Newcastle were fairly well beaten 3-0 by a good and superior Manchester United side tonight at Old Trafford.
And while we were hardly ever in with a chance of winning this game, Chris Hughton can take some real positives out of this game tonight.
There was the expected commitment from the Newcastle players, and they held on for 32 minutes before conceding the first goal, but it was also apparent that reinforcements must be brought into the squad before the end of August.
Only then will Chris Hughton have any real chance of avoiding another blood and guts relegation season.
The lads look well organized, knew exactly what their jobs were, and seemed to be well coached – but were just not good enough – is a good way to sum up this game – not good enough against a team as good and polished as Manchester United were tonight.
The game got off to a fairly decent start for Newcastle and they held their own in the first 30 minutes, and keeping a clean sheet early was always going to be important.
And before Berbatov scored the first goal on 32 minutes Steve Harper hadn’t had a shot to save, but no doubt the Red Devils had the vast majority of possession and were starting to wear down the Magpies by their incessant attacking.
And the best chance of the first 30 minutes went to our own Andy Carroll who had a clear header after 10 minutes. Andy did all the hard work by alluding his defensive markers, but then headed the ball about two yards wide of the the left hand post, when it looked easier to score. If that had been a goal it could have altered the game.
But the inevitable goal came when Berbatov broke through down the right hand channel, and a sliding challenge from Enrique only teed the ball up for the Romanian, who made no mistake and smashed it past the helpless Harper.
And then after 41 minutes, as the Red Devils were becoming more and more dominant, Darren Fetcher made it two, when he beat Coloccini to a loose ball on the six yard box and whipped it past goalkeeper Harper.
2-0 and it looked like the game was well beyond the reach of the Magpies as the half time whistle blew, with Newcastle looking to be in for a possible hiding in the second half.
Newcastle had to play it very carefully in the final 45 minutes, as they tried to pull a goal back, but also couldn’t expose themselves too much at the back, otherwise the Red Devils would catch them short at the back, and put the game beyond all doubt.
Andy Carroll would have impressed watching managers as he caused all kinds of trouble for Jonny Evans in the air – especially in the second half – and won almost every ball in the air – so Andy is no one season wonder, but was impressive again tonight.
But against all the odds in the second half Newcastle had a decent half, and defended quite well, even though Manchester United were continuing to look polished, and moving forward all the time
The Magpies, to their credit, didn’t concede again until 5 minutes from the end of the match when Paul Scholes, the best player on the field, teed up his long term team-mate Ryan Giggs from the right, and the Welshman hit the ball with his left foot (what else?) beyond the diving Steve Harper to make it 3-0.
A number of good performances from the Newcastle players tonight, with Mike Williamson having a decent game at center-back, and Andy Carroll full of commitment and endeavor up front.
Some of the performances of the Newcastle lads will please manager Chris Hughton, and auger well for the future, but we are still short of real class.
That’s what we need if we are to be one of the better Premier League sides – which we are not right now – that was made abundantly clear tonight.
We said before the game we didn’t expect anything out of this game, and we are nowhere near the class of the Manchester Uniteds and Chelseas of this world.
But these are not the games that will make or break our season, it’s against the bottom 10 teams that we’ll need to pick up some points and our season will depend on how we fare in those games.
All in all this was a decent performance from the lads, in what was always going to be a very tough first game against a very very good side.
Remember to let us know who you think was Newcastle’s best player in our poll on the home page.
TEAMS:
Manchester United: Van der Sar; O’Shea, Vidic, Evans, Evra; Valencia, Fletcher, Scholes, Nani; Berbatov, Rooney.
Subs:Kuszczak, Rafael Da Silva, Smalling, Carrick, Giggs, Macheda, Hernandez.
Newcastle United: Steve Harper, James Perch, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Enrique, Wayne Routledge, Alan Smith, Joey Barton, Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Nolan, Andy Carroll.
Subs: Ryan Taylor, Xisco, Shola Ameobi, Tim Krul, Haris Vuckic, Nile Ranger, James Tavernier.
Referee: C Foy
129 comments so far
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:09 PM
Comment #41I think carroll and williamson were the only two players who played well today, smith and nolan looked slow, barton chased shadows, routledge was horrendous, jonas wasnt much better.
But on the plus side we wont play man utd every week, we need to beat the sides around us, i hope sol campbell is fit soon, i wonder if collocini could play right back, cant be worse than perch there surely lol
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:11 PM
Comment #42side for against villa, assuming no signings:-
————————-harper
r.taylor—–collocini——–williamson—enrique
barton——–guthrie———–nolan———jonas
—————-lovo————carroll
G
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Comment #43To be honest, I can sleep quite well with this result, and I would go as far as saying that I would be comfortable with 1 out of 3 away results going like this. As long as we play well at home, win most home games and snatch the odd away draw our season will be a success in comparative terms. Ensuring we are here next season in the Prem is all that really matters, I don’t like it, but thats the truth.
veloso in toon
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Comment #44Still think that we should play
harper
Rtaylor Williamson Campbell Enrique
Collocini
Routledge Barton Guthrie Jonas
Carroll
Ideal World
Taylor Willamson Campbell Enrique
Routlege Barton Fer Jonas
Arfa
Carroll
stuart no9
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Comment #45G
as you can see managed to get the CAPS ON sorted, however talking about SH being our best option, not on tonights performance, tosser
veloso in toon
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:14 PM
Comment #46any update from craigcoozy
NUFC_Richyg01
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:15 PM
Comment #47Hope the performances of Scholes and Giggs make MA realise that not all signings have to be ones for the future, experience is vital in this league.
Im not gutted by the loss, I expected it, and some!
HWTL!
YANICK MALTA NUFC
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:15 PM
Comment #48Bring back Obafemi Martins and Hatem Ben Arfa …………
G
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:15 PM
Comment #4918 minutes from the comment and thats the best you can come up with… yawn.
Suthey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:17 PM
Comment #50Never came away from a game where we have been beating 3-0 and felt this goood :), We were very hard to break down the defence was very organised when can we ever say that about a toon defence, Mike Williamson will be a great player this year like a roger johnson, Love Carrrol 😀 Everyone new we had know chance hear and it was all about our performance, we done ourselves proud tonight and i think 16 is very realistic for us this season …….. 😀 So Happpppy Haway the Lads 🙂
Toon1978
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:19 PM
Comment #51Veloso in toon
Yeah the latest is that HBA has changed his mind. He said ” F..k that, stopping at OM after watching that sh1te” lol.
veloso in toon
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:19 PM
Comment #52im still sure we are gonna emd up between 14- 12th wished we had got Bellers back though
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:20 PM
Comment #53suthey have you gone mad lol
veloso in toon
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:20 PM
Comment #54lol i hope not
Moody french git i just ope we get him for the bit of genius that comes with a nut job
Scholes was immense
Suthey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:21 PM
Comment #55geordie what you mean??
G
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:22 PM
Comment #56To be honest, I think Bellers might be knackered, I could be wrong, but he has had some really bad knee injuries, and his well documented attitude problems wouldn’t be too good for us VIT. Anyway, am on my chinstrap here, so I am off to me scratcher. Night chaps.
veloso in toon
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:22 PM
Comment #57TBH Id rather lose the 3 pts away at OT now then later on in the season when its squeeky bum time
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Comment #58tonight showed we need a right back, said that all summer, a proven premiership one, luke young maybe. I think if you add ben arfa and a midfielder with pace and power we will be fine.
Newcastle always look better with lovo up front with carroll, his movement off the ball gives the midfielders something to aim at, there was no movement, which was why there was so many bad passes, we missed lovo and guthrie alot
Toon1978
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Comment #59Suthey
We battled hard but we were outclassed in all departments. Some bad mistakes in defence that you cannot get away with in the EPL.
veloso in toon
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:23 PM
Comment #60G- u could be right.
Hopefully loverman isnt injured and comes back soon
Night all Howay the toon
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:25 PM
Comment #61Suthey // Aug 16, 2010 at 11:21 PM
geordie what you mean??
We werent hard to break down, or very well organised, we kept dropping too deep, which was what hughton was shouting for half the match, man utd never got out of second gear, they could of hammered us if they wanted to, but why waste the energy
tjshawsey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:27 PM
Comment #62I don’t really care we lost. I don’t care they scored three goals. Tonight the players showed commitment to the cause and togetherness. If they had played this way on the last day of the season against aston villa two years ago i’d have been satisfied in the way we were relegated. Of course it needs investment. But lets not expect miracles. Carroll showed his potential, Smith fought for the team, Williamson defendly soundly. This team CAN stay up, and I fully support them and Chris Hughton. You can only do aswell as you can with what you have, and we certainly have determination and spirit, which most teams do not possess. However unlikely it may sound, that spirit could be the reason we stay up.
HTL!
Toon1978
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:28 PM
Comment #63geordielad
Well said mate. Hit the nail on the head!!!
Suthey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:30 PM
Comment #64Tooon, Out Classssed?? We are a newly promoted team who was playing against a team who has contested the league for nearly 20 years in a row,What did you expect? Look at the positives instead of how james perch struggled against one of the best LB’s in the world and a much improved Nani. Look at how the defence was very organised, very tough and comunicated very well. I would like to see a new winger to put preasure on jonas or routledge if there not performing and a cover LB, dont really see the point in getting a player to play at RB when we have taylor, simpson and perch not this year any way we only need to stay up or push 15th or 14th position. Only my opinion but i think we have a lot of positives when you look at who we were playing and who we have in our team. Mike williamson is an example of old fasiond centre half and exactly what we need his first game in the prem and was very comfortable one little mistake where he read the game perfectly made a great tackle and sliced his clearance but hey hey was really good tonigh
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:31 PM
Comment #65toon1978 luckily we dont play them every game lol, when we have campbell, guthrie and lovo in our side it will make a big difference, but we still need players, out bench was pathetic really lol, we need 3 players in my opinion.
Suthey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:32 PM
Comment #66Agree to disagree mate a just think a few of you are wanting far to much out of a match like this. Even alex fergie said we were hard to break down, dont really want to argue with him like
Toon1978
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:33 PM
Comment #67Suthey
Be realistic mate, we were bad but battled hard. We need some quality and quickly. Nowt in midfield and not one cross from the left. That is not EPL standard.
GeordieGerman
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:34 PM
Comment #68We played brilliantly the first 20 mins. but they broke us down and dead honest for the team we have 3-0 wasn’t bad. Ashley and Llambias were there. Maybe they took note of that well.
tjshawsey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:34 PM
Comment #69geordielad880 // Aug 16, 2010 at 11:11 PM
side for against villa, assuming no signings:-
————————-harper
r.taylor—–collocini——–williamson—enrique
barton——–guthrie———–nolan———jonas
—————-lovo————carroll
Pretty much agree although from hughton’s perspective probably routledge on the right, and barton in the middle with either guthrie or nolan dropping to the bench. I guess he will always play 4-4-2 at home, 4-5-1 away, my question is, will lovenkrands be happy with say 18 epl games this season?
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:35 PM
Comment #70suthey:-
“Look at how the defence was very organised, very tough and comunicated very well. I would like to see a new winger to put preasure on jonas or routledge if there not performing and a cover LB, dont really see the point in getting a player to play at RB when we have taylor, simpson and perch”
*the defence wasnt organised, enrique, williamson and collocini kept trying to play man utd offside and perch kept playing them on all the time, i agree williamson played ok and collo wasnt bad, but the full backs were both poor.
*and on simpson, perch, and r.taylor, if you combined all 3 you wouldnt get a decent prem right back, they are all equally poor
Sgt. Heagerty
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:36 PM
Comment #71well lads, first off we got to keep our heads up. Our boys went into the lions den tonight and came out with their pride in tact. At least we didnt get taken apart like west brom.
There are alot of positives to take from this match and alot of negatives too. Here’s what i saw:
Andy Carroll is going to be just fine in the prem league. Big Andy about gave us the lead early on in the match, who knows, if he puts that header in the corner of the onion bag maybe we have a different game. Either way, he was fighting up top almost completely by himself and was still causing some trouble. He is all heart and did newcastle proud. I dont think the number 9 is gonna be too much for this lad. We just cant play nolan off of him like we did tonight cuz that was shite. We have to put another striker up there. we need a striker with some pace for andy to work off of and vice versa.
Back 4: I thought with all things considering they played well at times. The first 2 goals they scored were shite and preventable. Considering that 84 minutes of the 90 were played in and around our own box i thought our back 4 held up ok. Would like to see them against a squad outside the top 7 to make a good honest judgement though. They all played hard. Enrique i thought was solid a bit of bad luck on the first goal when he layed it off for berbatov. Williamson and collicini looked prem league quality. Perch looked like a fish outta water at times no pun intended. But this was his first prem league match and old trafford may have got the best of him.
Midfield: Alan Smith played like a warrior out there in defensive midfield. Jonas and routledge are both gonna be fine this season. Routledge just needed to calm down a bit he looked like he was trying a bit too hard and was a little bit cagey. But your first trip to old trafford will do that to you. Barton put in some good service on free kicks and corners but his passing was lacking in the run of play. He needs to be the general out there and take charge and i thought he looked somewhat lost at times. But hey once again, man u will do that to you. Nolan needs to be a midfielder not a support striker. We are not gonna get away with that like we did in the championship. Honestly this formation we played tonight needs scrapped in general. We arent getting the ball enough and we cant bunker down in are own half the whole game without conceding. Plus we arent gonna score unless andy has some help.
Look all in all we didnt play that bad. The lads showed heart and im proud of em. We will bounce back from this. We didnt shame ourselves and we are gonna get better as the season goes.
Another good thing is ashley was on hand to see how far behind man u we are and maybe he will buy reinforcements!!!!
JerseyGeordie
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:36 PM
Comment #72alot of positives and negatives to take out of this game. One thing that was glaring to me was how unprepared we where for it.
A couple players looked a little nervy but the best news of all is we don’t have to go back there again this year. Here’s my ratings on the players if you care lol 😉
harper-3 looks unbelievably old. I believe his time might be up.
Perch-5 looked far too nervy first half but settled down in the 2nd. May never be a reliable starter.
Williamson- 6 another player who looked nervy at times. Most of the time looked brilliant, but the few times he messed up were real bad.
Colo-6 typical performance. Steady but not brilliant.
Enrique-6 thought he was tryin to do too much. Took valencia out of the game but poor passing led to breaks.
Routledge- 5 once again far too nervy. Another player trying to do too much. Was pleased with the willingness he showed on defense.
Barton-7 never stopped. Made some brilliant passes, and some poor ones but for me very bright moving the ball.
Smith- 7 thought he was a rock playing the holding role. Was really surprised. Just wish his passing was a better…
Jonas- 7 really lacked support. Was willing as ever but should’ve found carroll a bit more with crosses.
Nolan- 4 a liability in this game. Served only to stunt build up play. Was constantly a dim light in a bright play.
Andy- 8 was absolutely all over the pitch. Won nearly every header in his area and showed he certainly has enough pace, Should’ve put away that free header.
All in all this match had more of friendly feel from my veiw. Hope everyone can move on a little more composed from here on out.
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:36 PM
Comment #73well fergie aint exactly going to say we were shite was he?? he said before the game it would be a hard match, it was more like a training session after the first 2o mins passed.
toon1978 summed it up perfect really, we were bad, but worked hard
Suthey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:39 PM
Comment #74Mate am the most realistic toon fan a know, 15th this season will be amazing, but a thought scholes made a good chelsea midfeild look very average so when it comes to newcastle it was obvious he would boss. We battled very hard yeah but how were we that bad we defended really well a few slip ups but when is there every a perfect defence at old trafford, again mate a love to talk about newcastle and a love to argue my point so a will be wrong on things but a think people are forgetting we are not that big club anymore we have to make do with what we have and a thought a lot of them done us proud tonight
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:39 PM
Comment #75I agree harper looks so stiff, its his experience that keeps him in the side
Flop
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:39 PM
Comment #76Hmm I remember 3 crosses from Jonas, it was Nolan which worried me most. For a player who will probably week in week out he wasn’t good enough. But hey we were playing Man Utd we won’t be playing a team like them every week. HWTL for next week against Aston Villa, and here is hoping for a couple of new players.
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:40 PM
Comment #77I would be very happy with 15th suthey, and i agree we arent the club we once were, but for me lowering our expectations should be finishing mid table, not flirting with relegation,
foxynufc
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:40 PM
Comment #78Harper = not much he could have done today to change te score line 6
perch= did alright not as bad as i thought he mught fair against far supior opposition 6
williomsio= by far nufc best play today in my opinion 8
colo= at times he mades great stops also at times made baqd mistakes 5
Bull = To be honest quite dissaponited thought he may have offerd us more of an attacking optsion but defended well 6
roultlege = poor gave the ball away to oftern looked to friened to atteack thier players 2
barton = dissapointing but the ref didnt help him with a stupid yellow stopped him making takles i think he would have made otherwise but his paaing was aloso poor 4
smith = did better then i thought stop play but still makes daft tackles 7
spiderman = tries to much at times but looed a good outlet 6
nolan = won a few headers but wasnt involved enough 6
carroll brillant only second to willimoson if hed scored would have been a diffrent story caused man u all kinds of problems from start to finish carnt remember him being beting in the air 8
the resaon i feel we got beat was becasuse we didnt have the les to chase the game whichment we consitley droppin deeper nd deeper and we allowed to man u to have thier players to much time to pick the killer balls although they only got it right a few times (3 to b eggact)
Overall i was quite inpressed we willonly play one team as gd if not better (chelsea) and for large parts of the game we stoppoed them and created a few half chances and one very good chance. Were nowere near their level but i thought we gave a good account of ourselfs im sure thier will teams that get beat more comprienselvly and by more a bigger score line then will be
KEEP THE FAITH IN HUGHTON WE TRUST
tjshawsey
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:40 PM
Comment #79When was enrique poor? I thought he had a good game. Berbatov’s goal was harsh on him, when a ball is played through like that its difficult to make the touch. He did make the touch, just couldn’t stretch further than that to do anything meaningful with the ball. He tackled well, blocked any cross coming in, good solid game. Perch looked extremely nervous to me on the other hand, not sure how he will handle it this year, lets wait and see.
geordielad880
Aug 16, 2010 at 11:41 PM
Comment #80I cant remember anything nolan done at all, he was awful, closely followed by routledge