Match highlights from yesterday evening’s nailbiting 3-4 thriller against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup.
Features two goals from Peter Lovenkrands. The first featuring an astounding pass from comeback kid, Hatem Ben Arfa, and a pretty tidy assist from his French compadre Sylvain Marveaux too. The third was an almost certain cross which ended up in the goal from Danny Simpson, and finally, the “Coup de grâce” in the dying seconds of extra time from the head of Captain Coloccini.
Also features the three Nottingham Forest goals from Finley, Derbyshire and Tudgay.
Apologies for the slightly wobbly nature of the videocam highlights. As you probably know, TV coverage of this game was none existent so it’s a case of “any port in a storm” this time. I will keep my eyes peeled, and should anyhting better show up, I will replace it. Thanks by the way to ironically named site user, “Free Scoring Smudge” for pointing this out.
Pardew: it's a tough placeHello, good evening and Welcome. Newcastle United are in action in the League Cup tonight away to Scunthorpe.
For a more in depth analysis, take a look at Jimbob’s excellent match preview but let’s catch up with what Alan ‘The Quiet Man’ Pardew has been saying ahead of tonight’s game.
First up, after losing to Stevenage in the FA Cup last year, he’s keen to avoid another cup defeat at the hands of the underdogs:
“It’s a tough place – the crowd at Scunthorpe will be buoyant. It’ll be what I would call a proper English game of football, and we can’t get caught out by the passion of the opposition.
“We need to match that, which was something we didn’t do at Stevenage.
“I was a new manager, and not particularly familiar with the squad, and I was disappointed that day. I don’t want to be disappointed on Thursday night.” (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…)
A warm welcome to The Gunners.Newcastle entertain Arsenal tonight in a match where both sides will be looking to progress to the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.
Newcastle beat Chelsea in their own back yard a few weeks back to get this far, and they have been rewarded with a tough tie against another top team in this round.
Arsenal have been accused of devaluing the Carling Cup over the years as Arsene Wenger has tended to stick with his youth players and use the competition to give them some match experience. Early signs suggest that Wenger is eyeing the Carling Cup as a chance to and a five-year trophyless run (boo-hoo eh!) which could mean that he is willing to risk more first-team players than he would normally.
As for Newcastle, well I would say that we can expect a mix of youth, experience and fringe players to feature for us tonight with some first-team players on the bench ready to come on and try to make an impact if it is needed. (more…)
Carling Cup anyone? Meh....I think it is fair to say that the Carling Cup has become a little devalued over the last few years.
It’s the same before every game in this particluar competiton. The team news pages of clubs that are participiating are full of names of reserve players who are set to get a chance and players who are just coming back from in injury or whatever.
The Carling Cup has now become the reserve cup, a poor relation to the FA Cup if you will. In reality it probably always has played second fiddle to the FA Cup although not quite to the extent we are currently witnessing. It just seems that nobody really cares about it anymore, me included.
That is not to say that if we got to the latter stages of the competition that I wouldn’t want Newcastle to go on and win it. Of course I would, seeing my team lift a trophy is what I dream about and is something I have yet to witness in my lifetime. If the Carling Cup changed that then I would be more than happy. (more…)
