Newcastle United - Feburary 2011

Hi all, hope you have all been well and welcome back to the latest installment of my Newcastle United blog. I was currently 9th in the league and was chasing a european place. I will start off the month with a replay of the 4th round of the FA Cup to play Blackburn then tavelling down to the Emirates Stadium to face Arsenal before a game against Wolves at St.James then a league game agianst Blackburn and finishing off the month against Fulham and Wigan.


v Blackburn (h) FA Cup 5th Round replay

The first game of Feburary saw us in a 5th round replay against Blackburn. I was really hoping to progress as I would face Liverpool in the next round a team that I haven't beaten yet and have knocked me out of every cup so far in my 2 years at the club. The game never really got out of first gear and unsuprisinly the game finished 0-0 at full time and 0-0 at the end of extra time. The tie was now going to be decided by a penalty shoot-out. I was really pleased with my team as we managed to score all 5 penalties and that put us in with a excellant chance of winning the penalty. This was the case as it was Kalinic of Blackburn Rovers who missed the decisive penatly after Consigli guessed the right way. We were in the quarter finals and I think we had a really good chance of progressing. Next up was Arsenal at the Emirates.

v Arsenal (a) Barclays Premiership

I was fully expecting for this to be a very tough game and it turned out tht way as Arsenal lay seige to our goal but their was some inspired saves but Andrea Consigli who had performed well during the season but he was now really showing me why I bought him and it looked like nothing was ever going score against him. I thought my defence as brilliant and showed why we e in the position that we are in. We had a few chance on the counter attack but they never really looked like threatening Almunia. We had grounded out a result against one of the best teams in the league.

v Blackburn (h) Barclays Premiership

I was now facing Blackburn in the league and I was looking to win every game as possible from now if I had any chance of gaining a european spot for next season. I did take till the second half for the game to get its first goal and it came from Jonas Gutierrez. A delightful pass from Davi played in Jonas and he had the simpliest of tasks to put the ball in the back of the net. I thought that we were annoyingly were only going to get a point when Kalinic scored in the 84th minute with a free header in the 6 yard box after a deep Pedersen cross but in the 88th minutes an unlikely scorer of Fabricio Coloccini got his head first to a Ryan Taylor corner and we were back in the lead and were heading for another home win. These were the games that I really need to pick up points from as I had a difficult end to the season ahead of me but I was going to take the season game by game.   

v Fulham (a) Barclays Premiership

I now faced a league game against Fulham, I was expecting this to be a hard game as Fulham are known to be a hard team to break down especially at home. I was then suprised to see that we had taken the lead in the 3rd minute of the match. Some good one touch passing from my midfielders and a cheeky thoughball for Carroll and he found himself one-on-one and he lashed the ball into the top corner. After the goal we decided to keep the ball and Fulham were having to work hard to try and get it back it was a real dogged performance and we secured the game in the 83 minute when Carroll got his second of the game from a Routledge cross he powered in a heder from 8 yards out. Fulham did get a consolation in the 93 minute when Zoltan Gera rounded the keeper to slot the ball in the back of the net. It was another 3 points and three points closer to the european places. 

v Wigan (a) Barclays Premiership

My final game of the month took me to the DW Stadium to face to Wigan side who were just above the relegation places. When we got there the first thing we noticed was the state of the pitch, it was getting to the end of the season and with a seasons amount of game played on this pitch you could say that it was slightly worn out. I felt that because of this we needed to chance our tactics as the pitch would not let us play our usual "carpet football." After 5 minutes I needed to reshuffle the team as Coloccini had picked up an injury and needed to be taken off. I decided to give Kadar a chance to prove why I should keep him at the end of the season. He played well and I was satifised with the performance of the teams ecpect the forwards they had too many chance that weren't converted and this cost me the three points and could also cost me a place in europe next season.

Feburary League Table

With only 9 games left of the season. I was currently three points away from a european spot I needed a good end to the season as it is looking like a unlikely option with the teams I still have to play in the league.

Thanks for reading, next blog will be here soon

warren