Newcastle didn’t play anywhere near our best form today but we still nearly earned our first win, but Kenedy missed a penalty in the 96th minute.
Manquillo was injured and came off at half-time and the player who replaced him, Isaac Hayden, was given a red card halfway through the second half.
Hayden now faces a three-match ban.
Kenedy will also get a three-match ban after he kicked out at a Cardiff player in the first half and on video review he will pick up a three-match ban.
Let’s just say – this wasn’t a good game for Newcastle but at least we picked up a point.
Rafa Benitez – a strange game
Here’s what Rafa said after the game.
“I don’t want to talk about the referee.”
“We knew this game on paper you can be fighting with them. It’s a pity with 10 players – you can’t complain about the work-rate.”
“We had problems at the beginning, but we still had two clear chances.”
“It’s true it was very strange.” “We knew it could be physical and difficult and it was like that.”
“We put ourselves under pressure with some mistakes.”
“But after that, too many things happened that we didn’t like too much.”
“Kenedy was the designated penalty taker. First, it was Matt Ritchie (who was subbed) but then it was Kenedy.”
Rafa may think twice about taking Ritchie off now.
Two mediocre teams today – we have to play better than this.
Comments welcome.
15 comments so far
ilovetoon8788
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:46 PM
Comment #1even the commentators were laughing when they saw kenedy stepping up for the spot kick.
joke.
c-dog
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:47 PM
Comment #2Went for Clarke as my MoM. Gets a bit of stick on here but he’s a good squad player
Munster Mag
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:50 PM
Comment #3Clark behind kenedy. Shows how clueless some of our fans are.
Munster Mag
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:50 PM
Comment #4Fulham and wolves losing
DubaiMicky
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:52 PM
Comment #5For man of the match, can we select “none of the above”?
beefman13
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:53 PM
Comment #6Strange game alright Rafa, strange team line up also pal, now Kenedy will get three game holiday like c rappy Hayden, it’s a bit of a disaster, we can beat Forest in the league cup, but imo we will only get one more point in the league until the very end of September, especially if he keeps starting with the line up he did today, even if he changes it we will be on the back foot, did we expect anything else.
jezza442
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:53 PM
Comment #7Lescelles was good today and I think Shelby started slow but eventually did well,but my vote this week went to the keeper,didn’t have a great deal to do but seemed more comferdent than last week against spurs and came for everything in the box so he gets it for improvement
Munster Mag
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:54 PM
Comment #8Rafa can moan all he likes re referee and it was a ‘strange game’ because his team were hugely undermotivated and he stuck with his favourite child Joselu all game despite the evidence in front of his eyes. We had more expensive, valuable players out there. No Ashley moaners please. This was down to Rafa and players
c-dog
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:58 PM
Comment #9I think Raf had to stick with Joselu given he performed well at Spurs. But he probably shouldn’t have started that game. He’s a poor footballer and was a bad signing forced by Ashley’s austerity and surely even our most ardent Ashley lover Nicky the ball tosser will admit that.
TomaKaThor
Aug 18, 2018 at 3:58 PM
Comment #10Shows you how bad it was when a player who didn’t have his best game was head an shoulders above the majority and easily our mom in Shelvey, the rest where awful with one or two just under par
ilovetoon8788
Aug 18, 2018 at 4:01 PM
Comment #11the lot at chronicle i’m not sure if they were watching the same game. their player ratings for some looks so generous.
geordietom
Aug 18, 2018 at 4:16 PM
Comment #12we all know Hayden wants to leave… he played like it as well … useless twat
gonufc (Newcastle United Sports Direct Advertising Club)
Aug 18, 2018 at 4:26 PM
Comment #13@Belfast (from last article) – I agree as it wasn’t even a pretend attempt for the ball. A lot of the pundits seem to agree as well. A full whack into his knee from behind, on the run.
I think once we get over the initial shock of this result we are going to just look back with sadness at just how bad a performance today was. It was shocking what our players did today.
Unorganised, no composure, no teamwork, demonstrated no talent, panicked. Truly one of the worst Newcastle performances I can ever remember.
Why did we play long ball against a team whose defenders explicitly love defending against high balls and are “Head it and lump it!” type players. We catered to what they prefer beautifully.
What the hell have the team been doing for the last month? We looked like they’d never met each before.
Why sign these players if you think Joselu is actually worth putting on the pitch.
Rafa has a great deal to explain because I don’t understand what the team was attempting to do..
mfw13
Aug 18, 2018 at 4:36 PM
Comment #14You wonder why Ashley doesn’t want to spend more $$$ on players for Rafa? It’s because Rafa doesn’t use them!
Last year our big buys were Atsu & Murphy. Atsu can’t even make the 18, and Murphy is a reserve.
This year:
Schar didn’t even make the 18 today, even though he started for Switzerland at the World Cup. Instead we’re still stuck with Clark partnering Lascalles.
Ki didn’t get on the pitch even though he started for South Korea at the World Cup. Instead we’re stuck with Diame partnering Shelvey.
Rondon didn’t get on the pitch….instead we’re stuck with Joselu.
No wonder Ashley doesn’t want to spend for new players….
cornishman
Aug 18, 2018 at 9:21 PM
Comment #15Sorry Rafa but what the hell was that all about. Starting Manquillo with the new signings on the bench, and then Hayden as a replacement what a joke. Rondon did,nt get a kick because of a poor starting selection again and who the hell let Kenedy take a pen after that performance. All in all a right debacle and the fault sits firmly with Rafa….utter dross