Unlucky Newcastle denied win! Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle

Simply the Best!
Both Aston Villa and Newcastle retained their unbeaten starts to the season at Villa Park this afternoon, but it should have been Newcastle who spoiled the party by claiming all three points from the second city.

The away side were much improved in comparison to recent performances and finally started to show glimpses of what some people have been saying all along – this team has potential.

Although it’s important not to get too carried after just one performance, irrespective of how impressive it was, I have to say that Yohan Cabaye was excellent in the middle of the park and was unlucky not to score at least one goal after forcing one fantastic save from Shay Given, cracking another fantastic shot off the Villa crossbar and wasting a glorious opportunity after his movement had created the perfect passing opportunity for Sylvain Marveaux to find him at the far post.

I’ll go into the match in a bit more detail below, but to highlight just how much the match was dominated by NUFC I thought I’d pluck some match stats from The Guardian out and present them to you before I get going on the report.

Aston Villa Newcastle
Shots at goal 11 22
Shots on target 2 6
Corners 4 9
Fouls 13 10
Bookings 1 1
Possesion 41% 59%

The visitors started off brightly and looked neat and assured in possession. Yohan Cabaye was first to have a crack at the Villa goal just six minutes in although his shot swerved wide of Shay Given’s right post. Ryan Taylor tried another one of his “over the wall” specials only for it not to be so special this time and actually find the wall instead, while Gabriel Obertan sent former Mag Shay Given backpeddling and forced him to tip over a dangerous shot-cum-cross.

All of that in the opening 12 minutes contributed to a bright start for Newcastle. It was more than just the attempts at goal that was impressive though as Newcastle controlled pretty much all of the opening exchanges with a combination of measured tackling and clever passing. It was much improved from Monday night at QPR, even at this early juncture.

The predictable kick in the nuts arrived soon after though when Barry Bannan crossed in from the left for Gabriel Agbonlahor who found his first time shot at goal blocked by Fabricio Coloccini. Unfortunately for the Argie the loose ball fell kindly for the Villa man who calmly slid the ball past Tim Krul from six or so yards out. By Colo’s usual standards it was an error and he could have dealt with it better first time round

I said at the time that I wondered if we would get back into the game. Despite the dominance, which continued after the Villa goal by the way, we never really looked like scoring. Essentially we weren’t doing anything wrong, it was just that the final pass or ball just wasn’t coming off for one reason or another.

It nearly hurt us further when Stiliyan Petrov squared the ball for Darren Bent eight yards out only for the former Mackem to scuff his shot wide when it seemed easier to score. With 26 minutes gone a second goal would have been terminal to our hopes of getting a draw. We escaped that one although it could be argued that with the way we had been paying we deserved a slice of luck.

Newcastle did have chances of their own however. Steven Taylor forced a fine save from Shay Given when he volleyed at goal from a Yohan Cabaye corner. Then Jonas Gutierrez spooned over from inside the box when he really should have tested the keeper before Demba Ba had a shot on the turn deflected over the bar.

It wasn’t enough though and the hosts went in for their half-time brew 1-0 up.

Villa made a better start to the second half and could have extended their lead had Agbonlahor not stabbed narrowly wide in the 47th minute. The home sides reprisal didn’t last long however and Newcastle were soon back on top with Yohan Cabaye and Cheik Tiote combining to great effect through the middle.

In fact it was the latter of the two who can claim an assist for the equaliser for their efforts. Yohan Cabaye smacked a shot towards goal which beat Shay Given all ends up only for the ball to bounce back off the crossbar. Cheik Tiote managed to get hold of the resulting loose ball and swung a cross in from the left for Leon Best who aimed his point blank header straight at Shay Given only to benefit from being in the right place in the right time for the rebound which was duly despatched into the back of the net.

I don’t know what it is about Best. He is by no means the ‘best’ player we’ve had, but he has a **** good knack of being in the right place at the right time. At this moment in time he is on course to better Andy Carroll’s Premier League goal return for us, in less games I’ll hasten to add.

From the moment Leon Best equalised there was only going to be one winner, and it wasn’t the home side. Newcastle continued to dominate although they nearly became the architects of their own downfall when a mistake by Steven Taylor allowed Darren Bent a shot at goal. Fortunately his chip had neither the power or direction to cost us which allowed Taylor to get back and make amends for his error.

Further chances followed for Newcastle through Yohan Cabaye who forced another fine save from Given after unleashing a fierce volley at goal. And the Frenchman very nearly opened his account his scoring account yet again for the Toon when his clever movement in the dying moments opened up a pass for Marveuax to find Cabaye at the far post although unfortunately he fired over after a nice little chest down.

There was even a moment of controversy when Sammy Ameobi had a fantastic goal disallowed thanks to the interference from the Assistant Referee who, despite being further away from the action than the actual referee, somehow managed to over-rule his superior which forced play to be called back after Ameobi Jnr had nailed the Villa defence and found the back of the net with an acute finish over Shay Given.

All in all it’s a point well deserved. We were very good today and could have easily taken all three points away from Villa Park. Still, we remain undefeated, and with a home game against Blackburn following the midweek trip to Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup we have the perfect opportunity to extend that run of unbeaten form.

Howay the lads!

Aston Villa: Shay Given, Alan Hutton, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Stephen Warnock, Barry Bannan, Stiliyan Petrov, Fabien Delph, Charles N’Zogbia, Darren Bent, Gabriel Agbonlahor

Subs: Brad Guzan, Nathan Delfouneso, Marc Albrighton, Ciaran Clark, Chris Herd, Shane Lowry, Gary Gardner

Newcastle United: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Steven Taylor, Ryan Taylor; Gabriel Obertan, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez; Demba Ba, Leon Best

Subs: Rob Elliot, James Perch, Danny Guthrie, Sylvain Marveaux, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

155 thoughts on “Unlucky Newcastle denied win! Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle

  1. Jeff spends the rest of the week looking at that dirty-fit blonde bird on Countdown doesn’t he?
    If you worked with her all week you could probably get a weekend job as Rose West’s childminder and it wouldn’t phase you that much.

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  2. Moreno:

    All the promoted teams won today. I think this will be a bizarre season where a team you don’t expect get relegated – maybe the Mackems.

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  3. Alright lads and lasses 🙂 What was Besty’s goal like, I happened to be out when it happened and missed it when I was in the car listening to 5Live.

    Sounded like Cabaye nearly scored, he looked very canny in the first half. He deserves to get one soon.

    Also thought that Tiote looked better than he had done but he can still lose the ball in positions but I thought he played a lot better than other games he has been in

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  4. I’ll have to stream it like but hey ho.

    Just to confirm Barca B play very much like the first team, cheat like **** and get every decision of the ref 🙄

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  5. Zoe….he had a close range header which he should have buried, Given saved it then Best got the rebound 😀

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  6. you mean you didnt have one owr hear,you get every sport channel loads of film channls every sky sports shows even about 400 channels all up,costs £15 a month guy next door has had one for about 3yrs now nee bother,son has it in malta he only pays 130 euros a year there the jammy git

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  7. GS good point about Krull rolling the ball out and the lads playing it on the ground. One of my criticisms of Given was he always kicked the long ball to get territorial advantage but 9 times out of 10 we lost possession.

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  8. Ice @ 100 I seen that so that should give him plenty of confidence.
    As I said earlier I think he is good at man managment and knows how to get the best out of his players

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  9. DAVE hope he gives marv a full 90min on tues,he seems to have a decent touch the little ive seen of him,would be nice to have another string to the bow like

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  10. ice/dave

    Also sends message out to the other strikers…grab yourself goals and your name is first on the sheet.

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  11. MORENO there only about 6/7 players that i would defo be first team sheet the rest would have to fight it oot imo

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  12. Richie,

    Considering he get’s written off by the majority of people no matter what he does…the odds will be pretty long me thinks!

    Ice,

    Pards mentioned Loven in post match interview so think we’ll see him and Shola against Forest.

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  13. Can’t see comments on mobile view for some reason. It just opens a long gray space.

    Can’t switch from mobile view either. All on my iPhone. Just lettin ya know.

    Solid performance today though, especially in 2nd half! Shame for Sammy

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  14. Woot!
    SO much better to watch today! No hoofball! Phew 😀
    I thought Obertan was really good today, in previous matches I’d thought that although he looked tricky at times he also did a lot of standing around, but today he got a lot more involved. Much better from Ba and Tiote, Cabaye CLASS :-D, all of them really. So pleased for Best, ha.. we don’t need Nolan to poach goals. Cabaye will score soon. And I’d like to see a lot more of Marveaux, was impressed with him against Sc@nthorpe and again in his brief apprearance tonight. There something really light about the way he moves, fleet-footed, I like it.

    Interesting stat came up at halftime showing the top ten players from both teams in terms of distance covered on the pitch, Cabaye came out on top. Puts the effort in and tonight it showed.

    Great afternoon…. got a weissbier bought for me by some old geezer impressed by my footie knowledge who’d put money on Swansea and Norwich today 😀

    And WRT beginning of the last thread, yes it’s me and I’m 43 and it was taken in July on my birthday 😀

    Bring on Forest and let’s see some of our other exciting young players!!

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  15. Can’t be bothered to stay up an watch match of the day. Will catch highlights on here tomorrow.

    Plus have a footy game tomorrow morning so should get some shut eye

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  16. @Big Dave

    Cheers for reposting my earlier post in defence of Indians scepticism.

    As far as I’m concerned, I always say how I see it.
    We’ve played poorly preseason and the first 4 games but got good results.

    Today, we deserved 3 pts and put in a very impressive performance.

    Every credit should go to the team and Pardew.

    Everyone played their part and it’s a night when criticism should not be thrown at any of them.

    Absolutely over the moon with performance and position .
    The position last week was the same but I didn’t feel as if it was warranted but we showed today that we have the spirit and ability to justify a top ten finish comfortably.

    Toon! Toon!

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  17. Thanks Dave I’ll try!

    ICE: Thanks, I will try and get another one in the back of the net! 🙂

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  18. It warms my heart to see Troy so pleased, haha…
    Good luck tomorrow Zoe, bang another one in the net!
    Night 🙂

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  19. Troy victory is sweet but I find it even sweeter when it is well deserved.
    Ice yeah mate but I would still like to see him get a bit longer run outs, but im sure his chances will come

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  20. richietoon,

    Footie wise, Best is considered Irish. Which raises my question from last year, does Leon Best count as a homegrown if he is now considered Irish, despite being English? I am still a bit lost on those loopholes.

    Also, are we beginning to lose the Best doubters? We had Andy Carroll, with a worse goal to game ratio sold for £35m due to his form and potential, yet Leon Best, with a better goal to game ratio in the same league and is only 2 odd years older, is still doubted for his ability to even play in this division.

    It boggles my mind. It’s either Carroll-bias due to his locality at birth or Best suffers from narrow minded “lower league syndrome” where he just will not be good enough for snobs.

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  21. FJ,
    You are homegrown if you have trained for 4 years between the ages of 16-21 in the UK I think…regardless of nationality.

    If FM memory serves….

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  22. We played well today and plenty of positives, might be harsh but Ryan Taylor is not a left back and should be replaced as soon as we have someone fit – nice to see Best get another goal – he may not be the exciting striker weve ever had but he’ll score more goals than martins and put more effort in

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  23. Best has to be changing minds by now. It wasn’t a thing of beauty, this goal, but it was in the back of the net regardless.

    This is probably drunktalk, but while I was out and about on the booze this afternoon, I wondered if he’s got a little Pippo Inzaghi thing going–seems not all that great, but routinely puts goals away. I don’t know Inzaghi very well, but I know he seems to have the reputation as a not very good player who, nevertheless, scores goals.

    Probably too many pints of that beautiful Czech beer down at my local beer garden.

    ****. Poor old Sporting de Gijon lost today, 0-1.

    Now, my ****-poor local team, the New York Metrostars (aka “red bulls,” a name and team symbol, if not associated with a fucking “energy drink,” I would really quite like).

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  24. I like large basket of chips.
    And some cheese please, with lemonade.
    A beef chimney, and a bicycle of chips.

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  25. Am I the only motherfunker that bothers turning up to Toonsy’s late night self-psycho-analysis session drop-ins these days then?

    I got free treatment from the man, give me that fkn cheese man, monster cheese.

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  26. Never squeal on the pusher
    Don’t lie to your mama
    Just do what you wanna and it’ll be okay
    Don’t swim in the water
    Don’t fly in the daytime
    Just do what you wanna and it’ll be okay

    Never smuggle no candy
    Can’t be whatcha wanna
    When you hafta go
    Down to the darkest places
    Yeah you’re gonna be okay

    Don’t say what’s really on your mind
    Gotsta give it just a little more time
    And try to remember this rhyme and you’ll be okay

    Now I know I turn you on
    And I think you and I could get along
    Don’t, don’t get me wrong you gonna be alright

    Say it with me now
    Never squeal on the pusher
    Don’t lie to your mama
    Just do what you wanna and it’ll be okay

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  27. Rodz, i got up early to watch the rugby, saw this and even tho the Gerogians are going like maniacs and making the match seriously good to watch, the above few comments are more entertaining … very funny hahahaha

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  28. Who do we want to see win between Stoke and Sunderland?

    If Stoke win they would go above us, but it would also be funny watching the filth struggling.

    On the other hand, I hate Stoke…

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