PL Match 24: Newcastle United Vs. Aston Villa. Sunday Feb 5th [R]

Mark Halsey the ref.

Shay Given returns.

Thx,

Jay!

NUFC XI vs. AVFC - Krul - Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Santon - R.Taylor, Guthrie, Perch, Gutierrez - Best, Ba

NUFC bench vs. AVFC - Elliot, Ferguson, Gosling, Ben Arfa, Obertan, Shola Ameobi, Cisse.

Aston Villa starting line-up: Given, Hutton, Dunne, Warnock, Clark, Cuellar, Petrov, Ireland, N'Zogbia, Keane, Bent

Aston Villa substitutes: Guzan, Lichaj, Baker, Gardner, Bannan, Weimann, Heskey.

Game is on Fox Soccer Channel.

We really don't have the attacking flair in the game today to play a short controlled passing game. This whole pass it back-pass it back-hoof it up because there is no other option is going to catch up with them.

12' Bent (ours) off.

Cisse coming on.

Cisse on for Best

Krul with a huge save to keep it scoreless

16' Cisse gets his first chance, a header saved by Given.

I like Newcastle's defensive shape so far. They are defending as a unit and not leaving Colo and Willo alone with Bent who we all know has them in the speed category.

I hope Sham-eobi and LessthanBest were watching that Cisse header for his first SOG, that's what a header on frame looks like boys.

Man do we need someone in this game up can open things up and beat an opponent off the dribble.

So far Perch is giving a pretty good impression of Tiote in his destroyer role.

28' Dunne cuts a nice pass in to Bent on the fly past Willo, great save by Krul.

Gotta watch out for Keane. I fear he may come up with something special if we don't stake ourselves to a good lead.

Ba cleans up the garbage in the penalty area. Cost: Raylor may be out, too.

The Ba Machine just keeps rolling.

Raylor looks like he took a pretty serious knock. Uh-oh, stretcher time. Hope its not too bad.

I'm guessing Raylor just broke his ankle. The way their holding it and waiting for a boot. I'm guessing broken.

I know Obertan scored but would rather see HBA at this point at RM.

They're strapping the splint/air cast on. May not be a good thing.

34'+ Obertan on.

38' Simmo with the pull-back. Yellow.

39' Dunne with a yellow for clattering Jonas.

We're marauding down the right with Obertan, Ba & Cisse right now. Need to be solid at the back to watch the counter.

45+1 (of 6) Cisse nearly takes down a cross inside the six. Manages to force it wide.

45+3 Demba with a cheeky header that almost finds the upper 90.

45+5 N'zog streaks inside the box and finds Robbie Keane. 1-1

Crap, defense caught flat footed on the over lapping run. Keene with the touch finish for the cross and we go into HT tied.

Obertan is adding something to the offense, but his runs are constantly taking him out of position and leaving the right wing open to counter attacks and the ability to be overrun with numbers quite easily.

Halftime.

Exactly what I feared would happen, did. Keane takes a nothing chance, finds an unmarked Zog who beats Simmo & Colo and returns the ball to Keane who ran between Willo & Santon to net the tying goal.

Strangely enough, we've been better since Cisse and Obertan came on, but I think our attack/possession play never got a chance to gel due to the injuries. We should be stronger at the back, and for the most part we were, with everyone in the back plus Perch stepping up and defending well, until the breakdown at the end of a very long half. Maybe they were gassed, or looking forward to tea and orange slices. But we got done at the end. And Villa always looked better going forward in this game. Maybe we'll just have to win it 4-3 or something like that.

Bannan on for an injured Ireland at the half.

I am beginning to think if Guthrie could actually get a shot on frame we should count that as a goal.

If the team scores, the ball is going to come from the left or from a ball over the top. Obertan has reverted back to his turnover machine form and is basically a black hole for possession going forward at the moment.

That pull back for Cisse was nice, just not on the same page with the new boy.

62' Cisse dinks a header over the bar. Our best chance in a while.