The Tigers attempted to turn around a poor run of form at the KC Stadium in the fourth meeting of the season with Newcastle United. Coming off the back of a fine win at Fulham, the City side had a renewed sense of self belief but still couldn't quite produce a winning performance in front of the home fans. Carding an unchanged team for the first time in months, City started well but allowed the visitors back into the game and never found another way through a fragile visiting defence.
The start was bright. City, playing a 4-4-2, looked nerveless and eager to play after yet another 10 day break. Geovanni continued where he left off at Craven Cottage and drove at them twice early on. On the third occasion, we took the lead. Geo picked the ball up 30 yards from our goal skipped past a challenge and motored into their half. He slid a great ball in behind Coloccini for Fagan to collect outside the area, on the left. Fagan steadied himself, held the ball up for just the right amount of time and swung a delightful left footed cross to the back post where Geovanni had continued his run and headed the ball beyond Harper. The goal was a fine one and the lead well deserved. However, from that point on, City never showed the same level of ambition. It felt as though we'd scored too early and didn't quite know how much to commit to attack. We sat further and further back, leaving the front players isolated and allowing Newcastle to get a foothold in the game. Martins hit a sighter just over with just about their first effort. They equalised midway through the half. Mendy had the ball on the halfway line with space to run into. For whatever reason, he chose not to move forward but to hold on to the ball and eventually played Kilbane into trouble on the left. From their, Newcastle kept us penned in and won a throw-in a short time later. It was thrown short to Butt, Zayatte stood off him and invited a cross and cross he did. Gardner and Ricketts were caught watching the ball as Steven Taylor ran in between them and lifted a volley over Duke. It was yet another wretched goal to give away. It's easy to see why we've ended up in the relegation battle. We gift team's goals. We were one up and coasting against a very mediocre Newcastle team and somehow contrived firstly to allow them into the game and then to score with the only decent chance they created in the half. It isn't a criticism of four guys at the back, it's the whole team. We stopped putting pressure on them, we stopped making things difficult for them and we allowed them back into the game. We should've buried them. Bassong and Martins apart, they were rotten.
Neither team really took control up to and after half time. Fagan and Cousin managed to cause trouble among their defence by putting pressure on Coloccini. Cousin had him rattled, he beat him in the air, he out-muscled him on the ground and when Geo skipped passed him on the left wing, he took him out and earned a yellow card. The most disappointing aspect of the second half was that we never put any pressure on him at all. We never gave Cousin anything to work from and we didn't put the ball in behind Coloccini, who'd looked terrified when facing his own goal. Germei was lucky to see half time. He'd already been booked when he tripped Geo 25 yards out as he raced towards a huge gap in the Newcastle defence. It was a second yellow without any doubt at all. The referee was Howard Webb. Supposedly the best referee in the country. If this clown is the best, we might as well give up now because football has no chance. For the second time in 2 months, Mr Webb put in a performance that wouldn't be acceptable on Sunday mornings. He isn't unfair; he's equally abysmal for both teams. Geovanni was unable to hand out his own form of punishment, curling the free-kick a foot or two wide.
Into the second half and chances were scarce at both ends. Newcastle played slower, neater football, while we played more directly. When we tried to play it around the midfield, we kept giving it back. Gutierrez got in behind Ricketts and saw his cross deflected into the grateful hands of Matt Duke. The same player then lashed the ball over from a short corner. Despite appearing to handle the ball twice, Martins was the next to go close, powering through Turner and Ricketts, basketball style, but losing control of the ball at the crucial moment. City made their first change after an hour or so, Manucho replacing Cousin, who hadn't really come out for the second half. The big man was involved in the best two chances of the game but was otherwise uninvolved, spending the last 20 minutes chasing shadows and sulking. A neat ball into Manucho found him and Fagan all alone in the box. Where the Newcastle defence had gone, I have no idea. With his back to goal, Manucho had to slide the ball sideways for Fagan to have a clear strike at goal, he just had to. Instead, he chose to turn and shoot. Terrible decision number one. In turning, his marker slipped but he didn't notice and struck a weak left footed shot when he could've advanced on goal. Terrible decision number two. Minutes later, a terrific ball from Ricketts found Mendy on the right, on side and with a clear path to goal. Instead of haring towards the target as he did against West Brom, Mendy slowed down, looked for Manucho in the middle and played an awful ball into Steve Harper's hands. Terrible decision number three. Despite both sides appearing to want to win the game, neither really created anything resembling a chance in the last 15-20 minutes. City were hampered by very poor use of the ball and poor distribution from the back line and the goalkeeper that didn't give the front players any chance whatsoever of hanging on to the ball.
Duke had a relatively quiet game. His handling was top notch and his short distribution was excellent, particularly his ability find Geovanni in space. Unfortunately his kicking was awful, carrying right through to Harper far too often. He took a massive hit from Bassong while jumping for a cross in the first half and Butt went in two footed on him in the second half. He jumped up on both occasions. I hereby nominate Matt Duke as the hardest man in the Premier League. Both full back's performed well. There wasn't a lot of protection in front of them, though Geo did his best. Ricketts in particular faced a very tricky foe in Gutierrez and came out on top more often than not. He played the best two passes of the match too, the first slid in Mendy and the second, a beautiful lofted ball found Fagan in acres of space but he strangely slowed up and allowed Enrique to rob him. Just one question for Ricketts; why does he never attack the south stand goal with the same verve as he does at the other end? It wasn't the first time this season that he's overlapped regularly in the first half but barely crossed the half way line in the second half. Turner was as solid as ever. One interception made whilst stretching full length in the first half was an awesome piece of defending. His heading is terrific, not only the percentage of headers he wins but he amount of times he finds a teammate with his head rather than nodding it hopefully back into the middle. Gardner should've done better for their goal and was caught chasing the ball out from corners again, a job that surely has to be done by someone else? Otherwise, he looked fine. We faced a big threat in their front two and kept them pretty quiet. As the game became stretched and some of our football became careless, they looked like they might threaten us but were well shackled by the back four who put everything into the game.
The midfield again looked disjointed just as it did against Fulham and for the same reasons. Zayatte doesn't look comfortable in there. He wasn't terrible, he made a lot of headers, won some decent challenges and worked his socks off but he just doesn't complement Ashbee. It's like having Yin and Yin. He wants to cover the same ground, he wants to sit in the same position and he wants someone else to carry the threat. As a result, Ash becomes far too important in an attacking sense and despite his willingness to have a go, just isn't up to dong that job. There was far too much space in front of the pair of them and Newcastle were able to pass under little pressure as a result. You can't have two midfielders playing so deep when you are only employing four across the middle. Individually, Ash had another fine game. He might even have scored but he was denied by an offside flag when running from deep. The linesman should have read the situation, it was obvious that Ash wasn't offside; he was just lightening quick over 20 yards and had caught everyone out. Geo did a similar job to the last game, picking up the ball out wide, drifting inside and running at defenders. He was very effective in the role again and if we could've found a way to keep feeding him, he might've caused havoc as their defence tired. Mendy was terrible again. Poor decision making, indecisive on the ball and totally hit and miss off it. Sometimes he'll make a run, sometimes he won't. Sometimes he'll track back, sometimes he won't. Sometimes he'll react … you get the point. I think the kids would call him "random", and not in a good way. Garcia didn't have the same effect as he did from the bench 10 days ago. Passed up a chance straight after his introduction, more indecision in the box. He was also booked for diving after a fine run had been halted by Nicky Butt's right leg. He was guilty of exaggeration but not cheating.
We saw both sides of Craig Fagan today. He was electric at times, never stopped running, made fine runs off the ball and provided a lovely assist for the goal. However, he had to be taken off before he was sent off, got involved in allsorts of stupid arguments and snatched at half chances. He was rather unfairly booed by the morons in the away end again. Apparently, having your leg broken is a crime in cloud cuckoo land, I mean Newcastle. Cousin was slow to get into the game in both halves but looked very good in the run up to half time. His clever run opened up the space for Geo before Geremi tripped him and he gave Coloccini a torrid time. Unfortunately, the half time whistle came at a time when Cousin was flying and the Argentine was 'on the ropes'. Barmby and Manucho appeared in the second half but neither really got involved. I wasn't impressed by Manucho's attitude. Whenever things don't go right for him, he'll run off in a strop chuntering to himself, even when there's still a ball to compete for. Being fair to him, the balls in to him were not of an acceptable standard and he did do a lot of running for nothing.
Whilst it's another home game without a win, it is another point on the board. Avoiding defeat was vital, just imagine the position we'd be in if we'd been able to take points form the games with Spurs and Blackburn. It was a much better point for us than Newcastle and we still have a pair of good home games as well as four winnable outings on the road to look forward to. The work ethic is very good and for the most part, we look solid at the back. We need to find a bit more balance in the midfield and I still think we could show more ambition. At 1-0 up against a poor side today, we could've killed them off. Sure, they might've hit us on the break, but we played a reserved game and still lost the goal. Just one last complaint. The lack of crosses. Against a midget goalkeeper and a dodgy centre half, we should've peppered them second half, instead we gave them as easy a time as they'll manage all season. Next we face a good but faltering Wigan side. We owe them one (or five), revenge would be sweet.
Ratings: Duke 6, Ricketts 7, Kilbane 7, Turner 8, Gardner 7, Mendy 5 (Barmby), Geovanni 7, Ashbee 7, Zayatte 6, Cousin 6 (Manucho), Fagan 7 (Garcia).