It’s always a thrill to watch a derby match between Newcastle and Middlesborough/Sunderland, and boy did I nearly have a heart attack from watching the match yesterday against Sunderland.
Moments after kick off, Emre was felled by Whitebread, earning the first yellow card of the game. Emre would continue to be the target man for most of the match. On the other end, Scott Parker was unfortunate to be yellow carded by Rob Styles for a foul which wasn’t.
After a fierce intense midfield battle between the two sides for 33 minutes, Ameobi started the fireworks with a well struck header to the bottom left of Kevin Davis’s goal, but just after the re-start, Lawrence squared a perfect shot to give the Black Cats the equaliser. However, just two minutes after that, Ameobi once again scored with a header into the exact same corner as he did earlier. But, the defence struggled, and Elliot made the most out of it to score a wonderfully taken goal to level things out.
This 8 minutes almost gave me a heart attack.
Anyways, the 2nd half started with Sunderland very much in control, and they were playing with desire, unlike Newcastle. But, in the 63rd minute, Ameobi was felled by his former teammate Caldwell. Emre, Solano and Shearer all stood around the ball, and Emre was the one who struck the ball … sweetly if I may add … into the goal, with Davies full stretched.
Taylor was unfortunate not to carry on his 2 goal England U-21 heroics with a goal off another Emre pass, and Newcastle were lucky to get all 3 points after Elliot struck the crossbar with his attempt at goal, which btw would have been a superb goal if he did score.
How many times have I seen the opposition strike the goal post at St. James’s Park? Countless!
My man of the match would have been Emre, as was the club sponsor’s choice. And if I had to choose a weak link of the match, it would have been Boumsong. The way he played really made Steven Taylor stand out. He was slow to the ball, and gave away so many passes.
Another point to highlight would be the heartening fact that I saw Owen celebrating with his daughter when Emre scored. Who said the lad didn’t have passion for the club?
Hope that Newcastle can continue to score more goals with the midfield getting fit again.