3rd Round
 

Season 2008-2009

HULL CITY

0 v 0

NEWCASTLE UNITED

         
     
  Date: Saturday 3rd January 2009
  Venue: KC Stadium
  Kick Off: 3:00pm (BST)
  Australian Live TV: Setanta Sports (Delayed)
  Attendance: 20,557
  Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)
  Read Match Preview  
   

Hull: Duke, Doyle, Turner, McShane, Ricketts, Fagan (Halmosi 73), Giannakopoulos, Boateng, Marney, Geovanni, Cousin (King 73)

Subs Not Used: Ashbee, France, Zayatte, Warner, Featherstone
  Booked: Giannakopoulos, McShane, Fagan, Geovanni
   

Newcastle: Given, Coloccini, Bassong, Taylor, Jose Enrique, Duff, Guthrie, Butt, N'Zogbia (Gutierrez 36), Owen, Carroll

Subs Not Used: Harper, Xisco, Geremi, Kadar, Edgar, LuaLua
  Booked: Butt, Gutierrez
     
 

Post Match Comments:

 Hull boss Phil Brown:
"Both sides endeavoured to win the game, no doubt about it.

"I am pleased with the performance. It is getting the balance right between entertaining, winning football and that clean-sheet mentality.

"In the last two games we have got back to that ugly side of the game."

Newcastle assistant Chris Hughton:
"I think given the fact that we are the away side coming here, probably we edged it, certainly on scoring chances.

"We are probably more aggrieved we didn't come away with the win.

"But they are a very good side and showed they have a good squad. It was a typical cup tie."

 
     
 

 
     
  Match Report:  
  We really should have won this one. Michael Owen had a golden opportunity in the first half when he outpaced two Hull defenders and lifted his shot over their onrushing keeper. Surprisingly though the shot fell wide. It really was a golden chance, and you'd fancy Owen to take it 9 times out of 10.

In the second half Newcastle were denied what appeared to be a straight-forward penalty decision, when the Hull keeper miss-kicked a back pass, with Owen the first to get to the ball as it descended. The keeper clattered into Owen coming nowhere near the ball, and Owen went to ground. Astonishingly the referee failed to give the penalty.

There was plenty of other chances in the game for Newcastle as well, however Hull came the closest to scoring. Given got his fingers to a low drive from Cousins forcing it into the post. Later on it was only Damien Duff's header off the line that kept Newcastle's clean sheet. The ball came off the top of Duff's head and hit the post and cross bar before spinning sideways across to Given who dived on the ball with relief. The higher-than-usual camera angle made it look as though the ball had crossed the line (and the commentators originally thought the same) so it was a painful moment to watch. Upon reviewing the replays the linesman got it right as the ball at no stage crossed the line in it's entirety.

Damien Duff had an excellent game for Newcastle, beating his opposing player on many occasions, and playing some quality passes. Jonas Gutierrez came on as a substitute for an injured Charles N'Zogbia, with the Frenchman suffering a hamstring problem as the result of Boateng leading with his knee in an aerial challenge. The injury didn't look to be particularly bad as N'Zogbia played on for a few minutes before being substituted, so hopefully it was a precautionary move and he won't be out for too long.

In the second half Duff and Jonas switched sides with Duff playing down the right and Jonas down the left. It turned out to be a great move, as Jonas terrorised Hull's right hand side. Nonetheless Newcastle could not get the all important goal meaning that we'll now have an extra fixture to play in a little over a week. Honestly we could have done without squeezing an extra game into this already busy time of the year - particularly with our injury ravaged squad.

Our worst player far and away was Nicky Butt who in my opinion has been absolutely terrible in his last three matches (Wigan, Liverpool and now Hull). Twice he was horribly caught out dallying on the ball in the middle of the field. The second time we were highly fortunate not to concede. The fact that a player so badly out of form, and off the pace is still being played for us in such a prominent position as centre midfield is testament to just how thin our squad is.

In direct contrast Danny Guthrie had an excellent match for us despite the Hull fans booing and jeering whenever he touched the ball (as a result of Guthrie's disgraceful tackle on Hull forward Fagan a few months back at SJP).		  
 

AUSSIE MAGS By DjBigK