Newcastle United 2 – 0 Crystal Palace
27/Jan/10, KO: 7:45pm, St. James' Park, Att: 37,886
A hard slog at SJP saw us get back to winning ways and bring in a highly welcome three points in a game that we were always marginally on top but never really dominated. New signing Williamson was one of three changes from Saturdays cup game, with Kadar playing out of position at full back highlighting the lack of depth in our squad.
The opening exchanges were fairly nervy with neither side getting on top in the game but we took the lead in the spawniest of circumstances after 20 minutes. Seemingly under no threat, Shaun Derry (does it not seem like he’s been playing for about 40 years?) somehow sliced a clearance into his own net. When you’ve just gone into administration, been told your best player can’t play and you slice a ball into your own net when facing in exactly the opposite direction, you know that your luck is really not in but no matter how sorry we felt for Palace, we were just delighted to be in the lead no matter what.
Just after the goal however, our luck turned when the (again) hugely impressive Enrique limped off with what looked like to be a hamstring injury. Were we to hold a Player of the Season vote now, Enrique would win with a landslide that would make Kim Jong-Il look on in embarrassment and if the injury was a 4-6 week job it could totally overshadow our victory and leave us essentially knackered.
There was no real action in the rest of the first half and the second drifted along with not an awful lot happening too as we pretty much contained the Palace threat up until the last quarter. After that Ambrose almost scored, forcing a fine save from Harper after a flick when he looked offside and Collocini could easily have walked according to those on the Milburn side of the ground after a petulant kick out at their centre forward.
Only one goal up, we started to sweat and despite Palace not looking like any real threat, our hearts were in our mouths every time they came forward. We were lifted by an excellent second half performance from Routledge, who looked a real threat and by a solid defence held together by Williamson who looks like a very solid buy and Collocini complemented by a composed Kadar and Pancrate – a comedy character who at times looked like a world beater at full back and at others looked like a pheasant beater.
We held on though and even went on to seal the victory with a second goal which probably flattered us courtesy of Ranger. Routledge played him clean through on the counter attack in the final minute and the substitute ran half the length of the pitch before coolly slotting past the keeper. Ranger is well liked and rightly so but cool finishing isn’t the first thing you would associate him with so it was good to see him take his goal and secure us three vital points.
In truth Palace offered little yet could still feel slightly aggrieved by being on the end of a two goal deficit. We showed a few plus points – Williamson is particular shone and it is great to see a brand new signing marshalling his defence and barking out a few orders and Routledge looked bright on his debut. However, Nolan has looked like a forty year old for the past month and two games a week is not going to help him and a lengthy Enrique injury hampers us badly in a ten day period that is likely to define our season.
After a few phony wars, there can be no doubt that both Leicester and Cardiff will pose serious tests to our promotion credentials and unless we up our game there is a serious worry that we will finally be found out. That said, we are 26 games into the season and we haven’t been yet so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
As for our opponents tonight, I really hope they sort themselves out – a well supported ‘proper club’ on the bones of their arse through no fault of their own. There but for the grace of god and all that. And for Christ sake save the ‘your support is fucking shit’ tedium for the likes of Bolton and Wigan next season, you’re making us look like wankers.
Keep The Faith
Newcastle United– Harper 7, Kadar 7, Collocini 7, WILLIAMSON 8, Enrique 6 (Pancrate 7), Guthrie 7, Smith 7, Nolan 4, Gutierrez 6 (Ranger 6), Carroll 4, Lovenkrands 6 (Routledge 7)
Ref – Booth – 4 – Never blew for anything for the first half hour then blew absolutely every time anyone fell over in the last hour. Some soft bookings but some blatant yellow/red cards missed. Equally poor for either side
Our Fans – 5 – 8 for But for the cringeworthy ‘Your Support is fucking shit’ chant, it would have been higher – the ‘Whey ya knaa’ chant especially was class but it’s one thing stealing most of your chants from Man United, it’s beyond past time to stop behaving like them. Rest of the ground 4. So that averages 5. Probably.
Their Fans – 8 – Excellent turnout for midweek, noisy in the face of extreme adversity and as far removed from ‘fucking shit’ as you could imagine. The best this season.
Gareth Harrison
The opening exchanges were fairly nervy with neither side getting on top in the game but we took the lead in the spawniest of circumstances after 20 minutes. Seemingly under no threat, Shaun Derry (does it not seem like he’s been playing for about 40 years?) somehow sliced a clearance into his own net. When you’ve just gone into administration, been told your best player can’t play and you slice a ball into your own net when facing in exactly the opposite direction, you know that your luck is really not in but no matter how sorry we felt for Palace, we were just delighted to be in the lead no matter what.
Just after the goal however, our luck turned when the (again) hugely impressive Enrique limped off with what looked like to be a hamstring injury. Were we to hold a Player of the Season vote now, Enrique would win with a landslide that would make Kim Jong-Il look on in embarrassment and if the injury was a 4-6 week job it could totally overshadow our victory and leave us essentially knackered.
There was no real action in the rest of the first half and the second drifted along with not an awful lot happening too as we pretty much contained the Palace threat up until the last quarter. After that Ambrose almost scored, forcing a fine save from Harper after a flick when he looked offside and Collocini could easily have walked according to those on the Milburn side of the ground after a petulant kick out at their centre forward.
Only one goal up, we started to sweat and despite Palace not looking like any real threat, our hearts were in our mouths every time they came forward. We were lifted by an excellent second half performance from Routledge, who looked a real threat and by a solid defence held together by Williamson who looks like a very solid buy and Collocini complemented by a composed Kadar and Pancrate – a comedy character who at times looked like a world beater at full back and at others looked like a pheasant beater.
We held on though and even went on to seal the victory with a second goal which probably flattered us courtesy of Ranger. Routledge played him clean through on the counter attack in the final minute and the substitute ran half the length of the pitch before coolly slotting past the keeper. Ranger is well liked and rightly so but cool finishing isn’t the first thing you would associate him with so it was good to see him take his goal and secure us three vital points.
In truth Palace offered little yet could still feel slightly aggrieved by being on the end of a two goal deficit. We showed a few plus points – Williamson is particular shone and it is great to see a brand new signing marshalling his defence and barking out a few orders and Routledge looked bright on his debut. However, Nolan has looked like a forty year old for the past month and two games a week is not going to help him and a lengthy Enrique injury hampers us badly in a ten day period that is likely to define our season.
After a few phony wars, there can be no doubt that both Leicester and Cardiff will pose serious tests to our promotion credentials and unless we up our game there is a serious worry that we will finally be found out. That said, we are 26 games into the season and we haven’t been yet so lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
As for our opponents tonight, I really hope they sort themselves out – a well supported ‘proper club’ on the bones of their arse through no fault of their own. There but for the grace of god and all that. And for Christ sake save the ‘your support is fucking shit’ tedium for the likes of Bolton and Wigan next season, you’re making us look like wankers.
Keep The Faith
Newcastle United– Harper 7, Kadar 7, Collocini 7, WILLIAMSON 8, Enrique 6 (Pancrate 7), Guthrie 7, Smith 7, Nolan 4, Gutierrez 6 (Ranger 6), Carroll 4, Lovenkrands 6 (Routledge 7)
Ref – Booth – 4 – Never blew for anything for the first half hour then blew absolutely every time anyone fell over in the last hour. Some soft bookings but some blatant yellow/red cards missed. Equally poor for either side
Our Fans – 5 – 8 for But for the cringeworthy ‘Your Support is fucking shit’ chant, it would have been higher – the ‘Whey ya knaa’ chant especially was class but it’s one thing stealing most of your chants from Man United, it’s beyond past time to stop behaving like them. Rest of the ground 4. So that averages 5. Probably.
Their Fans – 8 – Excellent turnout for midweek, noisy in the face of extreme adversity and as far removed from ‘fucking shit’ as you could imagine. The best this season.
Gareth Harrison