United held by Manchester! Match report, highlights and post match interviews.

April 20th, 2011 | 41 Comments |

It was pretty much excitement from the kick off. Newcastle had to start with Tim Krul replacing the injured Steve Harper in goal, but also welcomed back Cheik Tiote from his two game suspension. Steven Ireland started on the bench and Danny Guthrie had a start in central midfield.

Within 2 minutes of kick off, Rooney out burned Tiote down our right and slotted a square centre to the on rushing Hernandez. It looked like he was in, as he got to the ball first, but Krul dived bravely at his feet to make a great stop to christen his fresh gloves. That was perhaps a sign that Newcastle were gonna get stuck right into this fixture.

Almost immediately Newcastle’s midfield started to get a grip on the play, creating chance after chance. Albeit nothing that was as clear cut as we would have liked. Barton found himself with the ball in a great position after some good play but couldn’t find the finsh it deserved. (more…)