The Argy Bargy Show! Watford 1 Newcastle 2

Posted on February 27th, 2010 | 79 Comments |

Argy and Bargy
Argy and Bargy
Without a win away from home in almost three months, Newcastle beat Watford 2-1 to take the first three points on the road, since the start of December when we beat Coventry City. Prominent in victory were our Argentine centre-half, Fabriccio “Not so clownish now” Coloccini and Andy “Crown Court” Carroll.

Despite evidently not playing the exotic football that the purists amongst us crave, judging by the crack on Radio Newcastle, the lads seemed to once again acquit themselves well, despite missing some big players and while playing on a farmer’s field. And although there was a scare at the end when we appeared to invite trouble onto ourselves and nearly paid the price, the conclusion seemed to be that this was another reasonably comfortable victory for The Mags.

Another good start saw Coloccini grab his second goal of the campaign after Nolan had flicked on a Guthrie corner, Andy Carroll steered the flick-on to the Argentine, who headed in to make it 1-0 after only four minutes. And the provider became finisher just after the break, when Carroll used his strength for the right reasons on the pitch this time, out-muscling Watford challengers to meet Guthrie’s corner and tower in a header for 2-0.

Things turned a little ugly when Watford reduced the deficit right at the death through substitute Hoskins. A number of Newcastle players began arguing amongst themselves, Smith and Williamson particularly disagreeing over something and the former apparently raising his hands to the centre-half. With this season’s ‘camaraderie’ quite clearly nowhere to be seen, Watford seemed to sense they could take advantage. But the black and whites saw out the victory and it was all smiles and backslaps between the red corners and the blue corners after the whistle.

With a 3-0 defeat for Forest at Leicester, we extend the lead at the top by a point, as West Brom move into second spot following their 3-1 home win against Derby. That leaves us six points clear of them and with a game in hand over Forest, should we win that we would be eleven points clear of third. With March potentially being a pivotal month for the promotion chasers, we head into it with a healthy looking position in the table. As long as we don’t start knocking each other out in the meantime…

Us – Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Patrick van Aanholt, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Andy Carroll

Subs – Tim Krul, Tamas Kadar, Fitz Hall, Ryan Taylor, Nile Ranger, Fabrice Pancrate, Ryan Donaldson

Watford – Scott Loach, Adrian Mariappa, Jay DeMerit (c), Martin Taylor, Lloyd Doyley, Don Cowie, Henri Lansbury, John Eustace, Jon Harley, Heidar Helguson, Danny Graham

Subs – Stephen McGinn, Ross Jenkins, Richard Lee, Will Hoskins, Liam Henderson, Michael Bryan, Lee Hodson

Full report to come from man in the ground, Mr Blog owner himself, workyticket.

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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79 Responses

  1. Pleased with the points and the Forest result was a big plus as well…keep the run going lads not many games left and looking a good bet for promotion.

  2. Good away win today.
    Against a team that was showing good form.
    Nasty, whining, rolling, crap football they play though, y-uk!
    Yet another shite showing from the ref again, i was convinced someone was going off, amazed no-one did, he tried his best. :)
    Horrible pitch, again.
    Another nice loss for forest, aye. ;)
    Keep it going lads.

  3. CLiNT – Agreed about the ref, it was like he was on a bonus for each yellow. At least both sides suffered though and not just Newcastle for a change.

  4. Great win today, and a well deserved one at that. Anyone see Ramsey’s injury? Horrific stuff. Hope the lad has a speedy recovery. Felt a bit sorry for young Shawcross aswell. He looked devastated by it all and was in tears. Horrible stuff.

  5. Evening lads, been away for the weekend but managed to catch the result today and i’m pleased we finally got an away win. Forest taking a stamping was also hugely satisfying. Was in a flat full of lasses sitting screaming infront of SSN though, dunno if they really understood. Bad first impression? haha.

    Drago-I didnt realise i was Ramsey. I heard the challenge looked terrible as did the injury. A real shame, its absolutly horrible to see any player taken away in an ambulance, let alone a player of his age and potential. Has there been any update? Also a rotten situation for Shawcross like you say, he’s a young’n and it will have hit him hard.

  6. evening ross sounds like had a easy time of it ha,just need fulham to win on sunday and thats a top week-end,shame about ramsey capello wont be best pleased either

  7. Big Dave – Defo a broken leg mate. Quite emotional seeing all the player reactions, particularly Ryan Shawcross who left the pitch in tears.

    Shawcross never meant it though, it was one of them freak things like,

  8. Anyone else think that Forest have now blown their chances of automatic promotion .It seems to me for whatever reason the wheels have really fallen off at the city ground . Think its 4 out of last 5 lost .

  9. icedog:
    February 27th, 2010 at 8:28 pm
    evening ross sounds like had a easy time of it ha,just need fulham to win on sunday and thats a top week-end,shame about ramsey capello wont be best pleased either

    Aaron Ramsey is a welsh international mate.

  10. Toonsy its a pity on the 2 young lads then, Ramsay seemed to have everything infront of him so lets hope he comes back strong, and as you said Shawcross took it bad which could effect him mentally.

  11. forest were the better team today should have been 2 up,but once they went 1 down there heads dropped and where a shambles,but its never over till fat lady sings

  12. I like shawcross, think he’s a decent player, I’ve heard he’s been called up to the England squad.

  13. Eh ! all getting a bit boring, crap football, crap grounds,
    crap teams, seems there`s more entertainment watching the young lads.
    Glad to be able to see at least a half dozen PL games on telly, certainly looking forward to watching us play in the PL come late summer.
    Watched the Arsenal vs. Stoke game and the Brum vs. Wigan,
    even with ten men Stoke defended well, a big strong team.
    Cant figure why, but many of our ex players are doing well with their new teams, N`Zog and Titus @ Wigan and of all people Carr is looking great, go figure.

  14. JAY JAY,dropped a right one there, was thinking of walcot as i was just watching a interview about him and england,very sorry mate its a age thing,should have been tosack

  15. jay jay; ive watched j terry the last three games,i think hes lost the plot,(dont know why)so guys like shawcross might have to step up the mark,ferdi back seems iffy

  16. Yeah mate, terry has gone off the boil, rio has a glass back, don’t know how lescott is doing I haven’t watched him in a while, isn’t upson injured as well? Shawcross looks a decent player though.

  17. Any Rugby fans, Good game to-day @ Twickenham, not a good result for Engerland, gotta lotta work if they intend to go anywhere with this side.
    Not to denigrate the Irish, who though not playing exceptionally well, certainly played a smarter game and took advantage of the few opportunities available to them,
    with a brilliantly taken last try.
    And looks like we got a genuine six with the Italians beating the Scot`s @ Rome, interesting !

  18. i’ve had the usual skinful of neck-oil & i’m having the greatest of difficulty locating the anti-carroll posts – or is that there arnt any to locate ?.

    – there’s a poster that goes by the name of – big willy – repeatedly telling us that andy will be hitting 20 goals this season , how right willy boy is , & if it wasn’t for this youngster’s goals we wouldn’t be sitting so pretty at the top of the league would we.

    with regards to the balance of big willy’s other posts , i would like to offer advice to my fellow bloggers – SKIP THEM – unless you want to be bored to tears.

    – but then again there so boring there interesting !

  19. Absolutely gutted for both Ramsey and Shawcross for different reasons. But gannin back to wor lads Colo so far this season has been a different class along with Enrique. With taylor cutting out silly hand balls where he fains death we have the founds of a good defence next year. And don’t give me the bollocks of he was shite last year. SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE. I really can’t remeber defenders looking as good in this div so let’s hope they can prove me right next season(if we go up)

  20. Unfortunately we only get the odd (perhaps one or two Newcastle games), games from the championship league here(US), apart from highlights.
    In which case it`s difficult to know at what level the team are playing.
    Although we do get plenty of PL games, Italian, Spanish and Argentine league also.
    Which makes me wonder how does the side match up in comparison with the lower level PL teams.
    Yeah I know we are winning on a regular basis in this league, but what is the comparison, having watched the Portsmouths, Stokes, Blackburns and Hammers, I dont see any easy games, no gimme`s.
    Guess what I am trying to say is how would this team fare against the lesser quality PL teams if or when we are promoted, I realize we are only one defender from a pretty good back four, but both the midfield and forwards could use help.
    In which case who would be a key signing, now dont go mentioning people who most would consider out of reach both in price and willingness to join the club.
    And who should we be willing to unload (not good enough or who`s price would finance future buys)
    Make it a short list, not looking to replace the entire team, OK !

  21. chuck

    would have said danny fox before burnley snapped him up, enrique could only be helped by a bit of competition. though van aanholt has done pretty well

    could get beye back as i’m not sure simpson is quite premier league class yet.

    other than that an attack minded central midfielder. lallana of southampton looked good again today, but obviously a big step up. i think guthrie would be a willing central marrauding midfielder if played there

    million dollar question is who will be our hot shot striker?

  22. anyone nar hoo the fk ye get ridov mees?
    sum one teltiz thi didnt like cheese like. Like shite.

  23. I was just watching the Stoke/Arsenal game being shown again on FSC. It was really hard to tell exactly what happened between Shawcross and Ramsay. Shawcross had the ball and Ramsay came steaming in with a challenge. Ramsay made contact with the ball first as the ball changed direction but at nearly the exact same moment Shawcross had also gone to strike the ball and it seemed as if their feet stopped dead against each other and with the momentum that Ramsay had going that his leg then broke in 2 places, probably his tibia and fibia judging by the way his leg was hanging at an angle at about shin level. The way I see it, this was a freak accident and Shawcross didn’t deserve to be sent off. I feel very sorry both of them.

  24. andy carroll is certainly keeping his clueless critics at bay today! I watched the game in the pub live and carroll had another great game and scored a peach of a goal !
    Its a shame he is an idiot off the pitch. !

  25. The injury to Ramsey is no accident, the referees have failed to deal with Stoke for long enough and this was inevitable. Most of their ” robust ” challenges are one legged straight on which are at the very least, reckless, all this shite about hard working etc gets on my wick. They can only survive with the players they have by roughing up the opposition, they are also experts of leaving the foot in and following through with foot or body when the ball has been moved on.
    Wenger is spot on with his comments, his team always tries to play the game properly and this is a regular tactic against his team, a few seasons ago, one of his players was scythed down from behind at Stoke five yards out of play on the sideline.

  26. Marnin jannerrrs!! Enjoyed getting decent coverage on the been last night.

    Delighted for Carroll finally getting some recognition from the pundits although (here ya go Roy) I did notice that after he missed that (pretty difficult) header from Best’s cross he kept having a go at Leon about passing to feet. He wants to learn how to just accept his miss and keep playing rather than bawling out his strike partner for what aS a damned good cross. Still – that’s why 25-year-old strikers cost more than 21-year-old ones. He’ll get there.

    BBM – love the caption mate!

  27. howay lads, get it right…check it out on the tele…Shawcross left his foot in ! We’ve all made these tackles before, “you might win the ball this time mate, but you better watch oot next time”…..

  28. looking for a good fulham win today to round off a good week-end,looks like we might stuggle to keep aaholt on loan with a.cole saying he might not play football again due to his marriage probs

  29. Munich – nah disagree. Shawcross’s tackle was clumsy and horribly-timed. But to call it reckless would be to suggest he thought about it. I don’t believe he had time to think and you can clearly see he’s just committed to getting the ball, albeit full-blooded and ultimately he timed it terribly. The injury is partly due to the way Ramsey does that clever flick inside but his leg/foot is then already at an acute angle meaning it was even more susceptible to the blow.

    Bad crack either way though and you can see the distress of everyone. I imagine the sound, to those close by, was pretty sickening. It’s not nice when it happens.

  30. Hi Roy, sorry mate I really must apologise to you. Thing is I write my comments for people who have some intelligence. Anyone of limited I.Q (intelligence quotient) would probably find them boring as they wouldn’t be able to grasp the finer nuances of my wit and repartee. When I know you are on the blog I will try to limit myself to using simple text and at most four letter words.
    I do congratulate you though for being able to appreciate the wisdom I have tried to impart from my encyclopaedic store of knowledge regarding the potential ability of various athletes and in particular the parameters of a player of a youngster like Andy Carrol. Which I have to say are still not fully realised yet.
    As this particular comment is maily for your benefit I will not add any of my pearls of wisdom regarding our magnificient team and other aspects of soccer, life and other sundry fields. These will follow in later comments on this and other threads for your and other bloggers delectation.

  31. bowburn – Re the sound. It’s feckin horrible mate. I remember one match I played where a player had his leg broke about 5 yards away from me. Horrible horrible sound. It’s a shame when it happens to a pro but it makes me that bit sadder when it happens to someone who has to go work on monday morning to survive and pay the bills yet can’t as he broke his leg doing something he enjoys.

  32. Not sure what else Carroll did away from the highlights but just caught them on Sky+. Generally seemed to do OK aside from his goal. But if anyone tells me that he meant to set up Colo… :)

    He managed to put that obvious attempt on goal ten yards wide and Colo saved his blushes. And then as Whumpie suggests, he has a go at Best for that delivery. I certainly wouldn’t have called it “pretty difficult” Whumps. It was as good a chance as you’re going to get at this level.

    Which leads me onto – Andy Carroll for all his menace in the air, isn’t technically great at all. It was mentioned yesterday that 95% of his goals are headers. That probably stacks up. But I’d like to know the percentage of chances he has missed this season with his head. I can remember clearly this season chances that have gone begging because his technique was poor.

    His stats have no doubt improved, largely due to improved deliveries and the fact he uses his height and presence to bundle them in. But he’s still got a lot of improving to do, not least in the lead-up play. I’m not trying to knock the kid for the sake of it. Just saying what I see. And of course, I’ve seen improvements in his game, so I’m definitely hopeful.

  33. Chuck, back to your (much)earlier comment about who we should try to get to strengthen the side, there are two in the pompey game yesterday I would love us to try for. O’Hara and Eagles both eminently gettable imo.

    Might be my memory failing again but hasn’t some of our players been on the receiving end of some dodgy tackles from Shawcross.

    And regarding dodgy tackling I thought Jonas was getting more than his fair share from opposing defenders yet again. Another player who attracts less kudos than he should be getting.

  34. toons – aye, I was totting it up this morning, I reckon I’ve had the misfortune of seeing/hearing about six broken legs, one of them my own. I remember the worst one in a cup final up at Hexham. The crack echoed round the ground and I nearly lost my breakfast. He was player/manager and never played again after that.

  35. I enjoyed Gutierrez’s dive yesterday when Cowie swiped his left leg. Looked great on slow-motion replay. He loves a tumble does Spiderman…

  36. BBM, I seem to remember Jimmy Greaves and other similar players getting criticism because all they do in a game is score (important) goals. ;)

  37. bowburnmag says:
    February 28, 2010 at 11:38 am

    I respect you as a fellow blogger but I cannot get my head round the fact that you and many ithers are criticising Carroll for what he cannot do rather than what he can do.

    He’s 21 years old and this is the first season in his entire career that he has played regularly. He will imoprove every year – Every young player has a problem with consitancy. That’s the biggest problem with every youngster.

    He will improve and in my opinion will become a proven PL striker – Although I am a little concerned that he is being coached by two ex centre halves and a ex goalkeeper.

    But for now lets concentrate on what he CAN do not what he can’t do and watch him blossom.

  38. BBM, If you wanted to trawl through some old recordings, I would be prepared to wager a tenner with you that they missed their fair share of sitters. :)

  39. like o!hare seems to know the game,left side,what about this skilbeg fellow always saying he wants to come to toon,dont know how good he is,maybe some of the lads have seen him play?funny he has not been snapped up like as they are not asking real big money from what you read

  40. bowburnmag says:
    February 28, 2010 at 11:50 am
    Aye, but do they miss chances like that one?…

    A striker missing a chance isn’t a concern, it’s a big concern when a striker doesn’t get them chances.

    The hardest thing for a striker is getting into positions where they get chances, that’s the hardest thing to learn – Finishing is the easiest thing to learn.

    I would be more concerned with Carroll if he was only getting one chance every 3 games.

  41. To be honest, I never set out to criticise the kid and I guess I just rally more against the blatant over-optimism that Carroll is the answer to our prayers. I have nowt against him, though I find his awkward style hard to watch. But he’s been doing well and as I said, I’ve already seen improvement, so I’m hopeful for the the seasons ahead. He’s no England striker in my opinion though, like some have suggested. I hope he proves me wrong and I’m ultimately confident what little old me has got to say about him on here, will have no bearing on his future. And as ever, I’m in full support of the kid come matchdays.

  42. Bowburn I share the same view completely. It’s difficult because, whilst he IS getting the goals, he doesn’t seem to have that ‘class’ that would be necessary in the top flight – so he wouldn’t be our big answer upfront, but he does have the physical presence to grab a few goals in this league. Then again though, my first point was that he’s getting the goals, so in all honesty, what does that all matter? I do really hope he can be a player that proves me wrong, especially come next season – and to be fair I wouldn’t care about his style at all should his goals keep us up.

    What’s the opinions on Best then? He’s had a few games now, and while I won’t really lay into him, as nobody should… I’m not really seeing much promising from the lad. It probably doesn’t help that he plays alongside a target striker, but even still he seems very quiet in games. We have to give him time though, otherwise he’ll never improve on his form.

  43. So you go from criticising Best to Carroll, forgive me but I thought Carroll had scored 7 in 8 games!

    Anyone here understand football?

  44. BBM I don’t want to say much more about Carroll, I’ll be getting accused of blog-stalking. :)
    Two final points (for the moment anyway)
    1. He has and is playing England already, for the U21s and doing OK at this level. (Don’t think you can ask for more).
    2. My comments are solely regarding his playing ability. I understand he has or had some attitude problems and may be egocentric in a big way, hopefully he will sort himself out as he matures. Not everyone footballer is a Ryan Giggs However!

  45. Blog stalking? Close your curtains if Big Willy’s around!

    There ya go, one tag line made up for ya :lol:

  46. Carroll is 1D, more power to his neck muscles though.
    A little better directionality
    & he would have a least double the goals.
    Good chumpionship battering ram so far.
    Can he make the step up, who knows?

  47. CLiNT – He scored in his limited appearances last season. I think the exposure to regular first team football this season will only see him improve.

  48. Feckin CLiNT, something we agree on 8O

    If they work with him and improve his technique, he could be pretty lethal. And he just needs his awareness improving and to stop being on his heels so much. Could be a massive player (literally) for us.

    For each game he puts himself about and for each important goal he scores, he shoves my opinion back down my throat, which is what I’d prefer to see.

  49. toonsy,
    he’s putting the ball in the net, so i’m happy.
    Just don’t know if he can learn to hold the ball up for others, from what i’ve seen.
    Ameobi has ‘supa-skills’ compared.
    He seems to wander off side ways & ends up losing the ball.
    Best/Lovenkrands or whomever’s up with him seem to only get chances from him if he miscue’s & the ball makes it’s way to them inadvertently.
    Know what i mean?
    Like bbm says, he’s hard to watch & is well awkward, & doesn’t seem to do a lot else.
    But so long as he scores, you’ll get no complaints from me.

  50. I actually agreed totally & utterly on this one bowburn. ;)
    So i just thought i’d mention it.

  51. o/t i normally hate manure,but today i want them to take villa to the cleaners after the abuse we got from them last season.

  52. TROJAN – Agreed 100%

    Not a good start though, penalty to Villa and Man Utd lucky to still have 11 on the pitch.

  53. BIG WILLY
    Yeah read where we may try for O`Hara on loan as Pompey need to reduce their player pay- roll.
    And have to say I like him as a player, could be Our Roy Keane, believe he has a good future, perhaps even better than I magine.
    Have watched him often, can pass , score and is not afraid to put his foot in, apart from the fact he goes hard at it for 90 minutes.
    We do have a connection in Hughton, but feel he would be difficult to praise from Spurs as Harry thinks as I do, but be nice to get him on loan all the same.
    Anyone coming out of the Arsenal system is worth looking at.
    Actually you are the second person to remark on him and the youngster at Southampton, who I can`t comment on, not having seen him play.

  54. chuck – clearly you were full of dutch courage @ 1:42am.

    – stick to the soda pop in future.