Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce says his Newcastle side deserved at least a draw against a Stoke City side tonight, who were dominant in the second half of their FA Cup clash.
Sam Allardyce – pleased with dogged performance from his team
The first half belonged to Newcastle and they should have been ahead at the break with several chances they should have done better with. The best chance fell to England striker Michael Owen, who should have scored when clean through and only goalkeeper Simonsen to beat.
After the game Allardyce, who appeared tired out at the end of a thrilling game, told Sky Sports:
“I thought we controlled the game, the first half particularly.” “I am a little disappointed over 90 minutes but it’s a very, very good draw.â€
“We will see who we get and hopefully try to finish the job off.”
“Overall, it was a satisfying result and we look forward to the draw.”
And Allardyce had plenty of praise for his defenders, who all played their hearts out – as Sam added:
“They were tremendous. We spoke about the size and strength of the Stoke team, I thought we dealt with it well.â€
“We are short of numbers at the moment with African Nations (Cup) players going away and a few injuries.â€
It was a good game for Sam tonight, even though it wasn’t the win all Newcastle fans had craved. But the performance was a strong one and several new players shone during the game.
We thought Spaniard Jose Enrique looked good and solid, and why he hasn’t played more this season is beyond us. Charles N’Zogbia was again dangerous on the left wing, and we hope Sam keeps playing him there. And 17 year-old Kazenga Lua Lua looked more than useful when he made his very first senior appearance for the club.
Comments very welcome.
94 comments so far
ToonKing
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Comment #41i was just about to write that Steve Chrome.
people should really get their facts straight before moaning about sam.
Anyways i really liked the look of Lua Lua but i dunno about Caroll…..i think he and Joey will be cell mates one day………
Dirk
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:42 PM
Comment #42considerin sum ppl here are sayin we were crap i didn think we were awful, we played very good attacking football in the first half and should hav scored, second half taylor showed wa sort of defender he is. tbh i thought butt, viduka, taylor and duff were brilliant 2day all tried hard and played well. i reckon zog should start in the team as creative midfielder down the middle wiv duff n milner on the wings n then faye as holdin midfielder.
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:43 PM
Comment #433 to 5 year job what a joke. just look at man city what a good owner, good manager, good players can do. and man city had more debt worse team
ToonKing
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Comment #44Dirk i agree………..except Viduka and Butt ……..they were utter shite 😉 . We need Ashton.
steve chrome
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:46 PM
Comment #45i think sven’s got lucky. but he hasn’t built a team that will last. i can’t see man city having the same success next season with the same players. Sven’s a typical european coach – won’t be there beyond 3 years i reckon
daiv
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:48 PM
Comment #46The defence and attack is not the problem. No invention in midfield. Butt and Smith have no movement. Smith is an embarrassment. He is the CAPTAIN. Can you believe it? I’ve written loads about him in previous weeks. Come on Sam, we’ve got two old/slow men in midfield who could not get into Arsenal reserves. get real. Our weakness is central midfield./ Emre is also too slow and lightweight. He goes down every time he is touched and Barton is too slow… and history.
Hammy
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Comment #47ToonKing, yeah Carroll looks like he’s on day release from Acklington…..
Tom_Toon
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Comment #48lualua, 17 to be fair he should be playing in the prem in our squad if big sam wont play emre.
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:50 PM
Comment #49viduka will always be shit as long as they keep kickin high balls up at him. he will create chances all game if they pass the ball into feet when hes backin in
Nobby's dad
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:51 PM
Comment #50Oh John I actually think that if you have supported a team for 40 + years that you ARE a good supporter – I’ve put a small fortune into the club, my money and my emotions.
I don’t remember Allardyce saying this was the best squad of players he’s ever had (that was definately Souness). I also don’t remember him mentioning injuries (that was Souness and Roeder).Who’s he signed with ‘bad’ injury records out of the nine he’s brought in (yes Viduka’s record is not great but he was free)? Our most injury prone players are Owen / Baba – kicked out / Dyer – sold and then probably Emre. None are BSA signings.
Don’t you think it’s true that he didn’t get his first choice players. Remember the summer when Ashley was stalling on giving any money. He obviously missed players he was after….why shouldn’t he say that? The bloke has every right to be annoyed – the players have shown in certain games what they can do but are too often found wanting. It’s not all Sam’s fault – the player have to take some responsibility.
spen
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:51 PM
Comment #51ashton ffs mola ameobi is better then ashton we need a world class centre back who can lead also diego. we dnt need a striker just the service
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:53 PM
Comment #52ashton ……. to sit on the treatment table all year he is also over weight just like carr enrique and fat head allardyce
Hammy
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Comment #53The Toon was on a hiding to nothing today…..
expected to win but probably most the country and some fans hoping for a reversal…as the Big Sam media driven guillotine rumbled on….
TBH it now looks like Sam is going nowhere….
you never know we may win a few games…
playing attacking football (yeah I know…)
Thought Sir Bobby looked a bit shabby today, hope he’s o.k…..
Ross
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:55 PM
Comment #54the talk of diego is pretty ridiculous.
him and frings are the base of the werder bremen attack, he’s brilliant.
anyway, i doubt ashley would give sam the money he’d set us back.
if we’re gonna take a pop at signing him, try van der vaart whilst we’re there.
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:57 PM
Comment #55if you havent heard allardyce goin on about injurys you need your ears tested and when he was at his first press conferenc he said he was working with a lot better quality players
spen
Jan 6, 2008 at 10:59 PM
Comment #56ROSS- its not ridiculous becuase we’l pay a stupid wage with diego our 4wards will get the service through the middle not the wings, which if owen stays fit(fingers crossed) would relish
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Comment #57van der vaart would probably cost more than diego
spen
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:01 PM
Comment #58and diego is better
Tom_Toon
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:03 PM
Comment #59we couldnt get either, be realistic.
Dudu, Kahlenberg and Arshavin are the best and most feasable options for a club like us.
Ross
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:04 PM
Comment #60Spen-i agree, it wasnt his style or contribution to the team he would make i was calling ridiculous.
it was the idea of the toon signing him. can you really see allardyce
1) looking to sign a player like diego
2)being given the money to do so?
he’d be an unbeleivable addition to the squad, i just couldnt ever realistically see it being a possibility, sadly.
Tom Cairns
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:04 PM
Comment #61an attacking cm
a big powerful striker
a centre back/ right back
a right midfielder
theyre the positions i think we need to be looking at and i agree with sam that they should preferably have premiership experience.
ToonKing
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:05 PM
Comment #62when’s the replay by the way ???? the date is
determined even before the first game is played so anybody know ???
Tom Cairns
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Comment #63so far we have no idea what kind of funding we are getting from ashley, so id like to be optimistic and think its not as restricted as some people seem to think.
Ross
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:09 PM
Comment #64true, we have no idea.
but if ashley was giving sam a bundle of cash, surely we’d have seen some sort of indication by now?
man c looking to take martins from us, looking at afonso alves for 14 million, thats an indication of cash.
so far we’ve been realistically linked with wes brown, and now apparently kevin nolan?
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Comment #65why does allardyce goin on as though the fans want to much. all we want is the team to play decent football, 100 pct effort and if we lose the manager and players to come out and say how bad we really were instead of filling us with complete allashite
Ross
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Comment #66dont get me wrong
i’d love to think sam has good money to spend and that we’d be able to bring in some real quality to the squad
i just dont see any indication of a desire to do so thus far.
Mac
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:12 PM
Comment #67It’s the FA cup things don’t go as they should that why 4 Prem teams fell at the first hurdle that’s why Chelski were lucky and i mean very lucky to scrape through 1-0 liverpool 1-1 draw,are all their web sites full of supposed fans asking for their managers head????? I doubt it very much. NOBBYS DAD i agree with everything u say i am 29 so somewhat younger that you but i have been a season ticket holder for 13 years
Magjp
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:14 PM
Comment #68haven’t seen the game meself, but this is what I gather. We seem to perform well and lose games (Against Man City, Chelsea) or we we perform crazily and draw games (Derby, Stoke etc)
I would rather play Faye in the middle and Cacapa as the central defender. Then Smith or Butt can be the attacking mid.
Tom Cairns
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:15 PM
Comment #69im not sure ross but id like to think the reason behind this is that we arent as open in our transfers as they seem to be (that or its all just paper talk),
as well as the fact that everyone is very aware about us spending huge money in the past on players that simply have not performed for one reason or another. maybe eriksson has just been lucky so far, or maybe we have just been reliably bad in the past.
Tom_Toon
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Comment #70ahaha smith or butt attacking mid, that is complete comedy, its a sick joke, neither can pass for sht.
john
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Comment #71magjp have you forgotten how bad we played against liverpool and pompey smith, butt att mid .hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
spen
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:18 PM
Comment #72with a billionaire at the helm we’ve got to have money to spend i think ashley is a fan he’s ther with his smudge top on wes brownpants should be a good signing but so should bramble n roz(roz might might come good) its just a shame to me linked with albalda n deco in summer and now nolan? who? why buy beneath the talant we have
Ross
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:39 PM
Comment #73thats how i feel spen.
if sam makes cheap good quality signings i’d be more than happy.
im not looking for us to break the bank with every player we try and lure to sjp, i just want a bit of quality and consistency.
i just cant see the need for us to buy players who compared even to the squad we have now, are a step backwards as far as ambition goes.
i think in this case, we genuinly do need to get the chequebook out a bit and look for one or two class players, who will make a noticeable attacking difference for us every time they step out in the black n white.
JP from The Rock of Gibraltar
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:43 PM
Comment #74Man all you guys just need to lighten up! OK so we didn’t win against Stoke nor did we lose, not bad considering the amount of shots they had. We didn’t play bad considering our season and we played with balls and heart! Apart from Rozy having a nightmare in RB and Smith running around in circles we did very well. I think Emre was injured thats why he wasn’t next to Butt in midfield. Sam is slowly realizing what players play best where and in what system. He has now adopted a 4-4-2 formation in a couple of matches. Just imagine all the hassle if we would go for another manager now. We would have to start all over again..and wait even longer for the new manager to know the players and what their qualities are. It’s stupid to even think it, Sam has only been here 7 months or so including the Transfer market. To his credit his players are starting to gel and Beye, Cacapa, Faye and from what I saw of Enrique tonight we have quality defenders. We need to give Big Sam time guys, after all we gave Souness more than a year!!
thelongshanks
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:45 PM
Comment #75The defense would want to be good,there were 11 of them out there!no attacking mids zogbia was man marked and when he got the ball there were 2 on him.Smith and butt were rubbish,and butt couldnt finish his dinner as he put every effort over the bar.
I am not waiting four years to be gettin a 7th or 6th finishing place like he did at bolton.Im serious he is bringing the toon to the same level bolton where at so he can do what he did there. 4-4-2 attack its what we expect against lower teams.why the f8*k would we want to contain yeovil which is what he would do if we where playing them.
What i have seen this season is consistancecy.consistance rubbish that is.
UTD111
Jan 6, 2008 at 11:51 PM
Comment #76Dominated the first half. 59% posession overall for the whole game. Faye and Taylor were superb. Pity Milner was sick as we lost our balance a bit because of that. Enrique was fine at LB. Well done Sam.
john
Jan 7, 2008 at 12:07 AM
Comment #77doesnt matter how much possesion. the fact is we couldnt score agianst an average championship side see where stoke finish at the end of the season a bet there not in the top 10 same as us
Dragoner
Jan 7, 2008 at 12:13 AM
Comment #78i wanna see more lua lua, get rid of smith in midfield as he is no leader, i didnt even see him today. We need players who can pass a ball. Butt is a veteran of pro football yet he cant pass a ball. what a joke he is.
ravatooniac
Jan 7, 2008 at 12:28 AM
Comment #79yeah yeah we could not score against stoke but the big bonus tonight was that under all the pressure they put on us our defence was fantastic, lets build with taylor/ faye when he returns/enrique/ beye when he returns, we also not gonna score many goals with smith/butt in midle of midfield as there’s little creativity and not enough work rate from viduka/owen up front, tell duff that if he put as much running in as he does moaning then he’s bound to improve his game, zog and milner playing well, young lua looked neat too, midle midfielder a must in transfer window!!!
Ed Harrison
Jan 7, 2008 at 12:36 AM
Comment #80Edd Case – we were lucky – how Newcastle didn’t concede twice in the second half – still don’t know. But we also played well at the back except for that crazy 10 minute period when we looked all at sea.
Hey – you’ve got to pick as many positives as you can out of games. I think the chances we missed cost us a win tonight.