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
BlacknWhiteBarmy
Mar 29, 2014 at 6:20 PM
Comment #41Ed you said “in what has to go down as one of the worst performances by a Newcastle side for some time”
Is that a full week?
marcotoon
Mar 29, 2014 at 8:41 PM
Comment #42We were insipid in every aspect today, we were lucky to get nil. If you can’t get a shot on goal in the first half then you have serious problem, I accept that Southampton away is a tough game but to be completely wiped out by a team below us in the table is unacceptable. I think that there will have to be serious changes in the summer although I would prefer it to be Fat Ash over Pardew but there must be something to change as this isn’t right. People say that Newcastle are on the beach but that’s not the point, there are 50 odd thousand people every week who would give their left arm to play for the team and if you don’t want to win every single game you play , if you don’t have that desire then you should not pull on the black and white jersey or probably be playing for anyone to be honest.
KTF