A win and a farewell match for Newcastle and Steven Taylor

Posted by: Clarky · August 16, 2009

Canny showing against inferior opposition, and a victory that had us pondering in ‘Rupali’ on when was the last time we had a comfortable home win, and who was the last Toon player to score a hat trick at home. Most thought the latter would have been Alan Shearer but no one could remember against who, and when.

We started rather tentatively, and although never under any real pressure, didn’t turn on the class until after the first goal went in. From then on the confidence started to flow - over-confidence at times - and the result was never then in doubt.

Coloccini mirrored this progression perfectly. As usual, he started tentatively, allowing his man to bully him. But then after 20 mins or so he seemed to realise that he was actually a better player than his striker and the confidence seemed to flood back.

Towards the end of the first half, under real pressure, he flicked the ball up and over his opponent who ended up flat on his @rse while FC calmly trapped the ball and brought it away. That’s by far the best thing I’ve seen from this guy, and it had me wondering whether there may actually be a player under that curly mop - at least at this level.

We defended better than last week, but against poorer opposition, although over-confidence caused us to give several soft corners away in the 2nd half. Harper had very little to do - I don’t think he made a single save. Taylor gave another strong performance in what tragically looks like being his farewell to SJP. Very sad.

We controlled m/f, and with it the game. Barton was in and out, but still contrived to play several terrific passes. Smith again patrolled the space in front of the back 4 to good effect, and after managing to get himself booked for two wild challenges he settled down and had another powerful game.

Shola was Shola, but this time scored 3 goals. His first was a slightly mistimed header from a brilliant cross from Enrique, his 2nd a superb diving header back across the keeper at the end of a thrilling passing move and another tremendous cross, this time from Barton. The 3rd was a calmly converted penalty given for handball - about the first decision that went our way.

A good atmosphere created by a small crowd, and a comfortable win - achieved against the backdrop of some anti-Ashley chanting and culminating in what looked like the sad goodbyes of one of our own.

Sadly, NUFC has returned to being a selling club, with Steven Taylor seemingly preparing to trod the path previously taken by Waddle, Beardsley and Gazza.

Tags: Champhionship, Coca Cola, Shola Ameobi, Steven Taylor

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 12:21 am and is filed under Alan Shearer, Game Review, Match Report, Newcastle United, Shola Ameobi, Steven Taylor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or trackback from your own site.