Morten Gamst Pederson opens the scoring.In a match with few positives, Newcastle slumped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers last night.
To make matters worse, the man in charge of Blackburn is our former manager, Sam Allardyce, and he would have absolutely loved getting one over on us last night.
The game itself wasn’t a classic, and Newcastle, after recieving so much praise for our defence over the last few weeks, were made to pay for two defensive errors.
On the positive side of things, Andy Carroll continued his good form and should have all but guaranteed himself a place in the England squad come Saturday.
Newcastle named an unchanged side for the fourth game running, which was kind of expected really given the fact that the very same team borught us wins against West Ham, Sunderland and Arsenal. Don’t break up a winning team without reason and all that. (more…)
Carroll does the business again.Newcastle capped a fantastic eight days of football as they notched up their third win on the spin at The Emirates this afternoon.
Not many people gave us a chance of getting any kind of result against Arsenal, including me to be fair, but yet again Chris Hughton managed his men to a defiant , only this time it was away at a top-four ground.
The chant of old used to go along the lines of ‘one-nil, to the Arsenal’, but not today as Newcastle shut Arsenal down and stopped them playing. To a man they were excellent, and to me this result ranks above some of the other stunners that we have pulled off already this season. Joey Barton said in his post-match interview on Sky that Newcastle had ruined a few betting coupons so far this season, which is true as we now boast exactly the same away league record as Chelsea, which is the best in the league I hasten to add.
Newcastle named an unchanged side for the third game in a row, which meant that Chris Hughton remained positive in his approach to the game when many had predicted that he may adopt a more defensive approach. (more…)
Shola on the mark again against Black Cats.Newcastle asserted themsleves as top dogs in the North-East yet again this afternoon as they thumped local rivals Sunderland 5-1 at St James’ Park this afternoon.
Whether it be the manner in which their team capitulated, or the fact that they lost so badly, or the fact that their team simply didn’t bother to turn up, there can be one thing that will be certain – the streets of Wearside will be full of froth and dribble this fine Halloween evening.
The headlines will no doubt be taken by captain Kevin Nolan who inspired the victory by bagging a hat-trick, so I thought I would take a different approach and put up a picture of Shola Ameobi as he bagged a brace in the game and continue his fine goalscoring run of form against The Mackems. Realistically though, there was an awful lot of good performances out there on the St James’ Park pitch today and each and every one of them can feel justifiably proud of their respective performances. (more…)
Unlucky Timmy.....Newcastle lost 4-0 against Arsenal last night in a match that put an end to any lingering hopes the home side may have had of making an appearance at Wembley.
The 4-0 scoreline suggests that Newcastle were dominated all the way by an Arsenal side that was slightly stronger than you would expect to see Arsene Wenger field in the Carling Cup under normal circumstances.
The fact is that we weren’t dominated, and despite the harsh scoreline I actually believe there are a fair few positives that can be took from the match last night.
Chris Hughton made nine changes to the side that beat West Ham just four days ago in a move that signalled what most of us already knew anyway – that the derby, and a chance of three points on Sunday are more important to the club than progression to the quarter-final stages of the League Cup. (more…)
Carroll grabs the headlines for the right reasons...Those of you that have been reading the ‘blog in detail during the week will note that I said that the match against West Ham had a hint of Doncaster away last season about it.
I may not be the best with predictions, although certain people seem intent on me having to make one when I never really want to, but I was spot on with the Doncaster comparison.
To refresh your memory, we went to Doncaster last season, who were in good form at the time, with the fallout from the Carroll/Taylor affair still circulating through various parts of the media. Carroll was at the centre of attention for the wrong reasons again, but he popped up and scored the winning goal to put an end to a troubling run of form for Newcastle at the time. Sound familiar?
Well it should, as yesterday was almost a carbon copy of that scenario as Newcastle beat a West Ham side, who had not lost in five games, 2-1 at The Boleyn Ground/Upton Park (delete as appropriate), and once again it was Carroll, a source of negative headlines during the week, who popped up to score the winner. (more…)
