Newcastle enjoyed an excellent first half of their game against Celtic at St. James Park tonight going 3-0 up with goals from Oba Martins and two from the star of the first half – Albert Luque – who was given a starting berth up front with Oba Martins.
Albert Luque – scores 2 goals in first half
Albert Luque wins a starting place in attack as he makes his first pre-season appearance for Newcastle against Celtic, the Scottish Champions at St.James’ Park. Shay Given has now fully recovered from a slight heel injury and returns in goal – he is again given the captain’s armband against his former club.
Peter Ramage partners Rozehnal in central defense with 19-year-old Paul Huntington coming in at left-back. There are also home debuts for both David Rozehnal, the Czech International and Geremi, the Cameroon international who is partnering Nicky Butt in the center of midfield.
James Milner makes his first pre-season appearance and is on the left flank with Nobby Solano playing down the right. Martins is partnering Luque up front. Steven Taylor is on the Newcastle bench following his ankle injury sustained during the European Under-21 tournament, and it’s also good to see David Edgar back on the bench after his participation in the Under-20 World Cup competition representing Canada.
The starting Newcastle line up is as follows:
Newcastle United:
Shay Given (captain), Stephen Carr, David Rozehnal, Peter Ramage, Paul Huntington, Nobby Solano, Geremi, Nicky Butt, James Milner, Oba Martins, Albert Luque
Glasgow Celtic:
Artur Boric, Lee Naylor, Maciej Zurawski, Scott Brown, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Massimo Donati, John Kennedy, Stephen McManus (captain), Paul Caddis, Paul Hartley, Aiden McGeady
Referee: Mark Halsey
After a bright start Newcastle – in which Luque shows one or two nice touches – Newcastle open the scoring after just 11 minutes. A Stephen Carr run seems to be stopped by McManus in the penalty area, but the ball runs loose and Solano quickly picks out Oba Martins around the penalty spot, and Oba hits it first time right-footed low to keeper Boric’s left.
After 30 minutes Newcastle go 2-0 up when James Milner picks out Luque unmarked and eight yards from Boruc’s goal. The Spaniard makes no mistake with a left-foot volley that finds the back of the net. This is a good start by Luque and it’s obvious he is ready for this game.
Shay Given makes his first save after 33 minutes pushing over a drive from McGeady and Carr clears the resulting corner. On 35 minutes Geremi puts Luque clear in the inside left channel with a great ball – and the Spaniard volleys goalwards but his effort just dips over the crossbar – with the Newcastle crowd on their feet.
Ramage rescues Newcastle after 40 minutes as the ball runs to Hesselink and the Dutchman should have scored from close range, but a wonderful sliding intervention on the goal-line from Ramage saves the day.
Then after 42 minutes that man again – Albert Luque – scores his second goal. Nobby Solano delivers a beautiful right wing ball to Luque at the far post, and Luque finishes well with a left-footed first-time shot from six-yards. Obviously delighted the Spaniard spins away to the ramapnt applause of the Newcastle fans.
The first half finishes with Newcastle easily deserving of their 3-0 lead and Albert Lueue has certainly made the most of his first team start to ram in two good goals.
If this is what Sam can bring out of Luque after just a few weeks in training – we cannot wait for what’s next from the Spaniard.
8 comments so far
Keep Oba
Jul 26, 2007 at 9:11 PM
Comment #1That a boy Oba and Lucky Luque!…send those bastards back over old Hadrian’s Wall where they belong with their tails between their legs.
Keep Oba
Jul 26, 2007 at 9:14 PM
Comment #2By the way…nothing against you Celtic fans out there…I am sure you are all nice people, but its nice to see some results versus a team that has players that are only known by people other than their own mothers.
Oba Gone
Jul 26, 2007 at 9:24 PM
Comment #3Aye Oba the Spook, send im back to africa to get his momma, then she can come and clean ma house
Hoops Forever
Rich
Jul 26, 2007 at 9:51 PM
Comment #44-1
Good game by both teams in my eyes, at 60 minutes when we put all our under 21’s on and butt got injured so we sent Steve Harper upfront we started to fall apart but thats to be expected with only senior players on the pitch were Carr & Geremi.
Milner, what a star, im so happy he signed a new 5 year contract.. i cant wait to see him next season.
all in all a good performance from us… best players would have to be Solano, Geremi & Milner.
looking forward to Juve on sunday, im hoping that Juve start Boumsong for the obvious reasons.
It still shows as we all know we need more than 1 new defender, BSA is obviously trying to get ahold of quality players or we could of easily signed some of the mediocre players that have been signed already in the past week or so by other teams imo.
anyway, im off to finish wactching post match crap.
steve harper for number 9!
apan
Jul 26, 2007 at 10:01 PM
Comment #5go harper go!
Josh
Jul 26, 2007 at 10:02 PM
Comment #6What a GREAT result! Really pleased for Luque if he can get as fit as Big Sam wants him he will be a great back-up player for any injurys this season.
oh and GO ON OBA! What a Striker.
Josh
Jul 26, 2007 at 10:15 PM
Comment #7OH!
And i Just saw that Dyer was left out COMPLETELY.
Has something been hidden from us?
Hmmmmm
I think he might of already been sold, I reckon tomorrow we will hear where hs is going, HOPEFULLY we will be getting someone in exchange OR have someone come in on same day lets SEEEEE!
evil dick
Jul 26, 2007 at 10:25 PM
Comment #8get in!