Perhaps it is the ridiculous view, perhaps it is the ridiculous stadium, perhaps it is the ridiculous defending, but this game just doesn’t seem real. We haven’t looked like that was coming up on us, and despite how I’m about to criticise large parts of the team, I must maintain that against any other team (even West Brom) we wouldn’t have collapsed.
The team was back to a defencive set up, Andy Gray the lone forward with Hallfreddo, Anderson and Teixeira behind.
And for the first 40 minutes we looked like getting the draw. OK, so not even once did the ball stray in behind the Magpies back line, but Colace and Doyle were at their best, and they did a good job of controlling the pressure. However, they couldn’t cover everywhere, and the pressure down the wings increased as the minutes dragged slowly on. It was actually boring stuff (although the guy who slept for 40 minutes beside me might have overreacted slightly). I would have to say that at half time we were good value for a point, but went in at 1-0.
This was because (a) Lovenkrands is a chronic diver (b) the referee was weak to the rapturous home crowd. For the second time the Dane broke free of Dickinson and Foster. On the first he was rightly ruled offside, but this time we couldn’t hide behind that. As Steele came out, the ball was knocked past him, and Lovenkrands dived striaght over his outstretched leg. Two words: No contact. The Sky highlights don’t show the slow motion, but look at the extended ones on the BBC iPlayer Football League show to see clear evidence that we were cheated.
But that is all behind us. Preece came on for Anderson, leaving us with 10 men. This not only meant Coyle’s control of the game slipped under weight of numbers, but meant that not again for 50 minutes did we string together 2 passes in the Toon half.
But still, at half time we had hope. It wasn’t unrealistic to think that we could still sneak a 1-1 draw, or at least keep our honour. But, no. We hadn’t factored for one thing. David Preece is useless. Might as well have had me in goal.
To sum the second half up as a whole, we were annihilated. Every Toon attack was dangerous, and if some of the finishing had been slightly better it could have been up to 10. Colace and Doyle tried, but just had it passed around them. Dickinson and Hassell ended up looking scared by the wingers, especially Bobby who was tied up by Guttierez, who spent Wednesday night playing on the opposite wing to Lionel Messi. The midfield was scared, and the forwards never made any useful ground.
Now to break it down into goals and apportion blame;
Goal 2 was a great goal, particularly the cross. However, Foster made a comical header down to Carroll to produce the ball in, and Shottonshould have been much tighter onto Lovenkrands.
Goal 3 is right on Preece’s head. Some are claiming he was obstructed by the offside Carroll, but I disagree. I’m certain Steele would have got to it easily.
Goal 4 was breath-taking. Not really Preece’s fault, but I did think the Colace and Doyle let Spiderman slip between them too easily, but they couldn’t have expected him to spin (!) that into the net.
Goal 5 is right back on Preece neck. Maybe Shotton could have got contact, but if Carroll had got the flick, Preece was out of position. When he didn’t, the ‘keeper’ (heavily inverted commas) still remained frozen to the spot. God-awful.
Goal 6 is hard to blame Preece for, it’s the fault of the centre backs. I mean, they bothwent for a header, and both missed it. On top of this, Dicko failed to pick up on Nolan, and Hassell failed to pick up on Lovenkrands, who could just have easily received the chance.
Our consolation was pointless in the extreme, but nice in a way. There’s a point in a thrashing when you end up laughing, not crying. For me that fell when Preece attempted to volley a rebound into his own net between goals 4 and 5, but managed to screw up the screw up. Boggy’s usual accurate finish just gave those of the 2,600 Reds fans who’d been mad enough to stay something to sing sarcastically about. Chants include “Easy” “We only need five more” and “You’re not singing anymore”.
The other thing about our goal was that Coloccini really did make the only mistake any of the black and white players made all afternoon. It was scary how good they were; nobody in this league is that deadly in attack. I’m thankful for the certainty of their promotion, because I’m scared that would happen again.
See, here’s the thing. Our attack was bullied off the ball time and time again, our defence couldn’t match anything that came at them. After losing 6-1 I’d normally be looking for heads to roll. In general, I’m not this time, because there is no chance of this happening next week. So remember, Don’t Panic. This happens, especially when you are away at St. James’. The turning point in the game was a refereeing mistake, and we wouldn’t have done this with Steele and 11 men.
Ratings
Steele: 7
Preece: 1 -- grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Dicko: 4
Foster: 4
Shotton: 4
Hassell: 4
Colace: MOTM 7
Doyle: 6
Teixeira: 5
Hallfredsson; 5
Gray: 4
It’s ridiculous that St. James’ can have empty seats when the crowd would fill Oakwell twice over. It’s also ridiculous that last week we gave David Preece a new one year contract.
Here’s what it comes down to. Our newly signed second choice keeper, intended purely for when the first choice is injured/suspended has played 1.5 games this season and conceded 11 goals (he played 90 minutes in our 5-2 loss at QPR.
I urge you Mark Robins; Do not give him another chance, do not have faith in him. Sure, it’s bad man management to bring in a loan keeper now, but just do it. I’ll give him my full support if Preece does play against Palace, but I won’t like it.
Finally, a little pick me up for all Barnsley fans, and something to use in work on Monday morning. We lost by 5 goals to the team 8 points clear at the top, while we had 10 men and our second choice keeper. Sheffield Wednesday lost by 5 to 5th bottom with a first team and 11 men last week. It’s not all bad.
Just to say that the final scoreline did not reflect the match as a whole. From the replays it does look like Lovenkrands dived and until that point you had contained our team quite well. I thought your forward (#27) was useless and the guy who came on and scored looked much better. Before the sending off you kept possession well and maybe if Bogdanovic started you would have had a more attacking threat. Good luck for the rest of the season.
Great fans, great effort … Lovenkrands penatly was questionable but keeper should NEVER have been sent off (silly rule) .. saying that you got what you deserved putting out such a defence minded team … i still think we would have beaten you with 11 men (dont make 10 men an excuse) – if you were at the game you will see that NUFC could have scored 10 or more if they’d had their shooting boots on. I agree with your comments on your sub keeper though; he was awful.
Chronic diver? Libelous slur with no foundation of truth! Do you know what chronic means?
I found a dummy on the quayside last night….. is it yours? Just wondered as it’s been spat a long way!
Agree totally with you, NUFC fan and P Love. I do think that even if the penalty had not been given you would have gone on to score and win, just only by 2 or 3 goals.
As for you, toonsy, there’s always one, and I guess it was you this week.
Terrible refereeing decision spoiled the game for me. Looked relatively even up until that point, although they had been backing off the Newcastle players too much and affording them too much respect.
Just wondered what your view on Anderson was though, thought he was poor myself and would have subbed him anyway at half time if it weren’t for Lovenkrands impersonation of Tom Daley. Also, Macken seemed to be playing at left back when he came on – just odd.
Even though the result/Anderson/Gray was shocking,it was a great day out.The first time to SJP,the toon fans were very friendly.Only complaint about SJP was the stewarding,they let our fans sit anywhere.When the 6 of us(3 adults 3 kids) got to our seats they were occupied,stewards & then police said if we don’t sit somewhere we’ll have to leave.Stood our ground,we weren’t being being split up.Ended up sat near toon fans.Fiendly banter,shame about result,an eventful day on the road following the SUPER REDS
Friendly banter should i say….
so which goal are you actually blaming preece for from where i was was sat (6 rows up from the pitch) he didnt have much of a chance with any of them. the whole team came out feeling sorry for itself and we got our just deserts.
so dont just blame preece grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I blame him primarily for the third goal and the fifth goal, both of which he should easily have got to.
On top of this, I can’t remember him making a single save, and his distibution was very poor.
He didn’t command his defence, and only came for one cross. Twice a Newcastle forward had a great chance of a cross he failed to come for.
I’m not just blaming Preece, look at the other ratings, but he was basically useless.
for the third didnt bobby let lovenkrands do exactly what he wanted before laying the ball back 20 yrds before the ball was smashed without challenge through a packed area
and the fifth was a hopeful punt that that two centre halfs failed to deal with and even the toon forwards didnt get a touch on it.
lets blame him for the sending of while we are at it and make his afternoon complete
pasted from:
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/07032010/63/ref-wrong-robins.html
It seems to me Mark Robin was either ignorant of the laws of football or he was just being mischievous; or even both. I have quoted the following laws from FIFA’s Laws of the Game 2007/2008 as authorised by the International Football Association Board (IFAB) for Mr Robin’s info. It says ..”A penalty kick is awarded against a team that commits one of the ten offences for which a direct free kick is awarded, inside its own penalty area and while the ball is in play”. Two of these 10 offences are:
• kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
• trips or attempts to trip an opponent
Newcastle fan here I was at the game, and have to say it was dead even and dead boring until the penalty incident. NEVER a penalty, but McLovenkrands didn’t dive either he tried to round the keeper and when he got past his legs just gave way and he fell over, didnt really appeal for a penalty but definitely didn’t complain, would you?
That obviously changed the game and your reserve keeper is absolutely awful and our players were wasteful I thought. You never know with 11 men you would have give us a good game, I was expecting a tough match because I was at the game down Baaaaaaarnsley and it was a hard match. Good luck with the rest of the season, especially against West Brom and Forest.
good write up, you’ve got talent. hope barnsley do well this year
“good write up, you’ve got talent.” I second that. Get your article sent in to a newspaper, it is so much better than the tripe they come up with.
Can i ask what you mean by “Perhaps it is the ridiculous view, perhaps it is the ridiculous stadium,” though.
Level 7 is a tad high but then try Celtic! St. James is in my view good, could be better, (make it the same all round), but never ridiculous.
Andy Burn, everyone knows that SJP would be better if it was the same all around, but there are planning restrictions which make that impossible. Even so it’s rated as one of the best grounds in the country.
Great write up and spoken with a great deal of honesty, though I do disagree with Lovenkrand being a diver (but can appreciate why you think that). But a BlythMagpie states the rules are trip or attempted trip and lovenlrand didn’t exactly throw himself to the ground but more stumbled and he cleared the keepers legs.
Either way thought it was harsh for the keeper to be sent off, but you had half time for the team to regroup and come out to defend. Instead you seem to have forgotten how to defend, the space we we’re afforded was unbelivable.
I was at the game and the first half was pretty evenly matched, thought we had more of the possesion. 2nd half we came out fighting and probably produced are best football this season and at times you couldn’t get close to us, but again the space we had gave the lads more time and space to set goals up.
Hard score line for you to stomach but wish you all the best for the rest of the season and hope Robins get’s the whole team practicing how to defend for the West Brom & Forest games
By ridiculous stadium I meant ridiculous in the way a goal can be described as hit from a ridiculous distance.
Easily the best I’ve seen in the Championship, better than most of the Premier League.
Thought that the signage for seat rows was “ridiculous”. Ambiguous at best, letters could have referred to either row, which led to lots of people being told to sit down (in seats where other people were sat) or threatened with being ejected – including a bloke and his six year old son near me.