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Probably a point gained. With Nottingham Forest losing at Preston N.E. we extend our advantage over them to 9 points with a far superior goal difference. That now means it will take them 4 games to overtake us and they only have 10 left to play. The closing line is in sight.
Fitz Hall came in for the injured Mike Williamson and Routledge and Jose Enrique were kept on the bench- well no they weren’t actually, they were made to run up and down the touchline for most of the afternoon. There is some mystery as to why when we play away from home, we adopt some kind of ‘containing’ policy against the opposition. A top of the league side ‘containing’ a team who hover between 10th and 12th is very odd to say the least. Again we gave in to temptation to fire long and high balls at a Teflon coated Andy Carroll. We surrender far too much of the ball with this tactic and in doing so, invite pressure on ourselves. We took the lead after some neat play by Gutierrez was followed up with a neat reverse pass to Lovenkrands who slotted it past the advancing Coyne and into the far corner. But ‘Boro and Barry Robson in particular were causing us problems, Harper made a splendid save from a Robson free kick and with half time approaching the home side levelled. Robson exchanged passes with Scott McDonald and then rifled in a shot which Steve Harper barely saw.
The second half was bossed by the home side. We struggled to gel and we were forced to re-shuffle our defence when Coloccini limped off. We ended up with Danny Simpson going to left back- so if Enrique is so knackered he cant play when we need a defender then running up and down the touchline all day seems a little bit mad! The best chances fell to Boro, Arca was denied in a 1 on 1 by a great save from Harper. Wheater fired over the bar when well placed, but Kadar almost put us back in front when he rose from a corner to fire in a cracking header, but Coyne saved well. A shocking mix up left McDonald to turn the ball home from close range but we did drag a point out of the bag when Ryan Taylor sent in a right wing cross which Carroll finished with his left foot.
Not the worst result in the world, but I hope we don’t go looking to ‘contain’ Bristol City next Saturday, they should worry about us. Before then it’s Scunthorpe on Wednesday and we’ll have the benefit of seeing our rivals play on Tuesday night. With Forest’s current away form being poor they travel to Barnsley whilst WBA travel to Swansea City. This could be a good week for us.
Newcastle Team:
Harper,
Simpson, BOOKED
Hall, BOOKED
Coloccini, (Ryan Taylor 50 mins)
Kadar, BOOKED
Pancrate, (Best 78 mins)
Nolan, (Captain)
Guthrie,
Gutierrez,
Lovenkrands (Butt 70 mins)
Carroll. BOOKED
Subs not used:
Krul,
Enrique,
Routledge,
Ranger.
Middlesbrough:
Coyne,
Naughton,
McManus,
Wheater,
Taylor,
Robson,
Williams,
O'Neil,
Arca,
Killen,
McDonald.
Subs not used:
Jones,
Hoyte,
Riggott,
Lita,
Miller,
Bennett,
Franks.
Referee: Lee Mason- An absolute clown!!!!
Man of the Match: Harper, kept us in it.
Attendance: 24,342
League Position: 1st
