If anyone scores we're on the piss

The Mackems make their annual trip to Newcastle for some culture, education, some fine architecture and a lesson in football. The crowd was waiting for this one and the Geordies put aside the rift with fat boy Ashley and filled the stadium to watch one of the greatest humiliations of our time. The lads started with a little nerves which is a good thing as it shows they care and understand what it means to us. The Mackems started the game quite well, seemed to win the 50/50 challenges and looked the more committed team. Slowly though Newcastle shook off the nerves and began stamping their authority on a game that will go down in Geordie folklore.


After the ugly start and a few harsh yellow cards, Newcastle got on the score sheet with a superbly taken goal by Captain Newcastle. Nolan, with his back to goal and four Mackems on the line, put the ball beyond them and in the place every Geordie was hoping for. The atmosphere was fierce and the fans must have sucked that ball into the back of the net. One nil up in the derby is the first object as the team that goes ahead tends to win the game and with that goal Newcastle really started the show. After another eight minutes we had the ball in the Mackems net again. Again it was Nolan who did the funky chicken dance to the joy of the home crowd. The Mackems were quiet and looking rather sad in the away end but the Mags were loving it. The ref had his part to play in this game and dished out cards left right and centre. When Jonas Gutierrez was tripped by Nedum Onuoah, Ameobi Cooley put the penalty away after offering it to Nolan for his hat-trick. 3-0 at half time; who would have thought. I witnessed some clown at West Ham last week saying Sunderland were better than us although he was a Geordie as well. I told him he was daft but he kept on going on about it; I wonder how that kid is feeling tonight.

The second half brought many different feelings. With three players booked do we make a change? The first half was feisty and I could not see it easing up. No way, if anything it would get more hectic as Sunderland tried to dig in to claw back some much needed pride. It could either be another game that just peters out into nothing or we could come out and take the humiliation one step further and go down in history.

The second half kicked off and it was the same as how the first had ended, with us on top. Looking to get on the score sheet, Andy Carroll broke away and our former joker (Bramble) took down Carroll. The ref did not hesitate and it was bye bye to Titus, who with his head down was a sight not to forget. Nothing came of the resulting free kick but Andy Carroll's next chance hit the bar as he threw his body to the ball - a magnificent attempt - but the rebound fell to Shola who did not disappoint as he took it from 18 yards or so and struck the ball with skill that you normally see from Brazilians. It was a fantastic goal one, that will be replayed again and again by all the Shola Ameobi fans (that's all of us, eh?). Good on you Shola, you did it again.


I witnessed some clown at West Ham last week saying Sunderland were better than us


With the game now at 4-0 Newcastle United had two players on for the hat-trick. And it was the captain who got it with a little help from Ameobi. The ball came over from Barton on the right wing, Ameobi flicked the ball on to Nolan who poked the ball past a hapless Mackem to make it 5-0. Another goal from Ameobi would have really rubbed their noses in it but Houghton took him off soon after. Ameobi then took a standing ovation from the 50,000 Geordies. Nile Ranger came on and looked like he wanted in on the action but instead our clean sheet took a slight dent as the Mackems got one in to spoil our clean sheet although it did nothing to stop the party which was about to start. For Geordies all around the world this was a great victory and one we need to build on. Our first win since Villa at home, a great way to do it and against the right team (if that's what you call 'em). Now sitting 7th in the Premier League, Newcastle won't be worried about loose journalism from one sided fools in the mainstream press.

The game had too many heroes to mention but Joey Barton stands out. He has come to Newcastle under a cloud with many, many critics, including Newcastle fans. I, for one, have never condoned what has gone on in the past but always maintained he was a class footballer and if you look back at the older posts I have mentioned how important he will be this season; a key player, arguably our best player. He has said many times he owes this club and he wants to pay us back for sticking with him. He is certainly doing that now and over the last few weeks his performances have been second to none. What has impressed this season is his temperament. While he is a tough tackling player he takes a lot of bad tackles just to see if his temperament can handle it. It has and when challenged he takes it, does not roll around and try getting players sent off. He may shake his head in displeasure but he gets on with it like a man. Yes, he gets stuck in and yes, he can still go a little too far but when Rooney does it it's always said that no one would want to take that out of his game. It's the same with Barton. Take that away from Joey and you have a different player, certainly not the player he is. I think everyone at Newcastle is now a Joey Barton fan and I am sure everyone wanted him to get on the score sheet today.

Today I am sure I heard a song that really should have been sung last week at West Ham. The song goes like this: "THERE'S ONLY ONE CHRIS HOUGHTON, ONE CHRIS HOUGHTON, WALKING ALONG, SINGING A SONG, WALKING IN A HOUGHTON WONDERLAND". How funny was it also to see our Manager doing Kevin Nolan's funky chicken on the Captain's third goal.

Quality manager and getting better all the time. Will we be able to hang on to him?
Personally I don't think he would go anywhere at the moment, he is not that kind of man and anyway what better job in football is there? Not getting carried away as we have Arsenal next week but all we want is another honest performance from the lads which I am confident of getting.

Howay the lads.

Highlights

Picture sourced from http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/06/toon-star-s-good-deed-115875-21945643/

Same old Arse nal always cheating

The optimism on Tyneside was high for this encounter with Arsenal in the Coca-Cola Cup game after we gave the champions a good thrashing on their own turf. The fact that we were to make nine changes did not seem to affect the Toon Army; it felt like we were bound to win. Arsenal was a different prospect with first team players in the team and first team players coming back from injury and all the talk about Arsenal winning F all for 5 years. In short this is Arsenal's season, yes, the Carling Cup. Our season on the other hand has got to be the Premiership. Chris Houghton made the changes but still felt we could match Arsenal for 90 minutes. If the game was to be judged on chances rather than goals then Chris Houghton would have been correct. We started the game on the back foot but it took only a few minutes for Arsenal to start the cheating - as Ranger was through on to the goalie his hand was pulled back to knock him off stride to prevent 1-0 to United. Newcastle kept a clean sheet for almost all of the first half when a soft goal went in via Krull's head. A terrible time to concede and we came out for the second half feeling unlucky to be one down. The ref Andre Marriner (West Midlands) surely had a red jersey on under his FA kit and when the second goal went in I was surprised the ref did not celebrate with the rest of the Gooners. The second goal has been talked about for the challenge from an offside Bentner who was not active, apparently, although he was when he brought down Williamson. Also nobody seems to be talking about Walcott who was a foot offside as the ball came over from the defensive header. Benter should have had two yellow cards before his goal came from his part in the first goal as he clearly looked at Williamson before knocking him down and in the first half he was shirt pulling Perch who could have, and almost did, suffer a nasty injury because of his cheating ways. That said the game is completely different and the game could have been ours as we never gave up and continued to bombard the Arse nal goal. The 0-4 score line was one of flattery, and not one that paints the true picture.


"the Toon Army we were bound to win"


Let's forget this trophy, it was a distraction anyway and only good as a way of getting the young lads experience. After going two down it was dangerous for Chris to bring on first team players. With the derby coming up who needs Messrs Carroll and Barton injured or sent off. Talking of sending off, along with Bentner Joey Barton was lucky to stay on the pitch. You could see in his eyes at 0-4 that he wanted to dish some punishment out and he certainly knew what he was doing in the late challenges he made. Smith was good along with Vuckic on a night to forget. Joey Barton will have to go easy on the Mackems as he is a marked man and we know what he is like when things are not going well. Hopefully he will play and do what he does best. I would be tempted to play Smith, Tiote and Barton and play Carroll up front. However I have a niggling feeling Ameobi is going to score. I don't care who puts the ball in the Mackem's net - Ameobi or Carroll.

picture sourced from http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/may/03/premier-league-liverpool-newcastle-united-alan-shearer

Job on the Tyne is all mine all mine

Media speculation about Chris Houghton's Newcastle job has been doing the rounds this week only for him to mastermind yet another away victory to settle the nerves and silence the media who have nothing better to do than start rumors of a fine up coming British manager.

Newcastle were playing a Hammers side at the bottom of the Prem but with only one loss in their last five games. The Hammers started the game singing about bubbles in the air and within 12 minutes the West Ham fans were jumping in the air as Cole got on the end of a loose shot before Enrique could react and slipped the ball past Krull; 1-0 the Hammers. From that point on though, Newcastle took the game to West Ham just as the battle in the stands was being won by the Toon Army. The ball did not take long to fly into the back of the net of the home team. The Newcastle fans went mad and proceeded to wind up the home fans who never seem to be able to take defeat well. They are going to have a long hard season inn the Prem and one of my bets to go down. Surely they deserve Championship football if they carry on like they did in the second half. They could not get near us and the Geordies in the stands were in full voice drowning out any attempts of the home fans to inspire a poor West Ham team. On the back of a tough week Andy Carroll came up with his 5th Premiership goal this season to burst the hammers bubbles and send the Geordies onto another level and up the already deafening songs. The game was never in any doubt as we took apart West Ham and we really should have had more with efforts going wide.

"Andy Carroll came up with his 5th Premiership goal this season to burst the hammers bubbles"

Tiote was again very impressive and took hold of the game early on as well as cancelled out any attempts from the lacklustre Hammers. Joey Barton played out of position on the right wing but supplied both crosses for the two goals - a marvellous performance and great to see him getting back the form that won him his England cap. Andy Carroll's presence up front is massive and he set up the first goal after winning Barton's cross to give Skipper, and flatmate, Nolan his 4th goal this season and celebrate his return to the first team after missing last week's draw at home to Wigan. Simpson won his first game in the Prem and an easy start for him but things will get harder as our next Prem game is the biggest of the season, yep, home to the Mackems.



After the game, some West Ham fans were letting down the rest by trying to start fights out on the street and spitting at Newcastle fans walking to the tube station. This happened during the game too. A Newcastle fan got taken out the crowd by the stewards only for some filthy West Ham fans to spit on him as he walked away from the game. These sad individuals should be kicked out of football for good as they are there for one thing only and it's not football.

picture sourced from http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/23112009/8/photo/newcastle-united-manager-chris-houghton.html

Wigan (h)

Charles N'zogbia came back to Tyneside to haunt Newcastle and put 2 goals in as many minutes in the first half. Our poor home form continued into the game and allowed Wigan to go two goals ahead to give us an even harder task in getting our first points since the 6-0 thrashing we gave Villa. The game lacked much from that first home game of the season in both quality and passion. The game however turned in the 74th minute when Shola Ameobi headed home from a Gutierrez cross. That gave both players and fans a glimmer of hope and in the 94th minute Colo stepped up with a header at the far post to send the home fans into a frenzy. 2-2 and the ref blew the whistle for a point each. The game was one to forget and one point was duly welcome by the Toon Army after thinking another home defeat was on its way. A sign of a good team is one that played badly but doesn't give up hope. We did just that and got a point we did not really deserve.

picture sourced from http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2010/03/06/fabricio-coloccini-not-just-a-guy-with-wavy-hair-61634-25973152/

Manchester City Away

Going to Manchester to play the real Manchester club does not fill one with much excitement these days as there is always the worry about how many goals will spring up. At the very least we don't want to be embarrassed.

The game kicked off as one large grey rain cloud covered the whole of the UK. The team picked included Gutierrez and Ameobi with Carroll and Routledge thus dropping to the bench. Newcastle started well and were knocking the ball about with confidence. Then in came a horrendous tackle from De Jong. He came in with a lot of power and cut straight through Ben Arfa who immediately went down. As De Jong went in to make his so-called tackle, I heard the sound of a piece of wood cracking. It was Arfa's leg. A double break for Ben Arfa who waved to the Geordies on his way off the pitch. Tibia and fibula broken and a lengthy time out from the first team while he recovers and rehabilitates. The Referee did not red card De Jong; he did not even get a card. This could be a blessing as the rules state a player can not be punished if the referee has already punished the player concerned. That means Newcastle can take this further or indeed the Football Association can if they see it as appropriate.

The National coach of the Netherlands certainly feels the need to punish the player, and it's certainly not the first time he has done it. The World Cup saw him involved in hefty challenges against the USA and in the final against Spain.

The challenge on Ben Arfa was one that had probably been discussed, the old cliche take him out early or let him know you are there. As Ben Arfa was probably deemed their biggest threat, it was only five minutes into the match before De Jong got his chance to show Ben Arfa what he was in for. Disgusting challenge and one that deserves a hefty fine (taking into account the size of prem wages at the moment) and a lengthy ban from playing. This kind of thing does not belong in the game. A hard challenge is one thing but this is worthy of assault charges.

So with one of our better players forcibly removed, we got on with the game without even a free kick. The game unravels into match with Newcastle having lots of possession but on 18 minutes Tevez is on his own with only Mike Williamson near. The ball comes across from right to left then the tackle comes in from Williamson from the far side of Tevez. Williamson puts a leg out for the ball and clearly the path of the ball changes from right to left to left to right. Now if Tevez had got the ball it would have moved towards the goal or carried on it's original path. The tackle did get the ball and the contact that was made came from outside the box so how this referee came to the decision I don't know. He did not even consult the linesman who was in a great position to see the challenge. So the so-called big club (because they have money) get the decision they want and we have to take it on the chin. Krull was unlucky with the resultant penalty as the little Tevez put the ball away. The lead did not last long though and within six minutes Gutierrez was on the score sheet for the first time in the Premiership.

A long run and pass came back to him off De Jong in the 18 yard area where he controlled and volleyed past Joe Hart. 1-1 and Newcastle were making Man City look average. The referee must have had a sky blue top on underneath as almost every decision went their way and with another injury to us things were getting worse. Coloccini was taken off for groin strain before the break and on came Sol Cambell for what marked a playing career that has seen him play in every season of the Premiership - something only Ryan Giggs can also claim. Sol came on and helped out the defence who again looked prone to opposition attacks, defending high up the pitch. We were lucky not to get caught playing the offside trap. Campbell came on and controlled the defence and dropped them a little deeper but as we did this we invited the pressure on to us. The game was still all about Newcastle who still had much possession and were attacking as well as knocking the ball about. Cheik Tiote was looking brilliant again (man of the match in my opinion), Gutierrez looked to have a long awaited good game and Ameobi did actually do himself proud with a decent performance. Routledge looked off the mark again but Nolan and Barton were both solid in the middle of the park.

Man City threw what they could into the pot and on came Adebayor who proved fruitless so Newcastle United fan Johnson pulled on his shirt, came on, and immediately tested our defence. It was not long before he had the ball in the back of the net, 2-1. We needed at least a point from this game and so far deserved the three so Andy Carroll got his chance off the bench. No clear chances came his way and with only a few minutes to go, Man City fearing a goal brought on Patrick Viera to tie up any loose ends and to waste the little time left on the clock. The game had one last chance for Mike Williamson from a corner kick only for him to head over the bar.

After the dust had settled the Dutch coach came out and said this about De Jong:


"I've seen it (the tackle) on TV. It was a wild and unnecessary challenge. I don't think he did it on purpose, but he goes in way too hard in this challenge.

"That's a pity, because he doesn't need tackles like this. The strange thing is that the referee doesn't give a card. Apparently there are other standards over there.

"I have a problem with the way Nigel unnecessarily searches for the limit....I just told the players- I told them that I saw no other option. In the future I will agree with Nigel to talk. Now I want the staff and the players to concentrate on the next two important qualifiers."
Van Marwjik




And from St James' Park today came this from Colin Calderwood, “At first the tackle looked really strong – he went into the challenge very, very quickly. We tried to get a quick look at the replay, but there was no replay coming up on the camera in the tunnel.

“But I wouldn't want to take that type of challenge out of our football. The consequences of the challenge are horrible but there was a certain amount of misfortune in that Hatem’s legs were attached to the ground a little bit and the force with which de Jong hit him definitely moved the leg.”

Highlights

pictures soursed from http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/18092010/8/photo/newcastle-united-hatem-ben-arfa-celebrates-scoring-first-goal.html and http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/ben-arfa-suffers-horror-break-as-city-prevail-20101004-162z5.html

Stoke H

The game started poorly. Newcastle failed to pick up the pace in the game and were lucky to get the penalty decision as the Stoke defender did not need to make the challenge. Nolan put the ball away just before half time only for us to concede a goal soon after the long throw tactics were brought in by Tony Pulis with about 30 minutes to go. As the game went on it looked more likely they would grab another as we struggled to come up with anything resembling football. Eventually they did grab their second goal and the three points were taken away from Tyneside thanks to an OG from Perch who threw himself at the ball from a corner only for him to head past a stranded Krull. Another three points go to a smaller club for the second time this season while playing at St James' Park. This home form has got to be addressed with a home fixture against Wigan coming after the international break.