Newcastle United - August 2010

Hi all, hope you are all fit and well. This was now my first month in the Premiership and the first month that I was going to steer the Magpies to my target of a mid-table position. The first game of the season couldn;t have been any better with a game against hated rivals Sunderland.

v Sunderland (a) Barclays Premiership

A better game couldn't have been chosen with the Tyne-Tees deby in the first game of the season. It was certainly a derby day atmosphere at the Stadium of Light and hopefully I could get a winning start for the black and whites. It was a typical derby day game with challanges flying in left, right and centre and amist all that chaos the visiting team took the lead. Wayne Routledge took up the ball on the halfway line, after skipping past two Sunderland defenders he played a lovely one-two with Macheda and he was through on goal one-on-one. He took that chance and the Toon had scored their first goal of the season. This had certainly suprised Sunderland and they got their way back into the game when the always reliable Darren Bent scored the equaliser. After a flick on by Kenwyne Jones fell to the feet of Bent he had only one thing on his mind and that was to blast the ball into the back of the net. Necastle continuted to push for the second goal but were kept being caught out on the quick break aways the only person that was stopping Sunderland taking the lead was the signing of my new keeper Consigli and I was delighted with him by the end of the game as we managed to hang on to the point in what was probablly a fair result in the end for both teams.

v West Ham (a) Barclays Premiership

We were on the road again for the second time in a week. Today we were at Upton Park for the game against West Ham who finished 12th last season. The game started off quietly and didn't really get going until the second half. West Ham took the lead in the 50th minute with a bit of a freak goal, my keeper just decided to stay on the line when Carlton Cole was rushing in and instead of my keeper narrowing the angle Cole had a lot of the goal to aim and score his first for the season. We got a goal back in the 73 minute with a superb free-kick from substitute Ryan Taylor which curled right into the top corner and the scores were level. This game finished 1-1 and we had got another point for the season. Next up was Doncaster in the League Cup.

v Doncaster (h) League Cup 2nd Round

I felt this was going to be quite an easy gam but still fielded a strong side just in case. I gave Stefano Okaka his first start for Newcastle and hopefully he will prove to me why I signed him. We took the lead when Dan Gosling got his first goal in the black and white. After a cross had been cleared by the head of Dean Shields the ball fell to Gosling and he unleashed a shot that rolled into the bottom corner. We progressed into the 3rd round when Okaka showed my when I chose him in the starting 11. Doncaster had been pushing for the equailser but when Okaka picked up the ball on the halfway line I knew we got our second goal with only one defender to beat he placed the ball into the bottom corner from just outside the box. Next up was my first home league game of the season against Bristol City.

v Bristol City (h) Barclays Premiership

After gaining my first win of the season against Doncaster in the League Cup we were all set to add to that when we faced Bristol City who were one of the team that were promoted with Newcastle at the end of last season. The Newcasle fans saw their first Premiership goal at home in the 11 minute when defender Nicolas Birdisso got on the end of a Danny Guthrie corner to head the Toon into a 1-0 lead. The game became end-to-end and both keepers were haing a blinder lukily for me the Bristol City keeper was the busiest. We got our second with basically the last kick of the game when a goal from another Danny Guthrie corner was headed in this time by Steven Taylor and our first league win came in our first home game of the season.

August Results

A decent start to my first Premier League season with an unbeaten month. Hopefully I can achieve what I want this season and get a mid-table finish. With results like this I think that will be a possibility.

 

Thanks for reading

Warren