One of many missed chances against Blackpool.It was a day of frustration at St James’ Park today as Newcastle lost 2-0 to Ian Holloway’s Blackpool outfit – a defeat that spells the end of an 18-month unbeaten run at home.
An abject first-half performance followed by some abject finishing by Newcastle in the second-half sprinkled sporadically with some fantastic saves from Man of the Match Matt Gilks in the Blackpool goal all combined to leave the Toon Army empty-handed.
A crowd of nearly 50,000 turned up at St James’ Park, and most of them will have been wanting to catch a glimpse of our new signings, particularly Hatem Ben Arfa, in action. As things go, the crowd did get to see a bit of Ben Arfa action, and he looked rather good and showed some good touches during his time on the pitch although I am sure most will have wanted the lad to have a more memorable debut than he ended up having. (more…)
Carroll the killer!Newcastle played out a decent 1-1 draw away at Wolves this afternoon.
An away point is always welcome, especially against a team that is likely to be a rival near the bottom of the table this season. Newcastle dominated most of the proceedings though, and will feel that perhaps they should have been travelling back north with the three points in the bag.
Referee Stuart Atwell, a native Midlander who lives around 20 miles from Molineux, was an absolute joke and should hang his head in shame at some of his decisions today. Indeed Atwell is no stranger to ridiculous decisions and was struck of the referee register not so long back for a series of blunders. On the evidence of today I would suggest that the space on the register be restored to Mr Atwell after he produced the yellow card an impressive twelve times during the course of the game. (more…)
Ryan Taylor after his wonder strike.Newcastle safely negotiated a potentially hazardous passage through to round three of the Carling Cup last night as they beat Accrington Stanley 3-2 at The Crown Ground.
The catchy advert once said ‘Accrington Stanley….. Who are they?’, and I can pretty much safely say that a largely second-string Newcastle side will know full well just who Accrington Stanley are now.
A decent game with chances at either end probably yielded the correct result come full-time, although if it wasn’t for a combination of poor finishing, the woodwork and some good goalkeeping then the score could have been much higher, for either side in fairness.
Newcastle made most of the running as the game got underway, something you would expect a Premier League team to do against opposition that sits a full three leagues below them, with Nile Ranger looking particularly lively. (more…)
Carroll - The hat-trick hero.As unexpected things go, todays game has to be pretty much up there with the best of them.
Not so much the game itself, as most of us knew that Newcastle would at the very least be up for the fight, but the 6-0 scoreline has to be, surely has to be, the most unexpected part of proceedings.
What I watched today enthused me no end.
The silly mistakes had disappeared and Newcastle looked quick whilst in possesion. Andy Carroll was again immense, and will go home tonight carrying the match ball after a fantastic, and yes unexpected, hat-trick. (more…)
Giggs scoring Man Utd's third of the night.It was never going to be easy heading to Old Trafford for the first game of our Premier League return, and the scoreline of 3-0 to Manchester United will reflect that.
Mistakes get punished in this league, and all three goals conceded could easily be attributed to an error from a player in a black and white shirt at some point.
To use that as an excuse would be harsh on Manchester United though. At times they were sublime, and even if our players hadn’t have made the errors that cost the goals, I am pretty sure that the Red Devils would have got them eventually. Paul Scholes put on a masterclass as did another old head, Ryan Giggs, who came of the bench to score the best goal of the game. (more…)
