A Demba Ba hat-trick sees Newcastle United cruise to a 3-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers and maintain their 4th place in the Premier League.
On paper we should be the better team this season, but Blackburn have a record at St James’ Park second only to Manchester United in the Premier League, so the superstitious amongst us might have had cause for concern.
A disclaimer before I start: I watched the match on a very shaky internet feed and missed bits of it here and there, so if my match report contains glaring holes, you know why.
The Toon analysts in the dressing room had clearly been doing their homework as they appeared to have identified Givet as the weakest link at left-back in Blackburn’s defence and almost from the off we started attacking down the right, which was to become a familiar pattern for a lot of the game with Obertan making a lot of the running.
We dominated well for 25 minutes before the first goal, with Ba, Best and Gutierrez having chances on goal only to put them over the bar. Blackburn’s David Hoilett was the only player to give us any real signs of trouble when he dribbled easily past Gutierrez into the box and it took a great piece of defending by Coloccini to counter the danger. (more…)
Hughton will need to gets his troops mobilized again.Life is good for Newcastle fans right now. Winning our last three games on the bounce has ensured that we have been walking around with a spring in our step.
Newcastle must ensure that we are doing much the same tomorrow!
You see, I’ve been waiting for the inevitable kick in the teeth to come along, but it hasn’t. We won away at West Ham, so I expected us to slip up against Sunderland. We beat Sunderland, convincingly, so I was expecting us to get a hammering at Arsenal. We won that, and, well you get the point.
Newcastle now begin a run of two ‘winnable’ games, starting tonight when Sam Allardyce brings Blackburn to St James’ Park, followed by Fulham coming to town on Saturday, and the first match of those two is ideally placed to give us Newcastle fans a massive kick in the teeth. (more…)
Allardyce - Party pooper?Newcastle host Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night where they will be looking to improve on a run of form that has seen them win the last three games.
Wins away at West Ham and Arsenal sandwiched a 5-1 smashing of local rivals Sunderland to ensure that Newcastle go into this match sitting in a lofty fifth position in the Premier League table.
Of course, this match will also witness the return Sam Allardyce to St James’ Park, and he will be wanting to play the pantomime villain role and steer Blackburn to a fifth consecutive victory at the home of his old employers. I’m not sure, but I’m hearing unconfirmed reports that the Blackburn travelling contingent will be using three coaches to travel up from Lancashire. One for the away support, one for the players, and another, larger, coach for Big Sam’s ego. (more…)
Emirates next for Newcastle.Actually, I would prefer Newcastle to be walking away from the next five games with fifteen points in the bag, but being realistic it just isn’t going to happen.
So how do you think we will do?
Next up for United is a trip to The Emirates on Sunday, and whilst I harbour some slim hopes of us being able to take something from the game, there is a very real prospect that we could end up losing, like most teams do when they visit Arsenal.
I’ve got the match down as a loss on my little season planner of where I think we can pick up points from, but as many of you know, my predictions, so it seems, are not the best.
Following on from Arsenal we have two games at home. First up is Blackburn next Wednesday evening, a team who appear hold a voodoo card over us and always seem to be able to get results against us. (more…)
