Articles 
Well, after the self inflicted away game blips, we have achieved our target of 6 home points in a week. Preston weren’t up to much to be honest but they still needed beating.
Alan Smith was brought in for the injured Wayne Routledge, but we were ahead after only 3 minutes. Only Peter Lovenkrands knows whether he meant to chip Andy Loneghan or sling in a cross, but his left foot sent the ball arching over the ‘keeper and into the far corner of the Leazes end net. Harper repelled a Parkin shot brilliantly. Andy Carroll got his feet all muddled up and couldn’t put the ball into an empty net, then Loneghan turned into Superman for 5 minutes, first he dove full length to keep out a Smith volley from the edge of the area and then he somehow denied Williamson his first goal for the club when the big defender rattled a header at the target. Just on the half time whistle Jon Parkin waddled his portly frame into some space on the right side of our area and volleyed just wide of Harper’s right hand post.
After a few long range efforts which caused only minimal concern for the visitors we went 2-0 up when a Nederland’s ’74 esque move was finished off by Kevin Nolan. Passes were exchanged at pace and when Smith dinked the ball through Nolan deftly chipped the ‘keeper. After Guthrie tried a shot fom distance and Carroll fired a crazy wide volley high into the Gallowgate end we gave our goal distance a boost when for the second time in a week Pancrate went down the right and picked out Ryan Taylor, who sent a first time blast into the net for 3-0.
After ‘missions complete’ in our 2 home matches it’s back on the road to Watford next week who will have midfielder Tom Cleverly suspended, which has got to be good news for us.
Newcastle Team:
Harper,
Simpson, BOOKED
Williamson,
Coloccini,
Van Aanhort:
Guthrie, (Pancrate 89 mins)
Nolan,
Smith,
Gutierrez: (Ryan Taylor 75 mins)
Carroll,
Lovenkrands (Best 14 mins)
Subs not used:
Krul
Kadar,
Hall,
Ranger.
Preston:
Lonergan,
Williams,
St. Ledger,
Mawene,
Jones,
Sedgwick (Treacy 61),
Coutts,
James,
Wallace,
Parkin,
Welbeck (Mellor 74).
Subs not used :
Henderson,
Hart,
Carter,
Chilvers,
Elliott.
Referee: Andy Penn
Man of the Match: Coloccini
Attendance: 45,525
League Position: 1st
