Joe Kinnear and Newcastle United need a big win tonight, and he brought in 3 players in Enrique, Barton and Gutierrez to the side tonight as he fielded a powerful looking line up against WBA at St. James’ Park tonight.
TEAMS
Newcastle United: Shay Given, Habib Beye, Jose Enrique, Fabricio Coloccini, Steven Taylor, Jonas Gutierrez, Danny Guthrie, Joey Barton, Damien Duff, Oba Martins, Shola Ameobi
Subs: Steve Harper, Sebastien Bassong, Charles N’Zogbia, Claudio Cacapa, Xisco, Geremi, Andy Carroll
WBA: Scott Carson, Gianni Zuiverloon, Ryan Donk, Jonas Olsson, Paul Robinson, James Morrison, Jonathan Greening, Robert Koran, Borja Valero, Chris Brunt, Roman Bednar
Subs: Dean Kiely, Carl Hoefkens, Marek Cech, Ishmael Miller, Sherjill Macdonald, Luke Moore, Pedro Pele
Referee: Mike Dean
Attendance: tbc
Newcastle as expected started like a steam train and after just 2 minutes Oba Martins made a fabulous run through and only a fine save by Scott Carson saved the day for West Brom.
But then that man Ameobi was brought down in the penalty area, and Joey Barton, back in the team, got exactly what Joe Kinnear had asked for — a repeat of his only previous goal to this – a penalty at Fulham last December.
And Joey sent Carson the wrong way as he put it to the goalkeeper’s left.
Newcastle were playing fine attacking football but on 36 minutes Shay Given, who was captain for the night, came to their rescue when he deflected a shot over the bar, from a shot that had looked destined for goal.
Then just before half time Newcastle went 2-0 up and it was an Oba Martin headed goal that did it, as a beautiful Habib Beye run and cross, opened up the West Brom defense and Oba headed what looked like an easy goal for him.
Joey Barton has been supreme in the middle of the park, and is keeping his promise to repay the Newcastle club for having stood by him during his recent problems.
What we need to do now is to fully press home our advantage in the second half, as we can do our goal difference a lot of good tonight – but we must keep pressing.
Howay The Lads!!!
89 comments so far
Will
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:15 AM
Comment #81Duff was immense today, along with Guthrie and Barton.
Taylor is a liability though, always too far forward from Coloccini. Leaving him exposed intitially against one striker, but two was too much when Miller was introduced.
Xisco Stu
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:16 AM
Comment #82I pray the players get a rollocking after that second half performance though. That was the main reason Villa ended up hammering us last season after going in 1-0 up at halftime.
There should be no encore.
Ganiyu
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:16 AM
Comment #83Lets all thank god that nicky butt didnt play
reillers
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:17 AM
Comment #84Lads a wins a win. Winning’s a habbit, so hopefully this will be the start of it.
Ile
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:18 AM
Comment #85In my opinion Oba’s passes were awful today. Normally I love this guy, but this game wasnt his best games at all (allthought the header was nice). In the second half Duff played wisely, kept the ball well while our stikers came too low when WBA defence could open their game too easily. Nice that we got 3 points:)
ToonKing
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:20 AM
Comment #86Taylor and Jose did a mess of our defence today…..Beye and Colo were great though……
Duff was good, i really liked he’s little nutmeg, i still prefer Zog though. Duff is super talented but just too daft football wise. He could be a world class player if he used he’s head. Make the good decision at the good time, pass the ball sooner, make another trick…….sometimes he just runs and gets nowhere.
ariel7
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:34 AM
Comment #87i) Congrats lads for the win!
ii) 2nd half performance should not be repeated, no grip at all in the midfield 🙁
iii) i believe we can beat villa with our 1st half performance
35yrs of Hurt
Oct 29, 2008 at 12:35 AM
Comment #88Nervey performance’s from Enrique and Chocolate Taylor did not help. I was encouraged by Barton’s return, particularly in the 1st half. Jonas is utter class, Shola to his credit battled hard and actulally won a few good headers.
Martins is Martins, he is an instinctive player who lacks awareness but gives us the suprise element.
JFK’S tactics were wrong against a weak team, we sat far to deep in the 2nd half, but heyho The Toon Won………..
Heavy hitters
Oct 29, 2008 at 1:25 AM
Comment #89Ed, when you type out the subs bench do type the right players in m8. Either I’m blind or was that Edgar sitting behind Kinnear or perhaps he was allowed to sit with the subs while he waits for his transfer in Jan?