King Kenny has the last laugh.It was chucking it down with rain as the teams took the field at Anfield, with Newcastle United wearing their first choice kit of Puma’s version of black and white stripes. Three ex-united players were in the Liverpool team: Bellamy, Enrique, and of course, Andy Carroll. There was also some bloke called Jordan Henderson, who, as we know, has a dodgy past.
First Half
The first 10 mins saw United getting plenty of the ball without actually threatening the Liverpool goal. As expected, Mike Williamson got the job of marking Carroll. I was going to say “Williamson was preferred to Perch” but I thought better of it.
Both teams were taking a while to settle and the first bit of excitement came in the 11th minute when Downing hit the ball against Ryan Taylor’s hand. There was a shout from the Kop for handball rather than the Liverpool players, but there was nothing doing from the referee.
After a quarter of an hour we saw a dangerous cross from Enrique – cue the chant from the Geordie faithful “you’re just a s**t Ryan Taylor!” I’m sure they both saw the funny side. (more…)
Well done Benny!Bolton Wanderers 0 – 2 Newcastle United (Hatem Ben Arfa (69), Demba Ba (71)
Newcastle United were in their all black strip for this game, and enjoyed the backing of 4,000 travelling Geordies who pretty much took over the ground – at least in terms of noise! As a result of the Toon Army being in town, Bolton registered their biggest crowd of the season – 26,080, beating even the crowd for the visit of Man Utd from just down the road.
With games against Liverpool and Man Utd next, Newcastle fans could be forgiven for hoping we would bank 3 points here against the second bottom team. Santon’s knee injury saw the return of Ryan Taylor, and Mike Williamson made a welcome return after long-term injury, back at the expense of Perch and Cabaye, who also returned after his one game suspension.
Bolton looked nervous and edgy as United started the game in familiar fashion – controlling things and pressing the ball early. They continued to dominate as the game progressed, with loud backing from the Toon Army, and almost went ahead in the 16th minute, Ryan Taylor with a free kick over the wall forcing Jaaskelainen to fling himself to his left to palm away. At this stage, Bolton were only making the odd fruitless sortie forward on the break. (more…)
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…)
A drunken hooligan invades the pitch at Carrow Road.Venue: Carrow Road, Norwich. Date: Saturday 10th Dec, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Martin Atkinson. Pies: D.Smith.
The Magpies of Newcastle United will be looking to pick themselves up after a tough trio of fixtures and recent injury woes as they visit the Canaries of Norwich City.
Even though this is an away game, some may have thought this would be an easy three points, until recently that is. The loss of Fabricio Coloccini with a thigh strain, as well as Steven Taylor for the whole season with a knacked achilles tendon puts a new complexion on matters as our lack of strength in depth has eventually been exposed. Like ourselves, Norwich have been something of a “surprise package” in the Premiership so far. Though Norwich City’s entire first team squad is worth far less than the amount Mike Ashley received for Andy Carroll alone, they are currently sitting quite comfortably at 11th in the table. That is quite an achievement for such a modest squad who were expected to be rooted at the bottom of the table, and not to be sniffed at, especially in the light of our recent circumstances injurywise. More on that below however…
James Perch and Tamas Kadar: Stepping out from the shadows.As someone once said: “Defence is just another way to attack.“ You can just start to imagine (go on, imagine it) how important our stable defence has been for our attacking play this season.
Take the two central defenders out of the equation and what happens? Well, we may find out next weekend if Coloccini doesn’t make it as he hopes for our next game against Norwich. Alan Pardew and Newcastle United have managed to keep the same defence throughout the season, but could now be forced to make a big change with Steven Taylor out for the season and Coloccini possibly missing with a thigh strain. The aim of this piece is to shed light on the different defensive options for the team, and then argue which would be the strongest.
Natural Defenders Available:
Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, James Perch, Tamas Kadar, Shola Ameobi and Davide Santon.
Possible Defenders:
Alan Smith, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye and Jonas Gutierrez. (more…)
