Newcastle United - October 2009

Hi and welcome back to my football manager story of my beloved Newcastle United team. After two very good months at the start of the season. I moved into the third with a five point gap and I was hoping to extend that lead at the top of the table. First game of the month was against Bristol City at home.

v Bristol City (h) Coca-Cola Champoinship

This game has to be one of the wierdest ever. I say this because it must of been the most exciting 0-0 draw there has ever been. Both teams created a lot of chances but neither converted it was really a mixture of poor finishing and brilliant goalkeeping. Surpisingly Steve Harper was the busiest of the two keepers and he rightly was given MOM at the end of the game. The only real major talkn point was a first ever career red-card for Wayne Routledge for an elbow on Bristol City player Evander Sno. The disapline of my team was starting to worry me as thiswas already my third red card of the season.

v Nottm Forest (a) Coca-Cola Championship

Now for what is the biggest game so far this season away to Nottm Forest and a chance to put a real gap in the Championship table. As expected the game started off in a frantic fashion and there were many tackles flying in from both side and it had all the characteristics of being a really exciting match. 10 minutes in and the game got its first goal. After Shola Ameobi's shot was initially saved by Lee Camp the ball came into the path of Andy Carroll and he placed the ball into the empty net. Both teams created many chances but neither could capitialise and the score at half time was 1-0. We then doubled our lead in fantastic fasion, when Jose Enrique's long pass down the line fell to Jonas, the Argentinian dodged one tackle before expertly curling the ball into the back of the net. The second goal really killed off any threat that came from Nottm Forest and we coompleted the scoring when a Routledge corner was met by the head of Steven Taylor and he grabbed his first of the season. This was an excellant result and I was pround of all my players we were now 7 points ahead of Forest. Next game saw us travel to Scunthorpe and Glanford Park.

v Scunthorpe (a) Coca-Cola Championship

We arrived at Glanford Park full of confidence and we expected three points here but knew they could be tricky to get. We away support were given something to shout about in the 27th minute when Fabrice Pancrate opened the scoring. Newcastle kept the pressure going and we were soon rewarded. I had decided at the start of the game to give on-loan striker Joan Simun Edmunsson a place in the starting line-up. He showed we that that was a good decision and he scored on his debut after a throughball from Alan Smith he chipped the ball around the keeper for 2-0. A missed interception by Danny Simpson let in Gary Hooper and the Irons were back in with a shout at 2-1. It was then 3-1 in the 89th minute when after Scunthorpe were pressing for the equaliser a quick release of the ball from Steve Harper we were attacking the Scunthorpe 3 on 3. The ball was played into the path of Ryan Taylor and he finshed the game of to make it another win for the black and whites. The final goal came with thelast kick of the ball another header goal by Shola Ameobi and it was now 4-1. The final league game of the month was agianst Doncaster at home.

v Doncaster (h) Coca-Cola Championship

The game got off to flying start in the 2nd minute when a deep cross from winger Jonas Gutierrez fall right onto the head of Shola Ameobi and it was already 1-0. I had high hopes that this game could be a thrasing as Doncaster couldn't keep the ball at all and were all over the shop. We managed to score a second just before half-time whenater a long throw was flicked on by Andy Carroll the second ball fell to Alan Smith for an easy tap-in from 6 yards. After the second half Doncaster improved and it was a case of damage limitation for Doncaster and the rest of the game. This made me exeremly frustrated as it became very hard to break them down but we did still manage to get one more goal we Kevin Nolan's low driven shot hit the back of the net. The game finished 3-0 and we were looking more and more like a Premiership side as every win went by.

October Results

November Fixtures

 

Again quite a quiet month I am hoping of for 10 points this month.

League Table

This month took us to a four point lead over Nottm Forest and we didnt look like giving that lead up soon