It’s funny how things work out in football, but Newcastle’s match winner against Sunderland wouldn’t even have been on the pitch if Alan Pardew had managed to bring in a left back this week. As it was, Ryan Taylor scored a stunning free-kick midway through the second half to give the Magpies all three points as Newcastle beat Sunderland 1-0 at the Stadium of Light in today’s Premier League encounter.
As expected it was a fiery Tyne-Wear derby, which saw one Sunderland man get sent off and it should have been two. How Howard Webb and his assistants didn’t see Sebastian Larsson stop Joey Barton’s goal-bound header on the line with his arm I’ll never know, but luckily it didn’t cost Newcastle all three points. Sunderland did eventually have Phil Bardsley sent off for a second bookable offence late on.
Newcastle started the match sluggishly and Sunderland were well on top for the first 20 minutes. Then came the hand ball incident as Newcastle started to get back into the game and finished the half slightly stronger, although Asamoah Gyan could have put Sunderland ahead right on the stroke of half-time.
The Magpies controlled matters more in the second half and went ahead thanks to Taylor’s free-kick, which namesake Steven Taylor tried to claim, for a little while at least. Newcastle never particularly looked like conceding in the second half and substitute Dan Gosling could easily have made it 2-0 and eased the Toon Army’s nerves.
As far as a man of the match is concerned, I thought Yohan Cabaye had a much better game this week and imposed himself far more on the match. Jonas Gutierrez made some great runs in the second half and won the free-kick which resulted in the goal. Credit must ultimately go to Tim Krul and his defence, as back-to-back clean sheets for Newcastle is something of a rarity.
All in all it was a great result, and one that not even Webb could deny Newcastle. There’s no doubting that Pardew needs to bring in some more players, but it’s good to get the first win of the season under our belts, and even better that it came against Sunderland!
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blind officials still couldn’t rob the mighty toon from a well deserved win, is it just me or was there a retard convention at the stadium of shi*e today loads dressed in red and white watching the toon win again
Wasn’t Webb the ref. who denied us a perfectly good Viduka goal at SJP at the end of the relegation season? It technically cost us our place in the Premiership.
The guy is a disgrace.