A hard working and full of committment performance but lacking in class

Posted by: Clarky · January 10, 2009

Canny game with 4 goals, and a lot of effort from both teams. Being honest, a draw was probably the right result, but this was 2 points we just couldn’t afford to drop. As has already been mentioned we never had any measure of control in midfield until Zog came one - to a mixture of cheers and boos.

Geordie boy Andy Carroll saves the day

I suspect the improvement was more to do with finally getting some mobility in central m/f rather than anything Zog did, because Geremi was strictly pedestrian, leaving Guthrie hopelessly outnumbered and requiring Owen to drop very deep to help out.

Guthrie looked as though he might be struggling with the aftermath of flu in the 1st half, but he battled on actually had a good 2nd half. Duff tried hard but struggled to make an impact on the game until he floated over the superb cross that Carroll headed back across the goal and inside the far post - a good cross and a very good header.

Jonas Gutierrez back in his performance

Gutierrez had his best game for some time having been restored to his more natural left wing. His early success against ‘Breaks Yer Legs’ Neil, caused WHU to double up on him for the rest of the game.

When switched back to the right after HT, Jonas was nowhere near as effective, and thankfully he was switched back the left for the last 20 mins or so when we piled on the pressure for the winner. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to finish off a terrific run deep into the penalty area in the final minutes when he felt the need to switch the ball back to his left foot rather than hitting it with the right, and was crowded out. An good, hard-working performance from him nevertheless.

Shay Given still our number one and will always be remember

We generally did ok defensively, and Given didn’t really have a lot to do. However, we were undone a few times by Bellamy dropping deep and finding time and space. This is precisely how Gerrard caused mayhem against us recently, and clearly Coloccini is not getting guidance on how he should deal with a deep lying opponent.

Running from deep, Bellamy was denied several times by going too early, and getting caught offside. However, I actually said to my son that unless someone started picking him up sooner or later he would get through. He did.

Bassong had another very decent game, and looks more assured with every game. Enrique was the usual mixture of the good and the bloody awful. This lad has everything needed to be a top FB, but he makes far too many short-passing errors that repeatedly put us under pressure.

Michael Owen did scoring again

Owen had another tidy game, and worked tirelessly, but for me needed to drop too deep too often to support midfield, often leaving Carroll isolated.

I thought Carroll had a smashing game on his full debut. He actually surprised me by how well he played. He gave the two WHU CBs a helluva battle, and they never really dominated him. He won a lot of balls in the air, worked hard to close down opponents, and his distribution and lay offs were pretty good for a debutant. He took his goal superbly, could have had another, and had what looked like a decent shout for a penalty when he was pushed over in the PA.

Damien Duff is just Damien Duff

Nevertheless, it was a good fightback after going behind to a goal from Cole who appeared to be 5yds offside from a free kick. I’m looking forward to seeing that one again. I’m also looking forward to seeing the goal, own goal actually, that we appeared to have scored in the 2nd half, because no one in the ground had any idea why it was disallowed, although the players didn’t seem to protest too much.

That brings me to the Ref, Mr Wiley, who I thought was hopeless. Early in the game, Michael Owen was absolutely clattered by Matt Upson, who made no attempt whatsoever the play the ball. Mr Wiley barely spoke to the player. 3-4 minutes later, Guthrie was at full stretch in a genuine attempt to win the ball, when his opponent went over his outstretched leg. The yellow card was out in a flash. Consistency?

Tags: English Premier League, Game Review, Newcastle United, west ham united fc

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 10th, 2009 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Andy Carroll, Game Review, Newcastle United. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or trackback from your own site.