Escape to victory! – Newcastle 2 Doncaster 1
Posted on October 24th, 2009 | 12 Comments |
Once more Chris Hughton ignored what seemed to be the obvious opportunity to play Ranger but was forced into changes as Kadar came in for the injured Simpson. Nicky Butt also returned to first team action for the suspended Smith. Otherwise, we looked the same as we did against Scunthorpe, yes before someone says it, not great!!
I don’t get Gutierrez, I really don’t. For the umpteenth time I watched a game where he over-elaborated and held possession when the easiest thing and right thing to do, was to pass it. Instead he held onto the ball for far too long, got tangled up in a challenge and either lost the ball or threw himself on the floor in a heap. Anyway, Doncaster came here seemingly with every intention to try and play but with ex-Toon player, James Coppinger in the side, they never really looked like threatening. And then on 18 minutes they scored……..when a flick from James O’Connor to Sharp led to a low right-wing cross that seemed to take a deflection that picked out Dean Shiels who had the easiest of jobs to tuck it away. However, that goal was self-inflicted as Kadar had given the ball away cheaply and the defending was half-hearted.
The first half was largely forgettable as we struggled to make headway once we crossed the halfway line. They packed out the defence and we had no answer to get around them. And in they were neat and tidy when they had the ball, so we had to scrap a little. Then a rarity occurred. A decent cross came in and somehow Andy Carroll managed to skew his diving header wide of the post from six yards out. Gutierrez then had probably as good a chance as he has ever had of breaking his goalscoring duck in a black and white shirt but after a melee in the box, he slipped as went to shoot from all of ten yards, and his effort was high and wide. With that in mind and more frustrating play from Gutierrez and with Harewood both ineffective and uninterested by all accounts, Doncaster went into the break 1-0 up, as boos echoed round the stands.
The tempo in the second half was slightly better but we still looked lacking in ideas in the middle and guileless upfront. Hughton made the popular decision to haul Harewood off on the hour and replaced him with Ranger. Almost instantly we had some drive and options to aim for uptop. However, (I believe this is right) before that happened, Andy Carroll managed to miss the sort of sitter I haven’t seen in a long while. After gliding past a challenge and heading across goal, all he had to do was slide it past the keeper and yet he inexplicably spooned the shot, with his weaker foot, wide of the target, to howls of derision from the travelling supporters. It was fairly embarrassing.
However, credit where it’s due, he didn’t go hiding and when Ryan Taylor delivered a great ball into the box on 75 minutes, Carroll kept his composure and drilled a half volley into the bottom corner for the equaliser. And of course, at that point we expected to take the impetus and go on and win it. Well we did, but not before Doncaster were awarded a penalty by an altogether iffy referee. Fortunately, to the delight of me and my fellow Mags in Level 7 and everywhere else round the ground, their skipper Martin Woods managed to screw his shot as badly as Carroll and we were off the hook.
There was just about time for Billy Sharp to get himself wound-up and Khizanishvili sent off after he tangled first with young Kadar, then his centre half partner and also Nicky Butt. Somehow amongst all the handbags, as Butt and Sharp received yellows, it was obviously deemed Khizanishvili swung his harder because the assistant referee informed the ref (despite the ref being 10 yards away and the liner being 35 yards away), of something and he was shown the red card. However, rather than finishing on a sour note, after great work from Ranger and Carroll, Nolan popped up to show composure and slid the ball off the post and as the ball settled into net for the winner, 40,000 Geordies went ballistic!!
It says much for the current predicament that the loudest chant at the end was reserved for the owner and it didn’t reassure me he’ll get many Christmas cards from his paying customers. I guess it’s a shame we’re not celebrating the victories as much as we might otherwise and there’s lot of ill-feeling around still. The trains were cr*p today, the weather was cr*p today and Newcastle were cr*p today but I’m home, I’m dry and we’re still top of the league. It’s a funny old game and a funny old life.
Us
Harper, R Taylor, Kadar, Khizanishvili, Enrique, Guthrie, Butt, Nolan, Gutierrez, Carroll, Harewood.
Subs – Krul, Tozer, Geremi, Baheng, Ranger, Donaldson, Lovenkrands.
Doncaster Rovers
Sullivan, O’Connor, Shackell, Hird, Chambers, Coppinger, Shiels, Gillett, M Woods, Fortune, Sharp.
Subs – G Woods, Dumbuya, Spicer, Oster, Hayter, Guy, Heffernan.
Attendance 43,949 (about 3000+ Donny fans – who were a little quieter than I was expecting to be honest)
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
Good review Bowburn. It was bad enough listening to it on the radio without having to watch it as well.