3PM Saturday home win shock!
Posted on April 4th, 2011 | 39 Comments |
The Magpies got off to a decent start. As early as the 4th minute when Joey Barton was hacked down around midfield, he picked himself up and from the resultant free kick, curled in an excellent ball to be met by a diving Mike Williamson, with the Wolves ‘keeper just managing to turn it around the post.
It was all Newcastle for the first few minutes, but they were unable to prize a clear opening.
It seemed that we’d got the same ref as last time, with Mike Dean being sucked into Wolves typical tactics like a wet noodle. Whenever a Toon player got close they went to ground, whenever Newcastle had the ball they were chopped down. The refs falling for their ‘gamemanship’ gave me an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach.
But it was soon dispelled slightly, when on 22 minutes a diagonal ball from our own half was excellently cushion headed into Kevin Nolan’s path by Shola Ameobi. Nolan still had plenty to do, but he did it with aplomb. Deftly and precisely nutmeging the out rushing ‘keeper with the cool head of experience. The captain notched one up for the 12th time this season from midfield and thus becoming Newcastle’s outright top scorer.
Wolves didn’t have much going forward or defensively in this first half, but they did manage an attempt that Harper had to pounce on to, virtually on his goal-line.
Just when it looked as though a pretty comfortable 1-0 scoreline at half time was secured, the lads broke up the pitch with a minute or so of regulation time left. Jonas, who was having a good game, fed Peter Lovenkrands, who put a great first time left foot cross in, right on to Shola’s bemasked head. Even though the Wolves ‘keeper got his hand on it, it wasn’t enough to stop Ameobi making it 2-0 with only overtime to play.
Newcastle flew out of the blocks in the second half and really should’ve been 3 up in a minute or less from kick off. First Ameobi wriggled free in the box and picked out Barton, who contrived to miss when it looked easier to score, though credit has to go to Hennessy in goal for Wolves after making a double save, first with foot, then hand. Almost immediately after that, Lovenkrands took the ball round the ‘keeper only for the angle to be tight enough for him to clip the post with his eventual shot.
Was this going to come back and haunt us?
Not today!
A great bit of skill, tenacity and a deft touch from Coloccini slid Barton in, who took it right, he provided a great cross for Lovenkrands, who only had to supply a decent finish from the centre of the box –3-0.
It was now time for the ref to inexplicably attempt to play Wolves back into the game. Giving soft free kicks and yellow cards to Toon players. Although Nolan’s yellow was probably ‘one for the team’ when he tangled with a free running gold shirt bombing towards our goal, down the right. That comes with a 2 game suspension for the Captain for 10 yellows. Add him to the list.
You could sense the injustice in the team and Wolves capitalised on it with a well taken goal through Ebanks-Blake from about 12 yards. Slotting home with a good side footed shot, our defence guilty by-standers. Then, from another soft free kick, O’Hara floated a great ball in, only for the free header to clip the bottom of our post.
Perch came on for Ferguson and stopped Ebanks-Blake in our box with a great and timely tackle, and he was harshly yellowed. He also headed clear from his own line. That singnalled a bit of relief and Newcastle started to command the possession again. The clock was starting to run down and as Wolves became more desperate the Toon brought on Ranger who gave us an outlet.
As the game edged towards full time, Steven Taylor fed Jonas who carried the ball to the edge of their area and curled the perfect shot into the bottom right corner. That put the gloss on what was a good solid performance and just under fifty thousand Geordies wandered down the pub in the late afternoon sun.
All in all a great 3 points that were fully deserved.
The goals helped put us back in the black on the goals differencial, clawing back some of what we gave up in the last game.
There were some great individual performances too, Barton, Jonas, Colo, Shola, in fact it’s hard and would be churlish, to single anyone out for criticism. A game where some of the lads who’ve had stick this season: Lovenkrands, Perch etc. all pulled their weight and under the massive pressure of this match acquitted themselves unreservedly.
Their was a tangeble sense of relief emanating from the crowd as Jonas celebrated and who would argue that another 3 points should secure another season in the Premier League?
Phew!
Howay the Lads!
* There was a huge cock-up on the match report front, with both Clint and I doing one at the same time, so here’s Clint’s account of the game as an excellent, alternative viewpoint to my own report of the game. – Workyticket.
Match highlights and post match interviews.
NUFCBlog Author: CLiNT FLiCK
Cut me in half & it'll say Newcastle United F.C. just like a stick of Black 'n' White rock!
CLiNT FLiCK has written 42 articles on this blog.
Good report and we can’t have too much of a good thing eh fellas?