Newcastle 0 City 2
A trip to crisis club Newcastle was just what was required to end a frustrating spell of football away from the City of Manchester Stadium.
Newcastle, lurching from problem to problem this season were under the pressure with Sam Allardyce once again facing calls for his head after a disappointing run of results, and Allardyce perhaps tried to deflect attention from himself with his pre-match comments which hit out at Sven's tactics against Liverpool where we had 'set out' for a point.
Well, I'm not sure what Newcastle set out to achieve yesterday they came across as a side lacking in confidence, purpose and direction. To be fair to them though, the first-half an hour was a poor affair with both sides seemingly suffering from a New Year hangover as the game was marked with a string of mis-hit passed, mis-timed runs and poor decisions.
All of that changed however around ten minutes from the half, with the first real piece of quality. Elano started a neat move outside the Newcastle area and Ireland linked well with Vassell to return the ball to the Brazillian who slotted home with his left foot from just inside the box. The goal spurred us on somewhat and we looked lively until the break, with Petrov a threat and Elano looking composed in the centre of midfield.
The second-half kicked off with the introduction of Michael Owen and with his first touch of the game should have levelled matters as he got onto the end of a through ball but slotted it too close to Hart who managed to get a foot to it and see it gratefully roll past the post.
I thought for the remainder of the second-half we looked composed and assured with the hardly languid pair of Hamman and Corluka dominating midfield and using Petrov - who remained our most potent attacking threat, on a number of occasions.
Vassell again ran gamely up front, but for the most part left you wondering what an Anelka, or even an Owen could achieve with the level of service our current midfield could provide. Defensively, we were rarely threatened at all following the Owen miss and the game was sealed late on as substitute Etuhu held the ball up well under pressure in the box to tee up Gelson Fernandes to fire past Given and earn our first victory since opening day of the season, and coupled with Liverpool's 1-1 draw at home to Wigan we move back upto fourth position in the table - marking an important result given wins for Everton, Aston Villa and Portsmouth yesterday.
Reaction:
Sven-Goran Eriksson and Sam Allardyce.
Reports:
BBC
Guardian
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6 comments:
A bit harsh on us there, Danny - we outplayed you for most of the first half, even if Dunne was immense throughout and you always looked sharp on the break. No real complaints in the end, though - we had no real conviction in the second half once Owen had spurned his chance, and you grew in stature.
Our match report's up now, belatedly, by the way...
I'm guessing you're rather miffed that the press can only bang on about us rather than give you any credit.
But then we can be miffed at being constantly referred to as "crisis club Newcastle"... ;)
Best of luck for the rest of the season lads.
Nice posts Ben. Do you think that Martins is totally unpredictable, or is it that the players around him are totally random? Either way, unless Sam can get them on the same wavelength I think you'll struggle - not go down, but missing your potential.
Great to see Elano back on song. And I'm trying to think of any player who's done better than Kelvin Etuhu on his two debut matches. Good to see Kaspar back as well - he wants to be back with the lads, and why not. I would.
Martins is unpredictable, definitely - blows hot and cold, sometimes amazing but at others not. Witness last night's brilliant run in our own half only for him to hoof an attempted pass straight to Hart.
But he's expected to carry too much of the creative threat in the side at the moment - we lack any kind of creative spark through the middle. We lack an Elano, basically...
The first half an hour of the game was really poor from both sides - I wasn't meaning to lay it all on Newcastle. Some of the decision making and distribution was woeful.
It looked to me that N'Zogbia was the only real threat they had of creating chances.
If Owen had stuck that away, it could have been a different story though. Just pleasing to hold a lead after letting points slip of late.
Out of interest - anyone think Owen would be worth a bid?
I actually missed playing Joey Barton in this game. As much as I detest his behavior I can't help but still have a soft spot for him. He always fought for our club on the pitch even if he was a psychopath who deserved to be locked up.
Oh well.
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