Ref justice! Wolves 1-1 Newcastle.
Posted on August 28th, 2010 | 231 Comments |
An away point is always welcome, especially against a team that is likely to be a rival near the bottom of the table this season. Newcastle dominated most of the proceedings though, and will feel that perhaps they should have been travelling back north with the three points in the bag.
Referee Stuart Atwell, a native Midlander who lives around 20 miles from Molineux, was an absolute joke and should hang his head in shame at some of his decisions today. Indeed Atwell is no stranger to ridiculous decisions and was struck of the referee register not so long back for a series of blunders. On the evidence of today I would suggest that the space on the register be restored to Mr Atwell after he produced the yellow card an impressive twelve times during the course of the game.
Yes that is correct, twelve times, with seven of them being for the home side who will now face an FA fine for indiscipline. Whilst the FA are at it I would suggest that they consider Stuart Atwell’s position, or have a look at the butcher job Wolves tried to do on Newcastle this afternoon.
I’m not sure how it looked to those who watched the game whilst not being there, but I was impressed with Newcastle. I feel that the away side pretty much dominated most of the proceedings this afternoon and will quite rightly feel aggrieved that all three points slipped through their fingers.
Top marks to Andy Carroll again, who once again proved to me that I was right in backing him for the number nine shirt this season. It was nice to see so many replica shirts with his name on the back in the pubs of Wolverhampton this afternoon, and those Newcastle fans were rewarded by another excellent display from the Gateshead lad.
Newcastle pressed from the off and had much the better of the play for the first 30 minutes or so. They could have even took the lead had Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan or Wayne Routledge made the most of the opportunities that had fallen to them.
Despite the dominance on display from Newcastle it was Wolves who took the lead though Sylan Ebanks-Blake. The striker cushioned the ball from a Van Damme corner before lashing it into the back of the net, beating Steve Harper on the near post in the process. There was not a lot Harper could have done to be honest, such was the power of the shot. Wolves 1-0 Newcastle at half-time.
The second half started in much the same vein as the first as Newcastle once again took the ascendancy. Wolves may feel aggreived by that they didn’t get awarded a penalty after James Perch appeared to have hauled down Matt Jarvis, but it looked like a good tackle from where I was stood anyway.
What didn’t look good, again, was the performance of the referee, and in particular the treatment that Joey Barton ended up recieving from the Wolves players. Wolves were no doubt trying to get a rise out of Barton, but to his credit he largely ignored it and carried on with his own game regardless despite the lack of any protection from the ref.
Justice was served on 62 minutes as Newcastle got the equlaiser that they deserved, and it was that man, Andy Carroll, who once again proved to be the hero. Joey Barton fired in a free-kick that Andy Carroll powered home to make it 1-1 – a score that was still harsh on Newcastle.
From then on it was Newcastle who looked the more likely to snatch a winner. Kevin Nolan, twice, Wayne Routledge and Shola Ameobi all had chances to score the winner, but it wasn’t to be and Newcastle come away from a potentially tough with a point in the bag. Play like that away from home more often and more points will surely follow!
Special mention must go to Mick McCarthy and his hatchet men, but an even bigger mention must go to the Newcastle players who ignored the vast majority of late challenges, sly digs and moaning from the home side during the course of the game. It means we got them rattled, tought them a lesson in their own back yard, and they didn’t like it.
That was good.
Wolves – Hahnemann, Van Damme, Craddock, Ward, Berra, Foley, Henry, Jones, Jarvis, Ebanks-Blake, Doyle.
Subs – Hennessey, Stearman, Mancienne, Zubar, Edwards, Guedioura, Fletcher.
Newcastle – Harper, Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Williamson, Perch, Nolan, Barton, Routledge, Smith, Gutierrez, Carroll.
Subs – Krul, Taylor, Kadar, Vuckic, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Ranger.
Attendance – 27,745.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Toonsy did you see the big nose Mick confront Joey at the end ?