Despite being under more pressure from the homeside and was a goal down in about 10 minutes of play, Newcastle United responded quickly and start to dominate the first-half, pushing the Hammers to a more defensive play.

In his first appearance for Newcastle in Premier League, Danny Simpson has shown that he was a little bit better in defensive play than the former player who play on his side, James Perch who was relegated to the bench.

Simpson not making too many attacking role on his territory today, but with the presence of Barton who was ordered to play on the right midfield, and Gutierrez who couple times switching to the right from left, Newcastle is slightly won the midfield area.

Although he’s still need to learn how to do more effective defensive play, I’m quite satisfied with his performance today. And when Hughton give him more games, I believe he can develop and added experiences to his play.

Another player that comes into my notebook is Cheick Tioté. He’s very good today as defensive-midfielder, but for couple of times he almost take my breath away while keeping the ball possession in the danger zone. Although, he won mostly all of the ball there, I hope he’s not playing like that too often against the better team.

Carroll also did very well too despite having a very tough week, he can manage his concentration and seems not too influenced by his court trial. He did manage the assist for Kevin Nolan’s goal, which is coming from one of Newcastle’s best move on this match.

In the second half, the game is down a bit in tempo, both team looking more in safety mode rather than trying to score more goals.

And, to kill the game off, it took another smooth movement from our right side, when Barton cross met Carroll’s head after cleverly get away from his marker.

In general, nice result and another good away performance. I hope the Lads can keep this type of play when we face another London side on the FA Carling Cup 4th round next midweek. Howay the Lads!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

The home side had an early goal from Mark Noble before Dean Ashton added their second in the midway of first-half. But, the relieving Toon gaffer would have to thanks his African squad members after Martins and Geremi get us back in action in the last 2 minutes of first-half.

I also consider we’re the lucky side too when Uriah Rennie refused to award a penalty for the home team when the ball hit Michael Owen on the hand.

“I would sooner be a lucky manager than a good one,” Keegan said. “For me, Alex Ferguson is a very lucky manager, but unfortunately not today.”

It looks like Keegan will have to think any other possible options for our next fixture at home against Chelsea. To be honest, starting from our last week game against the mackems, we have been less impressive if not bad performance. Yesterday, Harper’s distribution was so bad, and forced Keegan to had Fraser Forster warming up after 25 minutes.

The 33 years-old stopper, although not being superior in distributions, have a decent save when he deny Ashton’s rasping shot 10 minutes from the end, while a last-ditch save by Green from Martins ends the second-half with no further goals from both team.

“I have never handled a player quite like Martins,” Keegan said after the match when asked his opinion about Martins, “He does fantastic things and he is more of a team player now.”

A draw means we have lost a great chance to climb up above Spurs after they also only have a draw against the bottom rock team Bolton Wanderers.

West Ham United:
Robert Green, John Pantsil, George McCartney, Lucas Neill (c), James Tomkins, Julien Faubert, Mark Noble, Scott Parker, Bobby Zamora, Dean Ashton
Subs: Nobby Solano, James Walker, Carlton Cole, Hayden Mullins, Luis Boa Morte

Newcastle United FC:
Steve Harper, Habib Beye, Jose Enrique, David Edgar, Steven Taylor, Nicky Butt, Geremi, Joey Barton, Oba Martins, Michael Owen (c), Mark Viduka
Subs: Fraser Forster, Damien Duff, Lamine Diatta, Alan Smith, Andy Carroll

Referee: Uriah Rennie
Attendance: 34, 980