Wigan kebabs must have been sold out in Wigan on Sunday as 5000 Geordies watched Newcastle United take a resilient Wigan apart. The Geordies don't fail to support the lads wherever or whenever; they are indeed the 12th man and a happy bunch at that.
With Andy Carroll in the news again this week, for football reasons this time, Newcastle had some worrying to do with good old Shola coming in to replace him. Shola has been ok these last couple of years though and I reckon we should hang on to him even if it's just to put him on against the Mackems. Well, he came in and within seconds had the goal at his mercy but you know Shola. He got his head on the end of a magnificent cross but put it the wrong side of the cross bar. Not long passed before Shola was given another chance and this time he made no mistake planting the ball into the back of the net. Newcastle played well throughout the match with only Nolan struggling but big performances from Tiote, Coloccini and Barton helped Newcastle back to winning ways. Peter Lovenkrands was back in the starting 11 and gave as good a performance as we have seen from him this season. However that was not difficult to achieve. He looked sharp and able, put in a good shift and worked for the good of the team, which is or was the Houghton ethic, and looks to be Pardew's way of playing thing as he does not want to upset the balance or the good work already done.
With Houghton now almost forgotten Pardew is keeping a low profile but is picking up praise which should still land at Houghtons door
With Houghton now almost forgotten, Pardew is keeping a low profile but is picking up praise which should still land at Houghton's door. That said we have been playing good football and it was only the Spurs game where we seemed to be overrun. Rumours are again circling like vultures around St James' park and some of them are claiming Carroll's exit to wannabe big boys Spurs, who seem to be linked with any decent player these days. United have issued a hands off warning to any potential suitors and it seems we are in the market for the right reasons but who knows what that fatty will do next.
Newcastle left Wigan with nothing over the last few years but today the drive and commitment was there to see and we came home with the points to take us back into the top half of the table. It was lucky that Insomnia had seen red in Wigan's previous game against Arsenal, where they came back from 0-2 down to get a point. Their tails high, and a good record against us had the commentators (if that's what you can call them) calling for our head. Insomnia missing the game was to our advantage as he is their best player and has two goals against us, his old club, this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment