Steven Taylor gave another excellent performance for Newcastle at the back against Swansea on Saturday, and his fine performances of late will no doubt not be going unnoticed by England manager Roy Hodgson.
Steven Taylor – excellent performance on Saturday
Steven tops our Man of the Match poll with 38% of the vote with Moussa Sissoko on 24% of the vote and Mathieu Debuchy in third place on 12%.
But Steven still ended up on the losing side, and we came away with absolutely nothing from the match in South Wales, and we suppose the players will just have to suck it in – as the Newcastle fans have had to do.
And Pardew was asked if it was hard for players like Steven and Moussa turning in two great performances and yet still being on the losing side:
“Yes, and it was the same with a lot of the players out there.” “Moussa Sissoko in the second half was brilliant and to be on the losing team it’s difficult to look them in the eye and say, ‘should have played better’.”
“With Collocini out it is important we have Taylor and I thought he was excellent.” “I thought Rob Elliot played well and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa.” “Coming in for two class players is difficult.”
“We have our own emotions but I feel sorry for them because they’ve played well and we’ve played well and we’ve nothing.” “I don’t worry about the team. I think the team is strong. It’s just disappointing not to get anything on the day.”
It should be a good lesson for the team to learn – that you must always stay strong in defense, and certainly it was an unfortunate goal we conceded late in the game.
It was a pity on many fronts but there’s no doubt our defending is still the weakness of the team, and yet we were so close to a clean sheet on Saturday.
Newcastle have conceded 49 goals in our 28 league games, and that’s an average of 1.65 goals per game – but in our five league games since the five Frenchmen arrived, we’ve conceded 8 goals – an average of 1.6 goals per game – so that’s an area we can still improve on.
And a late goal by Newcastle on Saturday, and we would have all been going on about how great we played in that second half – but it was not to be – and it’s over now – so we need to concentrate on beating Anzhi Makhachkala and Stoke in our next couple of games, and things will be looking up again.
Howay The Lads!!
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7 comments so far
roshan MAGPIE
Mar 4, 2013 at 10:08 AM
Comment #1ed common don’t remind me about swansey game move on to next topic
Jail for Ashley
Mar 4, 2013 at 10:21 AM
Comment #2Always thought Tayls would be England captain just a shame he has a bone structure made from breeze block.
Bambams
Mar 4, 2013 at 10:23 AM
Comment #3Not sure Tayls is England class, still think he can improve much more especially in offensive areas.
nufc 11
Mar 4, 2013 at 10:31 AM
Comment #4Maybe we need a defensive coach brought in, Tony Adams until the end of season some of the goals we conceed you wouldn’t see in the championship, Santon needs to be move up to the RM not a defender will never forget thast goal line clearence against Man C. and then sat feel soory for Cabaye who had to track bk frm Cm to get a defenders block in, When we had Ba banging goals in4fun we couldnt win games coz the bk 4 were leaking goals like a sinking ship, mistake has followed mistake and points lost has followed points lost.
check the toastie
Mar 4, 2013 at 11:12 AM
Comment #5Scoring No goals was the problem.
robin
Mar 4, 2013 at 11:14 AM
Comment #6Maybe we need to bring in a real manager who knows what its like to win trophies!
Sav
Mar 5, 2013 at 1:55 AM
Comment #7To be honest, I was disappointed in Yanga Mbiwa in this match. He looked nervy and casual by turns. He needs time but I couldn’t agree that he played well.