It was a game of penalty decisions when Carlos Tevez got a penalty after 18 minutes when he was supposed to have been brought down by Mike Williamson, yet in the second half,  when Ameobi was brought down by Lescott – Newcastle didn’t get the penalty.

Manchester City must have been playing at home today.

Newcastle were beaten, as had been expected today at Eastlands, but they made City fight for the win, and they didn’t have much luck at all in this game, and they stuck doggedly to their task of trying to get something out  of this game.

And they were unlucky in that in the first half lost both Ben Arfa and Fab Coloccini to injury.

The game started badly for Newcastle when Ben Arfa went down from a tackle after just two minutes on the right wing, and it looked like he had sustained a bad ankle injury, may be even a broken ankle.

Play was held up for over 5 minutes as Ben Arfa was attended to, and he was even given oxygen as the injury looked serious.

As he was stretchered off the Newcastle fans gave him a good ovation and he was awake enough to show his appreciation by waving his had at the Newcastle fans.

But the injury looked serious and we’ll just have to wait and see what it turns out to be.

City started the better of the two sides and went ahead after 18 minutes with a dubious penalty decision for a presumed foul by by Williamson on Carlos Tevez.

Williamson tackled Tevez just inside the box, but seemed to get the ball, but referee Atkinson gave the decision, and Tevez himself  rammed the ball straight down the middle, and although Krul got his foot to the ball he couldn’t stop it.

It looked a little dubious at this point for Newcastle as City had started the brighter of the two sides and were already ahead, but Newcastle came back into the game with a beautiful  goal from Argentine Jonas Gutierrez.

Jonas was playing on the left wing and he moved inside and got the ball into the box, but it was not cleared by the Blues, and Carlos  picked up the loose ball in an instant, and rifled the ball into the back  of the net with his right foot.

A wonderful goal from the in-form Jonas.

It looked like Fab Coloccini, who had been playing majestically at the back, got a groin strain and had to leave the field before half time – with Sol Camp[bell coming  on to make his league debut for the Magpies.

And for the rest of the half Newcastle gave as good as they got, with both goalkeepers not having an awful lot to do.

Two players off injured in the first half is not what Chris Hughton would have expected in this game.

The second half was even with City always pushing for the winner, and it was former Newcastle fan Adam Johnson who scored the winner for City with a beautiful goal.

The England International got the ball down the right wing and moved inside and hit a wonderful left foot shot past Krul into the net – another classy goal from the Sunderland-born winger.

But Newcastle are never finished these days and they went out for an equalizer and it looked like they should  have had a penalty when Shola Ameobi was brought down by Lescott in the penalty area. Slow motion TV replays showed Lescott to have brought down the Newcastle striker, but no penalty was awarded.

The penalty  wasn’t given and again you have to say that referees seem to be favoring the big clubs with some of their decisions, especially when they are playing at home.

Then with only a few minutes left Mike Williamson had a decent chance from a corner, but headed the ball over the bar.

And Newcastle couldn’t get the equalizer, and even though this was a defeat, we didn’t expect anything and the lads gave it their all and there are a lot of positives that Chris Hughton will no doubt take out of this game.

It’s hard to criticize the Newcastle players too much on this gutsy performance – but they just didn’t have the luck.

But it’s the home games we have to start to win to get some points, and next up in a couple of weeks time is Wigan Athletic at St. James’ Park, and if we cannot win that one, then alarm bells will rightly be going off at the club.

It’s Newcastle’s home record that will decide whether we can survive in the Premier League this season, not games away against the top clubs.

Comments welcome.