth minute, however possible overelaboration led to the chance fizzling out ion the end. As the game settled down a little though, it was Fulham who were seizing most of the attacking initiative, and indeed they started to ‘boss’ a somewhat disjointed Magpies, who just seemed chasing the ball en-masse without much of a coherent system. It seemed as if the likes of Nolan and Barton were missed to organise the Magpies’ midfield as Martin Jol’s Cottagers were certainly more organised and well spaced at this stage, it was early days though. Howay Captain Colo!
Half an hour or so passed though and it still wasn’t too good, with Fulham still easily having the Lion’s share of possession and making the better passing moves. It was much the same with the minnows of Scunthorpe in the League Cup the other evening though, so there was still hope. (more…)
Ryan Taylor prepares for more set piece glory.Messrs Ryan Taylor and Ameobi Junior spared United’s blushes at Glanford Park, as Newcastle battled back from a goal down at half-time to put their name in the hat this Saturday for the League Cup 3rd round draw.
As I found my way to the turnstiles, and to get me in the mood for the match, I purchased the match day program (£3) and happened across the usual ‘all about Newcastle United’ section. There was an insightful piece about the deadly ex-Newcastle United striker, Paul Dalglish, titled ‘Whatever Happened to Paul Dalglish?’ I remember frequently asking myself the same question after he had played a match for us, as his impact on Tyneside was minimal. Anyway, turns out that the Dalglish article was not a ‘wind up’ from our hosts and he used to play for the Irons.
Before the match kicked-off and as the team news filtered through, I was slightly disappointed that Haris Vuckic found himself on the Magpies bench. I was looking forward to getting a good look at him, but little did I know that the match would progress into extra-time and I would get the chance to see the young Slovenian. It was good to know that Dan Gosling was about to get his first competitive start and Sylvain Marveaux was to make his Magpies debut. (more…)
If Ameobi scores...From the kick off of this League Cup evening game, Scunthorpe came out of the traps giving everything while Newcastle seemed to be treating it as some kind of training game.
Once the dye was cast, the Magpies just couldn’t seem to get back into the first half, except perhaps a little in the last ten minutes. Overall though, it was a dire performance from Newcastle United until the break, and a good one from the ‘Irons’ of Scunthorpe. Uniteds defence was shakier than Shakin’ Stevens at times, and it took less than a quarter of an hour for Scunthorpe’s Dagnall to take advantage. First of all it was a near miss as the ball bounced off Coloccini. The resulting corner saw Dagnall making no mistake the second time though with a fine finish fromm around eight yards to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Scunthorpe were very effective in stopping Newcastle getting any flowing passing movements together, not that the Premiership side were trying particularly hard to show what should have been a gulf in class. In the rare opportunities Newcastle did have, mostly long ball efforts, Scunthorpe defended well and soon counterattacked to keep the pressure on, closing us down much better than we closed them down. (more…)
On a rare sunny day in the dark underbelly of the North East, Newcastle had to negotiate an early derby game full of expectation amongst the deluded locals.
Such is the optimism after shelling out a fat wedge on a new bunch of fair to middling or overaged players. As was to be anticipated, the dark ones came out with an attitude to try and make amends for last seasons poor performances and results.
Unsurprisingly, they had the lion’s share of the early exchanges. Probably right up to the 15th minute when a Joey Barton header was blatantly ‘saved’ on the line by Larsson, who, incidently, isn’t a ‘keeper. (more…)
In what seems to be somwthing of a tradition now, Newcastle United faced their usual stiff test against one of the ‘top four’ clubs in their first game of the Premiership season.
Those who might have been expecting a repeat of the last fixture against the Gunners were to be disappointed. However, although our last game against Arsenal was a 4-4 rollercoaster and this was a fairly flat 0-0 draw overall, there were similarities besides both teams walking away with a point each. It was strongly arguable that Arsenal dominated the midfield in the first half with their 4-2-3-1 against our 4-4-2. As well as this, the Joey Barton show also played a key role in controversial circumstances resulting in an Arsenal player, the debutante, Gervinho this time rather than Abu Diaby, being sent off and changing the balance of the game somewhat. Plus ça change… (more…)
