Blackburn were the visitors last night with a canny record on Tyneside in recent history. However with confidence at a high after taking the point at the Emirates, Newcastle came into the match looking to stop the recent rot against Rovers. A measly crowd of just over 41,000 turned up for a drab game which saw our poor home form return in style against a team in the bottom five. Unsurprisingly an unchanged side was named and the snow held off.
The first three minutes proved crucial for Rovers who took a sample of the refereeing Tony Pulis has been going mad over the last week or so. Gamst Pedersen ran out to collect a ball going away from goal to the sideline with chase from Gutierrez. G Pedersen saw Gutierrez so he backed up and knocked the Argentinian winger off balance and somehow the ref managed to give a vital free-kick to Rovers. In my book that was a clear foul on us with a possible yellow card. The ref gave it to Rovers though and from the non-clearance by Tiote, Pedersen won the ball on the edge of our area, had a couple of touches and BAM. 0-1 Rovers up at St James' again and Al lard dyce was happy. A dreadful game ensued but no goals followed.
The second half saw an almost identical goal to Sunday's win at Arsenal. Joey Barton floated a cross from near the dugouts and Carroll, rising higher than any Rover, put the ball in the back of the net to make it 1-1 and set St James' alight. Although Newcastle should now have the momentum, as usual against inferior teams this season, we sat off and never looked like taking the lead. Blackburn were terrible though and I have no idea how their fans can bear to watch that kind of football. No wonder they did not sell their meagre 1,700 ticket allocation. They were the team who scored next though. A long punt down field saw Roberts beat Colo, knock down Williamson and stab the ball past Krull. 1-2 Rovers and eight minutes to go plus stoppage time. A few half chances and a penalty claim was all that we could muster and a chance to go fourth went begging. We still stand 5th and have another mid-table team who always do well at St James' on Saturday; Fulham visit for the normal 3pm KO.
More front page paper tripe will be taken from this game when Mr Barton gave Gamst 'rent boy' Pederson a slap in the gut for not much really. Barton got away with it on the night but the cameras picked up on it as did the Sky News pundit who mentioned it about 20 times in as many minutes. Joey is on four yellows at the moment but that incident will surely warrant a ban of 2 or three game maybe more with his past.
That incident and injury to Ameobi sees our run of games with an unchanged side more than likely come to an end. Let's look forward to the rematch at little Ewood Park as we are in good form away and should spank Al Lard ayce's Rovers team easily.
Highlights
picture sourced from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1328505/Newcastle-1-Blackburn-2-Allardyce-enjoys-happy-return-Roberts-late-strike.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
No comments:
Post a Comment