Mighty Magpies 2 vs Sad Mackems 0, Let’s All Laugh at Them!

Posted by: Clarky · April 20, 2008

Utterly delighted to beat ‘em , but in truth it was a scrappy game. Despite some appallingly poor passages of play from us, we still had more about us, and for me we deserved the points.

We were never able to establish real control in midfield, and for me this was the foundation for the self-created difficulties that kept the mackems in the game for far longer than they should have been. Our midfield trio were right back to the kind of performance that got us into trouble in the first place – constantly giving the ball away, eschewing the simple pass and generally trying to be far too bloody clever.

As predicted, the mackems set out to kick anything that moved – and that was usually Michael Owen! I think they had 5 booked, and I thought one or two were fortunate not to be sent off.

To their credit, the mackems kept going despite the early goal – brilliantly put away by Owen – however, their one and only strategy was the lump to Jones, who despite winning a fair bit in the air was generally well marshalled by Taylor and Faye.

Actually, I thought Taylor was terrific today, as indeed he has been for the last few games. He and Faye are linking well, and three consecutive clean sheets is a great achievement considering what went before.

Harper really only had one save to make, a terrific reaction save from a close in header from Jones; however, I’m afraid his kicking was frequently Givenesque. Beye had another excellent game, both defensively and going forward. Enrique was very patchy, and for a guy who can pass the ball sublimely, he frequently dithered in possession in dangerous areas, and gave the ball away far too often.

Martins was at his infuriating worst, Viduka static, leaving Owen to both forage in midfield and get forward to provide the thrust in the penalty area. He had a good game, putting in a hell of shift, despite having to put up with some rough-house treatment.

From his touchline behaviour, KK clearly wasn’t satisfied with much of our play, particularly in the 2nd half. I thought his switch to 4-4-2 was timely, because we visibly ran out of legs in midfield midway through the 2nd half, and Duff’s running power helped to finally kill off the game, and unleash the real celebrations on the terraces.

Tags: English Premier League, Newcastle United, SMB

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 11:20 am and is filed under Game Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or trackback from your own site.