Newcastle were overwhelmed by Southampton this afternoon, in what has to go down as one of the worst performances by a Newcastle side for some time – especially in the first half – when if it hadn’t been for goalkeeper Rob Elliot, we would have been 4-0 down at the break – and deservedly so.
Yoan Gouffran – in action this afternoon
But a mixture of great Elliot saves and missed chances by Southampton, meant that Newcastle were only one goal down, with the goal coming in added time by Rodriguez, after the striker had missed at least two great chances earlier in the half.
Newcastle played in their yellow strips, which are usually lucky, but Southampton soon got a grip on the game, and after only eight minutes Rodriguez was straight through on goal with only Elliot to beat, but somehow missed the chance by putting the ball wide.
And then Rob Elliot made two great saves in the space of just four minutes to keep Newcastle in the game, when first he saved from Rodriguez, and then saved from Lambert, and the goalkeeper must have been wondering where his defense was – the answer was – they were nowhere to be seen.
Newcastle were all over the place, and it was so bad that after 22 minutes Coloccini and Tiote were even seen arguing with each other – that’s the captain and vice captain – and Newcastle looked all at sea.
When Newcastle did get the ball they managed to pass it to a Southampton player fairly quickly, which hardly helped the defense try to get some composure.
It was all Southampton in the first 40 minutes, and just when it looked like Newcastle could hang on to half time and amazingly go in at 0-0, a ball down the right saw Lambert and Rodriguez break the Newcastle offside trap – and Lambert passed to Rodriguez who this time didn’t miss, as he tapped the ball home.
That was simply disgraceful defending from Newcastle as the back four seemed asleep =- and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa played Lambert onside – and he had a stinker in that first half – Mapou was simply hopeless.
It was so bad in that first half that I noted down some of the stats – just to show how one-sided it was.
- 14 attempts on goal from Southampton – none from Newcastle
- Four attempts were on target and thank Rob Elliot for saving Newcastle in the first half with three great saves
- 63% to 37% possession for the home side
At half time Alan Pardew brought on Luuk de Jong for Ben Arfa – so much for having some creativity ion the side – and Davide Santon came on for Yanga-Mbiwa who had one of those terrible games of his – and he had played Lambert on-side for that first goal.
Southampton were not so kind to the opposition in the second half however, and didn’t miss too many of their chances although they still hit the post.
Early in the second half from a right wing cross, Ricky Lambert smashed the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0 after 52 minutes.
Then after 70 minutes Adam Lallana scored the goal of the match as he smashed the ball into the net from outside the penalty area giving goalkeeper Elliot no chance – and why didn’t the Newcastle defenders try to block the shot?
And then to make the scoreline more reflective of the game, Jay Rodriguez scored his second to make it 4-0 after 89 minutes.
That’s now the 10th game in the last 14 that we’ve failed to score and our form since the 5-1 win against Stoke has been woeful and the results – relegation stuff with only three wins and one draw.
This was a pathetic performance from a disjointed Newcastle side, and when you see a display like this you wonder what they have been doing in training since Tuesday night.
This performance was simply not good enough, and we have now dropped to 9th place in the league and are only 6 points ahead of Stoke, who we still have to play on the road in the game after the Manchester United game.
If we manage to lose to Stoke they could well catch us, and then we’ll be down to 10th place after being as many as 12 points ahead of 10th position earlier in the season. 🙁
This display today was simply terrible – period – full stop.
And it’s the third defeat in the four games that Alan Pardew has been out suspended, and the third time we have failed to score.
Alan Pardew will be under pressure to get more out of the players at his disposal – they are much better than this woeful display – and we still think Pardew could be in trouble at the end of the season – as far as his job goes.
That will be true if Newcastle have a bad run-in over the last six games of the season, and if that happens, Mike Ashley might have second thoughts about keeping the manager on board.
This performance was that bad, and we were completely outplayed and outclassed by a good and young Southampton side.
We’ve failed to score in ten of the last fourteen Premier League games, that’s how bad our team has performed since the 5-1 win at home to Stoke City on Boxing Day.
Comments welcome.
Note: People in the Retail Sector needed – Andrew Todd is a final year student at De Montfort University, and he’s working on his dissertation. His questionnaire is only for people in the UK Retail Sector, and takes only a few minutes to complete – and he’s short of completed questionnaires so see if you can help – here it is.
Note: Sean Borland is a student in Newcastle and will not be at either the Man United (5 April) or Swansea (19 April) games – and he has tickets – £30 for the ManU game and £20 for the Swansea game – you can contact him at sean4eva@hotmail.co.uk or sean4eva09 on twitter.
42 comments so far
beermonkey
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:30 PM
Comment #1what no who was newcastles best player lol
toonking
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:31 PM
Comment #2when a team has 0 wingers and only 1 goal scoring forward (who is on loan and injured) their is no chance we should expect wins.
toonbrother
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:32 PM
Comment #34 goals Mancity
3 goals Everton home
3 goals Everton away
3 goals Swansea
4 goals Southampton
3 goals Hull
guess which “nonchalant” beautiful passing captain led our back line into these shit storms? lol
sparky55
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:33 PM
Comment #4TOONKING…we should however expect passion and commitment irrespective of being sh!te, clueless, rudderless and mis-managed
toonbrother
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:34 PM
Comment #5It will probably take a few more thrashings like this before people start to spot the trend. Colocinni is the virus in our defence. Not Dummett. Not Williamson. Not Mbiwa. Not Santon. Until we uproot this defensive cancer we will get thrashed everytime we face a halfdecent side
toonking
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:35 PM
Comment #6this sport is football not F1.
chelsea beat arsenal 6-0 yet they can’t beat palace or villa.
toonbrother
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:36 PM
Comment #7i dont blame tiote for having a go at coloshitty/ The guy is PURE S.H.I.T.E
Online Guy
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:37 PM
Comment #8Pardew saying we had no threat up front and other teams know it !
Himanshu Dhingra
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:37 PM
Comment #9Just a Game No one died.
Online Guy
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:38 PM
Comment #10Pardew leaning on the missing Remy excuse. live on Radio 2 mins ago.
Online Guy
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:38 PM
Comment #11Colo is one lazy player
Online Guy
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:39 PM
Comment #12Colo is off.. fact
yo-yo
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:39 PM
Comment #13toonbrother
All our defence are poor. Not one class act to prop up the others. I don’t agree it’a all Colo’s fault – the rest perform at lower level Premier standard most of the time – we’re a 50 goals against side most seasons. We’d need at least two £9-10m defenders to be top 6 standard
manxpie
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:39 PM
Comment #14toonbrother i think u’ll find it was the other way round!
beermonkey
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:40 PM
Comment #15toonking
while I agree to some extent we have got cisse who has proved he can score goals in the prem and has good record through out his career
why has it taken pard this long to put him in and why aint he found a way to get him to score
the only reason remy is top goal scorer is cos pards couldn’t be arsed to sort out cisse
he goes on about using the squad but he don’t use it
hadira was it fair to put him in this game he aint played all season
mbiwa is no fullback its ok playing at fullback in the French league but he cant do it in the prem he is a centre back
mbiwa and benny will be scapegoated a half fit benny and bloke playing out of position
Mister Tuff
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:40 PM
Comment #16Surely Percy Parsnip has to be sacked after yet another dismal performance -witnessed by Mr “El Gourdo” Tubbs.
If he doesn’t get sacked after that he never will. The whole regime has conspired to reduce our club to a laughing stock -but there are those who are still taken in by the perennial blarney.
One knob was on earlier on suggesting we all be positive on the blog today -however a lot of discerning fans probably knew what was coming today. I had us down for a 3-1 defeat. So not that far off. Yet another bad day for the Toon.
yo-yo
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:40 PM
Comment #17and whatever Colo cost he sure as hell isn’t playing at that level now
toonking
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:40 PM
Comment #18sparky
to get passion you need english players and geordies. Foreigners don’t have passion otherwise
remy would not have joined QPR
cabaye would have remained at newcastle no matter what the price was
Ba would not have demanded pardew to put him back into CF
so i’m sorry but passion is not in football, it’s now been replaced by money.
Average_Contents
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:42 PM
Comment #19Mister Tuff
That was optimistic us scoring lol
manxpie
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:44 PM
Comment #20on another note were the commentators southampton fans?
cisse’s n siskos challenges weren’t half as bad as they made out n then said it was just a strong challenge for llalanas goal
Ancientcoptic
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:44 PM
Comment #21It is sad that 3 years of coaching has led to this debacle… Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich look like a model outfit in comparison.
toonking
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:44 PM
Comment #22beermonkey
the time he could have used cisse was the period when we were in great form
let me remind you of a loss against cardiff
remy was on the bench and cisse started
we went out the FA cup and fans are angered that he dropped remy
we were starting a LB called dummett the last few games and fans everywhere screaming for him to get dropped and hadaira to be on.
so pardew was not doing anything wrong at all since you all will moan if remy gets dropped and cisse starts.
Online Guy
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:45 PM
Comment #23Yo YO
Colo is not switched on , the importance of the game or games, is not important for him . and it shows ..He’s already on his holidays ..
Most of the team are going through the motions ..All these signs of Pardew’s bad Management ..the danger signs, were there, last season.
sparky55
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:46 PM
Comment #24toonking
bollox…just saw loads of passion and commitment in the southampton team today…saw an abundance from palace against Chelsea…west broom v cardiff was full it…just none in our pathetic team who have simply given up
yo-yo
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:47 PM
Comment #25toonking
I don’t think its a nationality thing at all – we have mostly signed second ranking players and they are playing badly anyway.
We’ve had plenty of commitment from our foreigh players before now. Nobby was one of my personal favourites.
Agree totally money drives the game and not passion or even personal pride in individual performances. There are far too few perfectionists in pro football cos the money is just too easy for too many of them
Mister Tuff
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:47 PM
Comment #26average – I had thought Cisse had looked a bit sharper in his last two games -so thought he might score. But now I’m back to reality -he is rubbish and needs offloading.
De Jong -will never make it in the PL.
colwell
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:47 PM
Comment #27One day Pards will be sacked, this will be one very happy day for most of us.
You have managers like Martinez,Pochettino,Laudrup who get lesser players to extent play football at a much better level.
Then you have your Pardew,Allerdyce,Pulis who take football back to the dark ages, boring, boring football.
MA must wonder what the fcuk he is watching turning up to games now and we are being played off the park .
colwell
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:49 PM
Comment #28Our only Jan signing was a player who couldn’t hit a barn door in Germany, I doubt he’d hit St James stood next to it. Way to try and win a move, De Jong has hardly had a shot since getting here.
toonking
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:50 PM
Comment #29sparky
teams like palace and southampton have got lots of english.
sunderland look likely to be down and what did they do they spent lots
QPR went down and what did they do they spent masses
chelsea lost to villa and palace why, because them players thought it was an easy game like all foreigners.
so i’m not talking nonsense you just don’t look things up before posting.
Blackley and Brownlie
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:51 PM
Comment #30Just listened to the game on the radio so can’t comment too much. I hear Pardew is saying our energy levels were low!
Of course, Southampton have a wealth of intelligent footballers because of their catchment area so we shouldn’t be too disappointed.
SouthCoastToonFan
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:52 PM
Comment #31Do fans actually get anything out of this anymore? Quite literally we are s**t. Being a Newcastle fan has actually put me off football! Until Ashley either leaves or dies (at this point I couldn’t care what comes first) then I don’t think I will ever enjoy football again!
yo-yo
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:52 PM
Comment #32Online
Yup. We are back to last season’s level of form and with nothing to play for. Pardew has shown us he can’t stop us yo-yoing form wise, . minimise the damge when we play badly or get us out of a rut.
I don’t think he is a bad manager – just average – but he has failed to get us out of bad runs before and shows no signs of having learned how to get us out of it. The fact he has no strength in depth to call on makes it worse. We have poor players not trying throughout the team and no better backup on the bench. They are all average players with occasional flashes of good form – just enough to get us up the table – but then they slump. I think Cabs was a real leader in the dressing room and we just have nobody who can galvanise the side on the pitch . Colo certainly is no captain.
beermonkey
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:53 PM
Comment #33toonking
I have never moaned when remy gets dropped
to rely on a loan player so heavily is asking for trouble
when remy first arrived he or goofy should have taken up the ba role and gone back to that formation think we tried it once
still nothing will change next week pards will lead the team out we could lose 10 0 and he wont get the sack
sparky55
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:53 PM
Comment #34so no such thing as a committed foreigner then?
toon kk
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:54 PM
Comment #35We just once again proved we’re the worst team in the premier league. I predicted we’d get a good thumping. Tbo our current squad isn’t worth supporting at the moment, there’s little or no effort, total lack of skill. Good job we’re safe that’s relegation football for league 1. Shocking.
colwell
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:55 PM
Comment #36We could learn alot from Saints and a priority should be WTF do they give their youth team? Year after year they produce quality something we could never do. Luke Shaw,Lallana,Ward-prowse then before Bale,Walcott,OX even Shearer.
Oh well we have Dummett awesome just awesome.
toonking
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:56 PM
Comment #37yo-yo
having said what i said i will say myself we do have some passionate ones ie tiote colo and debuchy.
park was english himself but was unbpassionate.
but yeh money has lost the passion.
i think it’s only the academy players locals and them who are not expected to perform ie willo that still have the passion.
SouthCoastToonFan
Mar 29, 2014 at 5:56 PM
Comment #38No matter how badly we lose or indeed who we lose to why would Pardew get the sack? Ashley isn’t a Newcastle fan. At the end of the day it’s just another loss to him. He is still in the Prem peddling his s**t merchandise each week. If Ashley cared Pardew would have been gone after the 6-0 against Liverpool last year!
banjax
Mar 29, 2014 at 6:01 PM
Comment #39How much more do we supporters have to put up with. We have a manager who should have been sacked for his disgraceful behaviour four weeks ago and probably long before that. We have an owner who treats the club like sports direct, selling the playing stock without having suitable replacements. Our manager is a yes man to Ashley and does’nt have the guts to speak his mind. The owner has no ambition for trophies at Newcastle, little knowledge of football and the realisation that no decent manager would come to Newcastle to work for him. Bring back Freddie Shepherd – all is forgiven. If the club could match the supporters we would be invincible !!
anthc
Mar 29, 2014 at 6:02 PM
Comment #40The manager has to take responsibility for the defeats imo. He does the training, prep, tactics and team selection. It was there to see last season we needed players but nothing.the question is now can pardew be trusted with the money available this summer (approx 250k including wages and transfer fees) I don’t think so as he deserves the bullet. And the club expect us to buy season tickets to watch the pathetic performances of late. I’d run through walls if I played for the toon but the majority of the current crop don’t seem to have that passion or will. Some just simply not good enough so lets see what the summer brings hopefully new team management and at least half a dozen players. Heres hoping anyway!