Newcastle United 3-1 West Bromwich Albion |
|
Date:
Saturday 25th September 2004
Kick Off: 3.00pm BST
Venue: St. James' Park
Att: 52,308
Ref: Mike Riley
Comp: Premiership |
| Premiership
Match Report In Association With Toon
Ale |
|
A Round Of Applause
For Souness
By
Craig Hope
With seventy minutes on the clock and still no score you would have
been forgiven for looking toward the dugout and expecting to see Sir
Bobby agonising over the possibility of introducing his first substitute. But
that reign is over and a new regime is in place at SJP. A new regime
that is open to the idea of substitutions before the last chance saloon
comes knocking. By the seventieth minute on Saturday Souness had already
introduced Robert 15 minutes earlier. The arrival of our often enigmatic
Frenchman coupled with the dismissal of Darren Purse were the main
contributors to our eventual 3-1 victory.
Goals from Kluivert, Shearer and Milner were enough to earn the points
despite Geoff Horsfield’s late consolation. The game could have been
all so different had Kluivert converted Bellamy's centre in the opening
minute, the ex-Barca man heading just over. It wasn't long before
Robert Earnshaw used his pace to spring our offside trap. Pace is
one asset however; having the ability to take the football with you
is another. It was highlighted in our match preview that WBA’s new
£3 million man is not good enough to carry his undoubted goalscoring
form into the Premiership; the manner in which Earnshaw wasted this
golden opportunity only amplified our assessment. Indeed, his half
time replacement suggested that Gary Megson was none too impressed
either by his first half showing.
The lack of width was now becoming apparent. Kluivert, playing behind
the front two, failed to make any impact on the first half. He appeared
lost – too cautious of infringing on Bellamy and Shearer’s territory
yet aware that he wasn't playing midfield. He saw little of the ball
and did look far more comfortable when reverted to an out and out
striker in the second half.
Stephen Carr showed great enthusiasm and willing to attack the space
available down the right throughout the game. On at least three occasions
in the first period he delivered crosses that should have resulted
in more. He is one player who certainly benefited from our lack of
width and enjoyed going forward. Now we have seen he is capable there
is no reason Carr cannot go by our right midfielder (when we do revert
back to 4-4-2) and attack the opposition left back with more purpose
than anyone has managed to achieve so far this campaign.
Bowyer had numerous half chances in the first period before on the
stroke of half time finding himself one and one with Hoult. The angle
however was tight and he shot into the side netting.
Bellamy also headed wide from a Bernard cross before the break when
he really should have tested the keeper. Albion had two moments of
mention early in the second half. First, Neil Clement clipped a free
kick just wide and then Kanu was quite deliberately taken out by Elliot
when going towards goal. Had it not been for O'Brien's covering presence
then Elliot may have seen red.
Bowyer was unlucky to see his clever effort rebound off the crossbar
moments before Purse’s 63rd minute dismissal. Kluivert turned cleverly
and was brought down before Mike Reilly showed Purse his second yellow
of the afternoon.
It was eight tense minutes before Robert's delivery was spilled by
Hoult and Kluivert finished to make it four in four starts for the
Dutchman. Kluivert's booking ensued. A ridiculous rule it may be,
but it is a rule and to deliberately go against it is stupid – Alan
Shearer has scored 259 career goals and I've never seen him take his
shirt off – don't do it, you never know when it could prove costly
later in the season.
Robert shot against the bar on 75 after a run where a cross seemed
the obvious option, but to his credit he hung onto the ball and was
extremely unlucky not to score with his right foot effort.
Substitute Milner fumbled home our second on 78 after Jenas slid the
ball across the face of goal and into Milner's path. Milner appears
far more comfortable in the substitute role – the early season starts
and subsequent pressure to perform affected the youngster and now
under Souness's guidance he looks far more relaxed.
Shearer was the only survivor at this point of our 'front three' and
so it was our 'Magnificent Number Nine' who scored our third four
minutes from time after yet more great work by Jenas. It’s encouraging
to see Jenas showing such energy levels late on in games having failed
to turn up in the second period of the opening matches of the season.
Horsfield headed a late consolation – Carr’s involvement in yet another
conceded goal being a cause for concern.
A 3-1 triumph it turned out to be and on the full time whistle all
anxieties of half an hour previous were long forgotten. Let's not
get too carried away however. A victory that lifted us to sixth was
by no means a vintage performance and without the harsh red card awarded
to Purse may never have came about. For the first hour of the game
our performance had an all too familiar 'Robson' like feel to it. That
is - a team of considerably lesser quality come to St. James' to defend,
we fail to create any real openings but do have a large share of possession,
we create only half chances at best and as seems to be the vogue at
SJP these days the crowd only appear to get excited about extremely
optimistic penalty appeals.
We only have to cast our mind back to Spurs this season and most notably
to Bolton, Blackburn and Birmingham last year to recall those feelings
of desperation and then despair as we attacked in vain without success.
But, where Robson failed, Souness triumphed. Our Scotsman identified
the problem and duly acted to eradicate it. The problem being no width
– the solution being Laurent Robert. His arrival changed the game
and Souness has to be applauded for it (before Bellamy's apparent
injury it appeared Robert was gearing up to come on anyway).
If we score early at home then we will gain confidence, relax and
more often than not go onto win. Over the past year however when Newcastle
have failed to score before the hour mark we have looked void of any
invention and appeared desperate for a lucky break. How reassuring
it is then that having found ourselves in the '0-0 on the hour' position
once more we at last refused to panic and throw everything forward
in an unorganised and hopeless fashion. In Souness we appear to have
a manager who maintains his tactical composure during matches and
it is not afraid to make bold decisions before them.
Having split the Toon Army on his arrival three weeks ago, every victory
goes that little bit further to adding to the growing band of supporters
lending their support towards his appointment. How long before an
undivided, unanimous chorus of 'Souness, Souness' echoes out around
St. James' Park?
Player
Ratings Vs West Brom
Next up: Hapoel
Bnei Sakhnin Vs NUFC (Thursday September 30th 2004 UEFA Cup 7.45pm
K.O)
| Newcastle
United |
West
Brom |
Match
Facts & Stats
Half-Time: 0-0
Full-Time: 3-1
Yellow Cards: 6
Red Cards: 1
Goalscorers: Kluivert
(70), Milner (78), Shearer (86)
Yellow Cards: Bowyer (20), Elliott (51), Kluivert (73)
Red Cards: 0
Substitutions: 2
Robert (for Bellamy 55), Milner (for Kluivert 77)
Injuries: Both Bellamy & Kluivert picked up knocks
Goalscorers: Horsfield (87)
Yellow Cards: Purse (12), Greening (22)
Red Cards: Purse (63 second yellow)
Substitutions: 2
Horsfield (for Earnshaw 45), Gera (for Koumas 62)
Injuries: N/A |
| Given |
Hoult |
| Carr |
Gaardsoe |
| O'Brien |
Scimeca |
| Elliott |
Purse |
| Bernard |
Albrechtsen |
| Bellamy |
Greening |
| Butt |
Koumas |
| Bowyer |
Johnson |
| Jenas |
Clement |
| Shearer |
Kanu |
| Kluivert |
Earnshaw |
| Substitutes
Bench |
| Harper |
Moore |
|
Hughes |
Kuszczak |
| Milner |
O'Connor |
|
Ambrose |
Gera |
| Robert |
Horsfield |
| Fouls, Possession, Shots,
Corners & Saves |
| Newcastle |
The
Game |
West
Brom |
| 15 |
Fouls |
15 |
| 64% |
Possession |
36% |
| 10 |
Shots
(on target) |
3 |
| 21 |
Shots (off target) |
4 |
| 8 |
Corners |
3 |
| 1 |
Saves |
7 |
Alan Shearer made his 250th Premiership appearance for Newcastle and
his goal takes him to 349 career goals (not 350 as some websites are
reporting). First goal in Black & White for James Milner. Shearer
has now scored for 7 different Toon managers, including caretaker
managers. 3rd successive Premiership win. Robbie Elliott made his
50th appearance for Newcastle (both spells).
| How The Goals Were
Scored |
NUFC Goal 70 Minutes: Patrick Kluivert
A left wing cross from Robert could only be parried by Hoult to the
feet of Kluivert who smashed home from 10-yards.
NUFC Goal 78 Minutes: James Milner
Jenas picked up a loose ball from Scimeca's wayward header and drove
towards the byeline, skipping past a challenge before laying it off
for Milner to fumble in his first Toon goal from 2-yards out.
NUFC Goal 86 Minutes: Alan Shearer
Jenas again drove at the West Brom defence, breaking free into space
before pulling the ball back for Shearer who controlled and then directed
his hot into the net.
West Brom Goal 87 Minutes: Geoff Horsfield
A diagonal ball from Johnson down our right found Horsfield who arched
his header over and past Given for an excellent goal.
| Match Reaction From
Graeme Souness |
Souness said:
"We had to be patient, but I had every confidence we would eventually
break them down.
"They made it tough for us and you have to give them credit for that,
but we knew they would do that before a ball was kicked.
"They came here to frustrate us, so it was important my players kept
their heads and kept doing the right things.
"The sending off didn't help them, and we took advantage. We have
some super strikers at this club, and we know if we keep putting the
ball into dangerous areas we will get the rewards.
"That's what we did on Saturday, we just kept pushing and pushing
and got there in the end. We're on a good little run now, and we're
moving in the right direction."
| Match Reaction From Gary
Megson |
Megson said:
"I'm disappointed because I felt in the first half we got into some
good positions and didn't make the most of them.
"We were talking before the game about the need to get our first win
but no one is going to give it to us. We got into some decent positions
in the first half without working Shay Given.
"We sat too deep which wasn't by intention. It was just that we were
too easy to play against.
"In the second half we were much better before the sending-off.
"I think the red card was the turning point because when you go down
to ten men against a talented side you're going to have problems.
"They scored at a good time with their one-man advantage and the second
goal really killed us off.
"If you take Darren's two bookings in isolation, I thought the first
one was a bit soft and the second one was even softer.
"If centre-halves are going to get sent off for those kind of things
then you're going to be down to ten men and less on more than one
occasion.
"Given the challenge on Kanu when he was through, and given Elliott
was the last man, it's very hard to take.
"We'll have a look at Purse's bookings again because at the moment
I'm giving a judgement having only seen it on the pitch. We'll see
and then decide from there."
| Your Shout: Toon
Army Match Reaction |
Billy t' fish wrote:
I thought Elliott was solid (I sit in the North East corner), though
you could certainly argue his challenge on Kanu was a red card offence.
He also made some good breaks forward. It was a solid enough performance
though we did suffer a bit from lack of width and for all Kluivert's
nice touches he actually had little effect...til his well taken goal.
Shearer gave a latter day Al performance strong and aggressive and
a good goal but a younger Shearer might have got something from one
of those clever touches. Rest of the defence was OK though. Bernard
was well below his powerful best. Butt was solid in his role in front
of the back 4 but some of his passing, bar one superb ball to Milner,
was poor. Bowyer gave another high energy performance and was always
a threat though his booking was no need (on that subject how stupid
was Kluivert's yellow, stupid rule I agree but a rule it is). Jenas
was much much much better, got involved at both ends of the pitch
and my MOTM. Bellamy was a nuisance but his end product wasn't great
and both subs made a difference so overall I'm happy.
Keefa wrote:
A decent performance, all told. I knew we'd have to be patient as
West Brom defended well. As has been mentioned, we lined up pretty
much 4-3-3 with Kluivert dropping quite deep at times. For me, it
didn't work that well, although not a disaster. There was acres of
space on both flanks. Carr tried his best to work the right, but Bernard
still isn't firing on all cylinders. We seemed to lack penetration
and Kluivert wasn't in the box enough in the first half, which is
a waste of one of the best headers of the ball in football. I was
actually a bit sad to see Bellamy come off, as he was actually having
a decent match, I thought, but from a tactical standpoint, it was
probably for the best. Robbie Elliot, man of the match? Rubbish! |
 |
Toon
Shirts |
|
Sponsors |
|
|
