Season 2010/2011 – Match 9

Date: Sunday 23rd October 2010
Kick-off: 5:30pm (GMT)
Venue: Upton Park
Attendance: 34,486 including 2,950 travelling supporters
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)

Teams
West Ham: Green Jacobsen, da Costa, Upson (Ilunga 53), Gabbidon, Behrami (Barrera 76), Parker, Noble, Obinna, Cole, Piquionne (McCarthy 67).
Subs Not Used: Stech, Ben-Haim, Boa Morte, Faubert

Goals: Cole 12

Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Barton, Nolan, Tiote, Gutierrez, Carroll, Ameobi.
Subs Not Used: Soderberg, Guthrie, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Perch, R. Taylor, Smith

Goal: Nolan 23, Carroll 69

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton said afterwards:

“It’s been a tough week and that was a big win. My position is completely different, but I’m delighted for this group of lads. It’s a very spirited group of players and staff that we’ve got. Whenever they have been questioned they have generally come up trumps. It’s difficult to single out anyone because it was a good team performance. West Ham is not an easy place to come and when the team sheets go up you see the quality that they have. I think that was the best performance of my time here. No disrespect to the Championship – where we had some tremendous performances – it is hard in the Premier League and it means that little bit more. It was definitely the best performance of the season so far.”

Match Report
Newcastle United recorded their 250th Premier League victory with a 2-1 win over West Ham United at Upton Park on Saturday. After going down to a early goal by Carlton Cole Newcastle came back to claim victory thanks to goals from Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll.

Manager Chris Hughton decided against playing his usual 4-4-1-1 away formation and resorted to a more traditional 4-4-2. Carroll was partnered upfront by Shola Ameobi, while the returning Nolan was moved back into centre midfield with Joey Barton moving out right at the expense of Danny Guthrie.

The Hammers started the better of the two teams, the home side finding too much space in behind the Newcastle back four as the pace of winger Victor Obinna and striker Frédéric Piquionne exposed the Magpies high defensive line. Twelve minutes in and West Ham’s pressure told, Mark Noble feed Obinna down the left flank and the wingers perfect cross found Cole in the box who had a simple tap-in.

After what was a shaky start for Newcastle the West Ham goal seemed to inspire the Toon as they then started to dominate, and only 11 minutes later the match was level at 1-1. A Barton right wing cross found Carroll at the back post and the big strikers knock down fell to Nolan who smashed home a first time left-foot strike.

The second half saw why West Ham are bottom of the Premier League. A thoroughly inept performance by the home side was taken advantage of by Newcastle who again dominated the half without playing having to much top quality football. Midfielder Cheik Tiote bossed the midfield, and as usual Jonas Gutierrez & Jose Enrique caused plenty of problems down our left-flank.

On 69 minutes Newcastle got the goal their dominance deserved. Barton was again the provider, another perfect right wing cross found the unmarked Carroll who headed home from 5 yards out. After a difficult week for Carroll this was the perfect way to round it off, and with Nolan scoring Newcastle’s other goal it meant celebrations around in the Nolan household.

This was the result Newcastle needed leading into a massive week with games against arsenal in the Carling Cup and the derby match at the weekend. Chris Hughton will be happy with his teams performance and pleased with his teams response to his 4-4-2 formation.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

Season 2010/2011 – Match 9

West Ham United (a)

Date: Sunday 24th October 2010
Venue: Upton Park
Kick-Off: 3:30am (AEDT), 3am (SA), 2:30am (QLD), 2am (NT), 12:30am (WA)
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Newcastle United
PL – Wigan (h) D 2-2
PL – Man City (a) L 1-2
PL – Stoke City (h) L 1-2
CC3 – Chelsea (a) W 4-3
PL – Everton (a) W 1-0

West Ham
PL – Wolves (a) D 1-1
PL – Fulham (h) D 1-1
PL – Spurs (h) W 1-0
CC3R – sunderland (a) W 2-1
PL – Stoke (a) D 1-1

Match Stats:
All time – West Ham 37 win, draws 35, Newcastle 47 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

West Ham $2.30, Draw $3.20, Newcastle $3.20

Did You Know?
Andy Carroll scored his first ever Premier League goal against West Ham in a 2-2 home draw back in January 2009.

Team News:
West Ham welcome back England defender Mattew Upson who missed last weeks game at Wolves, while former Magpie Kieron Dyer should face his former club after regaining his place in the starting line-up. Zavon Hines and Jack Collison are both our with long term knee injuries.

Newcastle United are again without injury victims Dan Gosling, Hatem ben Arfa, Leon Best, Stephen Harper and Steven Taylor. Sol Campbell is out with a new thigh injury, while right-back Danny Simpson should return to the starting XI after three successive reserve team outings and captain Kevin Nolan has been declared fit.

Match Preview
Newcastle United travel down to London to take on West Ham United looking for their first win in four games and their 250th in the Premier League.

Despite being bottom of the league West Ham have recovered well from losing their opening four games and are now unbeaten in four matches, including victories over sunderland in the Carling Cup and against Spurs. A win for the Hammers would take them above Newcastle and round off a miserable week for manager Chris Hughton. Unbeaten in their last three matches against Newcastle confidence will be high in the hammers camp.

There has been plenty of off field distractions for Hughton with assistant manager Colin Calderwood leaving to become the new manager of Hibernian and striker Andy Carroll appearing in court charged with assaulting his former girlfriend.

With only 1 point in the last three games and without a victory for over a month, Hughton has some serious decisions to make with regards his team line-up. Hughton claims Carroll is in the right frame of mind to play, but with the striker due in court again on Monday (facing a separate assault charge) and given his car was torched by vandals the other day, he would be forgiven for resting his number 9 especially considering Shola Ameobi has found the back of the net in recent weeks.

Hughton also needs to decide whether to switch away from his favoured 4-4-1-1 away formation in search of a much needed victory. The returning Kevin Nolan means Hughton can easily play that formation, but whether he gambles and plays a second striker will probably depend on whether he chooses to start Carroll.

In defence James Perch has been slaughtered of late after a string of poor performances, so given Danny Simpson has now played three reserve team games the time is right for Simpson to come into the team and give Perch a much needed rest.

After the exploits of Charles N’Zogbia last week, the Toon Army will be fearing they don’t experience the same fate this week from another former player in Kieron Dyer. Dyer moved to West Ham for £6m in 2007, but there have been few positives to his West Ham career which has been blighted by injuries. Dyer missed the entire 2007-08 season after a double leg break in pre-season and he didn’t return to first-team action until January 2009. Having made 6 starts already this season the 31-year-old appears to be over his nightmare, but lets hope he doesn’t find he goalscoring boots just yet.

A massive game for Newcastle then, with home matches against Arsenal in the Carling Cup and the big derby against sunderland coming up this week, the team needs to find back some sort of it’s early season form and rhyme quickly, as three more defeats this week would spell disaster for everyone at the club.

HOWAY THE LADS!!!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army