Hard done by? Newcastle 1-3 Manchester City.
Posted on December 26th, 2010 | 141 Comments |
It may well be a cliche in footballing circles, but there was certainly enough about the performance to give me hope despite the defeat.
It’s a strange feeling really, as usually I would be pulling what is left of my hair out after a 3-1 defeat, but I feel strangely mellow after witnessing a performance which saw us have the bulk of possesion and create many more chances than our rich, title-chasing visitors. Another heartening factor was the effort and determination on show from the players today. They didn’t give up, despite being behind for 88 minutes of the game.
Fabricio Coloccini returned to the starting line up in place of the poorly Sol Campbell. Wayne Routledge was recalled to play out wide with Joey Barton pushed into his favoured central midfield role whilst Kevin Nolan effectively took the place of the injured Shola Ameobi meaning that Newcastle lined up in a kind of 4-4-1-1 formation.
Play began and Newcastle fell behind almost immediately. Tim Krul tried to play the ball to Barton who was on the edge of his own box, but Carlos Tevez interecepted the ball and played it inside to David Silva who fed the ball through to Gareth Barry who had cleared the last defender and slipped the ball past Krul. It was a completely avoidable goal which meant that Newcastle faced an uphill struggle right from the word go.
Things got even worse on five minutes when the home side found themselves two down. This time it was Tiote who lost possesion in the middle of the park allowing Carlos Tevez to steal the ball and spread the play out wide through to James Milner. Milner crossed into the near post and found Carlos Tevez running in to convert the low cross high into the back of the net.
Newcastle should have immeditaley cut the defecit through Andy Carroll, but bigger lad’s free header was aimed straight at Joe Hart. Man City had their chances but the home side started to come back into the game and began to put their own stamp on proceedings. Andy Carroll was again proving himself to be a handful and offered the City defence little respite in the run up to half-time.
Newcastle continued to press in the second half as City sat back on their two goal lead. Andy Carroll tried an acrobatic overhead kick from 18 yards, but it went miles wide. Gutierrez also sent a looping header across the face of goal but nothing was to come of that.
The breakthrough came on 72 minutes when Andy Carroll headed home a Joey Barton corner. Joe Hart, the Manchester City ‘keeper, complained and got a yellow card for his efforts, although TV replays suggested that he may have had a point after Kevin Nolan appeared to block him from moving on the line.
The home side could have equalised with a bit more luck after Kevin Nolan gambled on a cross that the Man City defenders looked to have dealt with, but his foot on the ball landed just wide of the post. But Newcastle were dealt a cruel blow just nine minutes from time when City broke and scored their third through Carlos Tevez. It was another unfortunate goal that got deflected in off of Fabricio Coloccini, but it was perhaps indicative of our day.
That goal pretty much ended the game as a competition, but there was still time for Joey Barton to test Joe Hart with a low free kick. It wasn’t to be, but on another day it could have been a very different result.
Newcastle looked dangerous for long periods of the game today, but if you surrender two easy goals so early in the game then you are more than likely going to lose. This is something our lads need to learn as I have noticed that we have conceded goals at points throughout the season that can be attributed to schoolboy errors. If we can keep looking dangerous, and cut out the mistakes, it will leave in good shape for the rest of the season.
3-1, but it isn’t all doom and gloom, for a change.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Wayne Routledge, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll.
Subs: Steve Harper, James Perch, Mike Williamson, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith, Leon Best, Nile Ranger.
Man City: Joe Hart, Aleksander Kolarov, Joleon Lescott, Vincent Kompany, Jerome Boateng, Nigel de Jong, Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure, James Milner, David Silva, Carlos Tevez.
Subs: Shay Given, Patrick Viera, Adam Johnson, Micah Richards, Pablo Zabaleta, Jo, Mario Balotelli.
Attendance: 51,635.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
I’ve lost all patience and civility towards Guiterez and Routledge, i’ve never witnessed such a consistent lack of end product in attackers in all my life, they are both infuriating.