Newcastle ‘Player of the Season’ Vote: 2) Midfielders and Forwards
May 17th, 2012 | 115 Comments |
Midfield: (more…)
Midfield: (more…)
Date: Saturday, 28th April, 2012.
Kick-Off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Mike Dean (The Wirral Whistler).
Hmm, well despite the large difference in the Magpies’ and the Latics’ respective league positions, this could well be an interesing game.
Roberto Martinez and Atletico Wigan’s progress has followed a fairly similar pattern to that of last season, ie staring into the abyss most of the time, then finally pulling themselves together for a string of stylish and surprising results which look like pulling them out of the mire at the eleventh hour, well they would if fellow strugglers, Queen’s Park Rangers hadn’t decided to pull off one or two surprising results of their own as the Premiership season edges towards it’s denouement. The catalyst for this change in form seems to have been a switch from what has looked like a 4-5-1 formation earlier in the season, to a highly offensive Cruyffian style 3-4-3 formation from Señor Martinez. Of course, our Silver Supremo, Alan Pardiola, has been on a similar road to Damascus recently, switching from his old 4-4-2 to more attacking 4-3-3 which has reaped remarkable dividends with the electrifying form of players such as Hatem Ben Arfa and new boy, Papiss Cisse, leading the way.
Stats, previous matches etc… (more…)
First Half
The first 10 mins saw United getting plenty of the ball without actually threatening the Liverpool goal. As expected, Mike Williamson got the job of marking Carroll. I was going to say “Williamson was preferred to Perch” but I thought better of it.
Both teams were taking a while to settle and the first bit of excitement came in the 11th minute when Downing hit the ball against Ryan Taylor’s hand. There was a shout from the Kop for handball rather than the Liverpool players, but there was nothing doing from the referee.
After a quarter of an hour we saw a dangerous cross from Enrique – cue the chant from the Geordie faithful “you’re just a s**t Ryan Taylor!” I’m sure they both saw the funny side. (more…)
Alan Pardew decided to play Haris Vuckic in midfield to replace Cabaye, otherwise the team was unchanged from the Swansea game. This was United’s last home game of 2011 and the mood amongst the fans seemed to be one of expectancy – a good opportunity to get back to winning ways.
The match got off to a lively start with Newcastle stroking the ball around confidently. Within the first five minutes Steven Reid of West Brom was injured and clearly unable to continue. Jonas sportingly kicked the ball out of play and was rewarded with a handshake from opposing manager Roy Hodgson. Reid was replaced by Billy Jones.
A good, open game was developing with nothing much between the sides. Then in the 20th minute, Chris Brunt slotted the ball through to Odemwingie who hit a left foot shot into the net. 1-0 to West Brom. United hit back and had the ball in the net within 3 minutes but Ba’s effort was ruled offside. (more…)
Highlights of the game. 11 minute highlights of the match.
Swansea were defending very deep in the first half of this game, with Newcastle United keeping the Swans pinned back in and around their own box for quite a few spells. However as the second half rolled on, Swansea did make something of a comeback. So after an hour or so of complete dominance by the Magpies which they failed to capitalise on, it actually started to look possible that we could have ended the game emptyhanded. It ended as “honours even” at the end though. (more…)