Newcastle United 4 - Stoke City 1, FA Cup Replay

Well, it was only Stoke so we musn’t get carried away - especially given our ‘unreasonable expectations’ - but, despite playing with 10 men for an hour.

We saw more football from the black ‘n whites tonight than we’ve seen in all the games combined so far this season, and perhaps half of last season too - full committment all round, and some really encouraging passages of play.

The massive area of improvement tonight was our ball retention, and imho this was what made the difference. In the last 15 mins of the 1st half, after Emre had been sent off, we barely gave the ball to Stoke at all. For once we had a midfield that could pass the ball, and support each other, as well as creating a few chances.

As I said earlier, it’s important not to get carried away, as we were only playing Stoke. However, this is the same team that I thought gave us a bit of a chasing at their place, and tonight we made them look distinctly 2nd rate.

N’Zogbia was absolutely outstanding, and deservedly got the MOTM award, indeed I thought he ran the game for long periods. This was the best individual performance I’ve seen from a Toon player for a long time.

There were some other noteable performances. Both FBs had decent games - I even thought Carr was good tonight, and he did a lot of defensive organising.

Taylor and Cacapa had a few problems against the big Stoke front two, but stuck to the task very well. In fact, Given really hadn’t a lot to do - apart from picking the ball out of the net!

Duff and Milner supported Zog really well, and all three basically ran themselves into the ground.

Up front, Micky Owen looked sharper than he has for a long time, and his early goal seemed to visibly lift him. He did a lot of work tonight helping out his midfield, and showed some really neat touches and controlled passing.

Strangely enough, I could feel a different atmosphere just walking up the ground tonight, and while it wasn’t exactly back to the old Keegan days, he has already started sprinkling the old stardust around what was becoming an increasingly dark and spiteful place.

Newcastle United FC: Owen (8), Cacapa (31), Milner (68), Duff (76)
Shay Given (c), Stephen Carr, Jose Enrique, Claudio Cacapa, Steven Taylor, Emre, Charles N’Zogbia, James Milner, Damien Duff, Michael Owen, Mark Viduka
Subs: Steve Harper, David Rozehnal, David Edgar, Kazenga LuaLua, Andy Carroll

Stoke City FC: Lawrence (89)
Steve Simonsen, John Eustace, Leon Cort, Liam Lawrence, Jon Parkin, Richard Cresswell, Ricardo Fuller, Danny Pugh, Ryan Shawcross, Gabriel Zakuani, Rory Delap
Subs: Vincent Pericard, Salif Diao, Russell Holt, Anthony Pulis, Carl Dickinson

Referee: Uriah Rennie
Attendance: 35, 108

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