Newcastle United v ‘Spurs match report + highlights and post match interviews.
Posted on January 22nd, 2011 | 44 Comments |
Given that I live in Somerset, I don’t get to many home games these days, so I was keen to take advantage of my 4-day spell in Newcastle by taking in the match against Spurs. I had a swift pint in Fluid and then made my way into the ground to find that I’d once again forgotten my specs, which seems to be something of a tradition for me these days. So I watched what could have been Bruce Willis, John Cleese and Meryl Streep warming up on the pitch and then it was game on.
The first half was a fairly even affair. Spurs seemed to have plenty possession without threatening but, whilst we didn’t see quite as much of the ball as them, we looked the more dangerous in front of goal.
Jermain Defoe took a few punts at goal in the opening 10 minutes but they were neither here nor there, Enrique easily blocking one and the other flying wide. Gareth Bale then got himself crocked. I’m not entirely sure what happened but he clearly wasn’t fit to play on so he was swapped for Sebastien Bassong, who was of course roundly booed as he came on and every time he got the ball thereafter.
Leon Best was the first of our boys to threaten, forcing Gallas to block a shot at about 12 minutes. Jonas then started to make some tidy little runs up the left but, as is sometimes the case with him, he’d either try to take on one player too many or mess up the final ball, which was frustrating. Anyway, we did get Shola into a position to take a couple of shots but both were off target and failed to trouble Spurs too much.
Leon Best probably came closest in the first half when he got on the end of a cross from Enrique and took a shot that saved by the post. Every time a Spurs player sneezed the ref was giving them a free kick and that helped Defoe and Lennon to get on the end of a dead ball and run at us from time to time, but our defence looked solid – particularly Coloccini – and their attacks were fairly easily snuffed out.
Half time came and, overall, it was probably fair that the teams were level. Then, Tino Asprilla put in a guest appearance and had a crack at the crossbar challenge and shortly after we were underway with the second half.
Jonas finally managed to get in some decent crosses in early in the second half and found Best’s head with one of them, although unfortunately it went wide. Then Guthrie set up Shola whose shot was saved by the keeper. Finally, the ref awarded us a free kick and that surprised us so much that we had a bit of a purple patch.
About an hour into the game, on the back of some concerted attacking, Guthrie sent a good pass in to Coloccini. The Argentinian then chested it down and planted in a cracking shot from 10 yards to the bottom right corner of the goal. 1-0 to us.
Best was then substituted for Lovenkrands and the Dane should have made it 2-0 from a one-on-one situation with Cudicini, but he somehow messed it up. Ameobi then had a couple more chances, one of which needed a hand from Cudicini to put it wide of the post.
Perch came on for Guthrie for no reason I could see and Spurs then started to press a bit more. For a period of about 10 minutes we simply couldn’t keep the ball and as Spurs kept coming at us I had a feeling of inevitability about Spurs scoring.
Lennon forced Harper into a save and Modric clattered one against the croosbar, but somehow we hung on even though our defence seemed to lose focus, our midfield kept losing the ball and Shola seemed to lose interest.
A few minutes before the 90, Shola went off and Ranger came on and within a couple of minutes he had a chance on goal that he really ought to have played back but instead shot wide.
90 minutes was up and I breathed a sigh of relief as it looked like we’d survived Spurs’ onslaught and were taking 3 points. Alas, injury time was to plague us for the second match in a row as Lennon found space to take a shot inside our penalty area and slammed it into the bottom corner.
Bah, I thought. But I suppose overall it was a fair result on the way the game went.
Match highlights and post match interviews.
Teams.
Newcastle United:
Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Sanchez Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Shola Ameobi.
Subs: Nile Ranger, Sol Campbell, Tim Krul, Shane Ferguson, Xisco, James Perch, Peter Lovenkrands.
Tottenham Hotspur: Carlo Cudecini, Alan Hutton, Michael Dawson, William Gallas, Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric, Jermaine Jenas, Steven Pienaar, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Jermaine Defoe.
Subs: Peter Crouch, Niko Krancjar, Younes Kaboul, Vedran Corluka, Sebastien Bassong, Raniere Sandro, Stipe Pletikosa.
Hugh, Coloccini the Colossus was definitely man of the match, though I think you may have been a little harsh on his ponytailed compatriot. Guti had a very decent game today IMO.