Same old Newcastle, always winning! Newcastle 2 Watford 0.
Posted on December 5th, 2009 | 15 Comments |
Having started with the same eleven as we did against Swansea, we started brightly enough although our defence seemed less than sure of itself this week. Despite a number of scares, including a goalline clearance from Steven Taylor, we took the lead on 20 minutes after Harewood had blocked the keeper’s clearance and Lovenkrands was left with a straightforward tap-in to make it 1-0.
Watford made life difficult for us in the first half with a lively and resolute display and we were unable to get a real foothold on the game, as the score remained 1-0 into half-time. After the break, Nolan was almost immediately shown the second of two yellow cards although yours truly wasn’t back in time to see how justified it was, though people around me felt it was fair.
Watford threw literally everything but the kitchen sink at us after that and it seemed like an equaliser was inevitable. But as with previous games, it seems like this set of players have a special ingredient and with some good fortune we fought off their advances. And with time seeming to stand still, Hughton made three changes in bringing on Andy Carroll for Harewood, Butt for Lovenkrands and Fabrice Pancrate on for Guthrie.
The latter subsitute offered us legs that were badly needed in helping to run down the clock but surely none of us would have expected was to come. With ten minutes remaining and still hanging on to the 1-0 for dear life, Pancrate found himself deep in their box but facing away from goal and with two defenders in close proximity. Rolling the ball under his boot, it seemed there was no immediate danger, until he turned sharply and powered a left foot drive in off the crossbar to make it 2-0 and put the game to bed.
Another first half that was pretty forgettable and many a half-time conversation that begged the question how could we hope to compete if we get promoted? And yet, again we come away with the three points despite playing with a ten men for an entire second half. Is this the stuff of champions? Or did the ten men heroic display just mask what could have otherwise been another unconvincing performance? Results went our way today and we now sit four points ahead of second and ten ahead of third. I guess the table doesn’t lie?
Us – Harper 8, Simpson 8, Steven Taylor 8, Coloccini 8, Jose Enrique 9, Guthrie 7, Smith 7, Nolan 7, Gutierrez 7, Harewood 6, Lovenkrands 7
Subs – Krul, Khizanishvili, Butt 7, Ranger, Pancrate 8, Ryan Taylor, Carroll 8
Watford– Loach, Mariappa, Hodson, Cathcart, Doyley, Lansbury, Cleverley, Cowie, Eustace, Helguson, Graham
Subs – Harley, Henderson, DeMerit, Lee, Bennett, Severin, Ellington
Att – 43,050 (with something like 1800-2000 Watford fans, who made a bit of noise).
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
Pancrates goal was something special. We havn’t had a player that can produce moments of individual magic like that since “the good old days”