Another really vital and hard-earned victory for Newcastle

Posted by: Clarky · December 22, 2008

A tight game that developed into a midfield slugfest, with neither keeper having a whole lot to do. Without ever reaching the heights as a football spectacle, it was actually an absorbing contest. Of course, the fact we nicked it at the death now makes it seem a lot more memorable than it probably was!

We never established control in midfield, and had to work our gonads off to keep a foothold in the game. Credit Spurs midfield for that. I was actually quite impressed by Spurs today, and at least they tried to win the bliddy game.

I thought we gave the Spurs wide men rather too much space, although Habib Beye still managed to keep Bentley under reasonable control. Enrique had a helluva battle with Lennon, and despite losing out a few times, he stuck to the task and prevented Lennon from causing us too many genuine problems. Unfortunately, his distribution was rather inconsistent.

Another really vital and hard-earned victory for Newcastle

Butt and Guthrie worked tremendously hard in the middle without ever being able to dominate. Following on from his excellent 2nd half at Pompey, I thought Guthrie was terrific today. Jonas struggled to impose himself on the game, but as usual never stopped grafting.

Our MOTM was possibly N’Zogbia, who scored the 1st goal after a fantastic long ball from Given (surely his first ever ‘assist’?) and who’s direct wing play caused Spuds a lot of problems. He was our main threat today, and looked almost best to his best.

Another really vital and hard-earned victory for Newcastle

We did quite well defensively, limiting Spurs to a few half chances. I’m not entirely certain what happened on the Spurs goal. The ball seemed to rebound off Shola and back into the path of two Spurs attackers standing 10-15 yds in offside positions – however, with the ball coming off our player they could not be deemed offside, despite the howls from the crowd.

Coloccini and Bassong did well again together, with young Bassong once again impressing.

Owen put in another good shift. We tried several times to pick him out with early balls, and only just failed to get him in on several occasions. He blazed his best chance over the bar with about 5 mins to go, and I suspected that was that.

Another really vital and hard-earned victory for Newcastle

However, Viduka who had a few nice touches despite struggling to get around the pitch, brilliantly back-heeled the ball into Duff’s path to enable him to walk it into the net in the 89th minute. Having conceded so many late goals at home this season that have cost us valuable points, nicking this one was bliddy joyous.

Another really vital and hard-earned victory for Newcastle

We had some really tired legs towards the end, most noticeably Beye and Jonas, and as in the Stoke game, the opposition seemed to finish rather stronger. I really don’t know whether this is a fitness issue, or whether it was simply down to us having to work so hard to get on top in the game.

Another really vital and hard-earned victory for Newcastle

Another really vital and hard-earned victory, especially important coming at home, and one that will hopefully lift a little of the pressure. Once again, no one let us down, and there were some encouraging performances, particularly from the younger players - Bassong, Guthrie and N’Zogbia.

Tags: English Premier League, Game Review, Newcastle United

This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 6:32 am and is filed under Game Review, Newcastle United. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or trackback from your own site.