So, Liverpool striker Andy Carroll’s return to Newcastle United and St James’ Park was an absolute nightmare for him; an afternoon that he’ll want to forget sooner rather than later.
However, I don’t think Newcastle fans should let Carroll forget today anytime soon, not because he had a bad game, but because he performed a simply atrocious dive.
Ten minutes weren’t even on the clock when the ball was played up to Carroll, who did well to win it in the air from Mike Williamson and then stride past James Perch.
As Carroll ran into the area he played it to the left of Tim Krul, but as the Dutchman withdrew from the challenge, the Liverpool striker disgracefully fell to the floor.
Here are the full highlights of the match, with the Carroll dive the first bit of action to be featured in the short video…
N2-0L footyroom.com by footyroom
Andy Carroll was deservedly given a yellow card for simulation by referee Martin Atkinson, and if refs could hand out red cards for diving I would have done so there.
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After the match, in regards to the incident Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish said: “I don’t think it was a penalty and I also don’t think he went down deliberately to get a penalty. He said he never went down, he stumbled over. It wasn’t a penalty.” Oh dear.
If that wasn’t a dive then I don’t know what is. Carroll’s afternoon didn’t get any better as he narrowly missed with a header before being substituted after 79 minutes and heading straight down the tunnel.
If there was any doubt as to whether Andy Carroll would get a good reception when he returned to St James’ Park, well after today’s antics, I don’t think there will be next time.
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Perch never went down deliberately either kenny, we were both robbed!
no one has yet suggested carroll did not want to score against his “real team” like chopra did not want too when playing for sunderland.
Any possibility this is true?
Interesting theory, not sure about that though.
You dont try to claim for a handball from simpson if you dont want to score. You could tell he was desperate to beat us.what kind of geordie does that.
Perch dive was just as bad if not worse than big Carroll’s. Carroll is a young lad, he’ll be back and better than ever soon enough. As soon as Liverpool start playing good next year so will he.