Please Blow The WhistleVenue: D.W. Stadium, Wigan. Date: Saturday, 28th April, 2012. Kick-Off: 3.00pm. Referee: Mike Dean.
United went into this game with confidence sky high on the back of six straight wins, sitting fourth in the table and chasing an unexpected place in next season’s European Champions League.
Wigan, although one of the teams fighting relegation, had a good recent record too, having won 3 of their last 4 games beating Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal, although slipping up in their last game with a 2-1 defeat at Fulham.
This was the first of our final 4 “cup finals” and the 4500 United fans took over one end of the ground to make sure the team felt right at home in a vital away game. It was 4th top v 4th bottom with United having “momentum”. What could possibly go wrong? Surely even the ominous pre-match news that top tipster Mark “I always get them wrong” Lawrenson had tipped us to win couldn’t stop the Newcastle steamroller? (more…)
Cabaye bags a brace in win against StokeThe march towards Europe continues as Newcastle comfortably beat Stoke 3-0 at St James’ Park with goals from Cabaye (2) and Cisse.
Two weeks seems like a long wait between games, particularly when Newcastle have the winning momentum with them. Time seemed to pass so slowly that I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve entered a new geological era in the interim. The tediolithic, perhaps. However, the winning momentum hadn’t deserted us and Newcastle cruised to a well-deserved win over Stoke.
It took us a while to get warmed up to things though. For the first 14 minutes we probed Stoke a little but didn’t really threaten and Stoke had the best of the early chances. On 7 minutes Etherington floated a long shot over our bar and a few minutes later Crouch headed a ball across to Walters who was right in front of goal and a mere yard or two away from it, but he couldn’t control the ball enough to get a decent shot off.
But then we started to play. Santon brought the ball up the left and started working it with Benny, who broke off to the left of the box, plying his mesmerising skills as usual. Benny got a cross in across goal and Cisse headed onto the bar but Yohan Cabaye was lurking to put the rebound into the net. 1-0. (more…)
C'est magnifique!Bolton rolled into Toon on the back of a bit of a kicking at the hands of the improving Fulham, but with a trio of wins in front of that, it was always going to be a tricky fixture and so it was going to be down to who wanted it more.
Patience was the order of the day for high flying Newcastle United.
Newcastle’s Captain, Fabricio Coloccini, was back in tandem with his partner in crime ‘Iron’ Mike Williamson at Centre Back and Davide Santon had his place at Left Back. Tiote didn’t make the line-up, so Perch moved into a midfield birth along with Jonas, making a return to midfield also after his recent stint at Left Back.
Bolton lined up in a 4-5-1, which, as the game kicked off, looked more like a 5-4-1. They looked very determined to keep things really tight, and didn’t spend alot of time committing too many forward. To say that the first half was cagey would be understating things somewhat. Words like boring, dull, tight, slow, lacking any coherence, painful, kind of summed it up.
I could actually say no more about it, but… (more…)
Papiss Demba Cisse - He Scores When He Wants Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Date: Fri 6th Apr 2012. Kick-Off: 16:30. Referee: Howard Webb.
Newcastle United cruised into 5th place in the English Premier League on the back of this victory. Both Tottenham and Arsenal are now looking over their shoulders at the Geordie charge, and Chelsea are playing catch up. And with two home games to come, against Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City, do we dare to dream?
This was United’s fourth win on the trot – 12 points out of 12 – and what a time to go on a run like this, at what the media luvvies refer to as “the business end of the season”.
Those of you who have read my drivel before will know that I don’t hold a lot by statistics. The plethora of statistics which are spouted by the media and (sadly) bloggers alike these days. To me, the only statisitics which matter at the end of the day are goals. And if ever there was a game which proved my point about statistics, this was it.
Swansea City had the ball for 77% of the time. Here’s where I make myself unpopular with any welsh folk reading this. It’s easy to have 77% possession if you largely pass the ball sideways or backwards in an attempt to keep hold of it. Ray Wilkins (Chelsea and England) made a career out of it – “my word!”. (more…)
Cisse bags another brace.Newcastle United notch up a comfortable 2-0 win over Liverpool to retain 6th place on level points with Chelsea, 10 points clear of 7th-placed Everton.
We kicked off the game at a glorious, sunny St James’ Park and it was to be a tightly contested half with both sides having their chances. Our front three were once again impressive but Liverpool looked to have decent attacking options too, particularly with Craig Bellamy who managed to find himself in space on the right a few times.
Within the first 5 minutes Shelvey’s dipping shot took a deflection and nearly dipped enough to get in under the bar but was just over in the end leading to a Liverpool corner. After defending that we got away and on the counter-attack with Ba finding space up the left. Ba put the cross in to Cisse but Reina managed to snatch the ball from its path ahead of him.
Perch picked up a yellow card after 6 minutes when he took the ball – seemingly cleanly – from Suarez but managed to upend the Uruguayan in the process. The yellow was a bit harsh I thought, but those sorts of things generally pick up a yellow these days. (more…)
