Barclays Premiership - Match 11
 

Season 2008-2009

NEWCASTLE UNITED

2 v 0

ASTON VILLA

  Obafemi Martins 60
Obafemi Martins 83		    
     
  Date: Monday 3rd November 2008
  Venue: St James' Park
  Kick Off: 8:00pm (BST)
  Australian Live TV: Foxsports 1
  Attendance: 44,567
  Referee: Steve Bennett (Kent)
  Read Match Preview  
   

Newcastle: Given, Beye, Coloccini, Taylor, Jose Enrique, Gutierrez, Barton, Butt, Duff, Martins (Cacapa 88), Ameobi (Owen 90)

Subs Not Used: Harper, Guthrie, Bassong, N'Zogbia, Geremi
  Booked: Beye, Barton, Martins, Ameobi
   
Aston Villa: Friedel, Luke Young, Cuellar, Laursen, Shorey (Sidwell 72), Milner, Reo-Coker (Harewood 85), Barry, Ashley Young, Agbonlahor, Carew

Subs Not Used: Guzan, Davies, Knight, Salifou, Gardner
  Booked: Barry, Luke Young, Sidwell
     
 

Post Match Comments:
Newcastle first-team coach Chris Hughton:
"They had the better of the early chances but we held on until half-time. But we are getting stronger and fitter and that helps and it showed tonight.

Obafemi Martins is capable of scoring and with his quality and his pace it is no surprise he is scoring.

We've been able to get some results and that breeds confidence."
List in full to Chris Hughton

Toon stopper Shay Given said:
"The most important thing was the win and that was massive for us.

We played very well as a team and deserved the three points. They're a good team and are doing well so to get the win was huge because we'd found ourselves at the bottom going into the game which wasn't nice.

Credit to Oba it was a great first goal and he's added the second which gave us that cushion we needed.

It's been a while, I must admit, but it's great to keep a clean sheet. It's something to build on because we'd like to keep a lot more clean sheets.

It was nice to keep it out because had they gone one up then it could have been different. But if we do our job at the back then we know we've got the players to grab a goal at the other end.

It wasn't about me playing my 450th game, it was about the club because it was a huge game to get us out of the bottom three.

Now we have to look to the next game at Fulham and try to make it three wins on the spin."

Newcastle's Senegalese right-back Habib Beye said:
"We can really build on this. When you win games, you can't wait for the next one to come round and that is how we feel against Fulham.

If we work like this every game we can have some good results. It's great for the team to be scoring goals again.

And for the defenders and Shay Given to be keeping clean sheets.

It was a good time to win for us. Before the game we were bottom of the table. It's never good to see a club like Newcastle United in this position. That made it doubly important for us to win.

This result is a great one for us. But we know the hard work is just starting."

Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill:
"The first half was excellent and we deserved to go in front, but we are instead left to rue the chances we would normally take.

They were big moments in the game, hitting the post and Gabriel Agbonlahor missing a chance he'd usually score.

But when they scored, it became a fatal blow, not just a setback."
List in full to Martin O'Neill

  
     
  BBC Sport Player Rater man of the match:
Aston Villa's Ashley Young on 7.44 (on 90 minutes)		  
     
 


 
     
  Match Report:  
  An Obafemi Martins double earned Newcastle United victory against Aston Villa to lift the Magpies out of the bottom three on Monday night.

Martins first goal came on the hour mark, Joey Barton found Martins with an accurate long ball on the edge of the Villa box and the Nigerian superbly cut inside Martin Laursen before rifling a low drive past Brad Friedel.

With seven minutes to go Martins wrapped the game up.  An interchange between Damien Duff and Jonas Gutierrez, freed Guiterrez down the left wing, the Argentinean beat the challenge of Nigel Reo-Coker before cutting the ball back to Martins, who made no mistake from close range.

However, things could have been so much different if Villa, and Gabriel Agbonlahor in particular, had taken their chances in the first half.

Laursen had the visitors' first real chance, heading Gareth Barry's 11th-minute corner against the post.

Ten minutes later Gabriel Agbonlahor had Villa's best chance of the half but the normally reliable striker missed the ball altogether from close range after Ashley Young had played him in.

Just before the break Agbonlahor turned provider, playing in Ashley Young, but Newcastle keeper Shay Given was equal to the effort with a point-blank block.

Newcastle interim boss Joe Kinnear will have been pleased with his sides response after the break, with home team putting a dominant second half performance to run out winners.

This 2-0 victory was the Toon's second consecutive victory, and only its third of the season, while that makes it 16 wins from 31 games against Villa in the Premier League.		  
 

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