Newcastle 2-2 Tottenham – Highlights and interviews

Colo and the Sho-stopper!
Watch the highlights of the entertaining 2-2 with Tottenham Hotspur yesterday here on NUFC Blog.

Relive the goals from Shola and Demba and follow it up with the managerial interviews from Alan Pardew and Harry Redknapp and a player interview from man of the moment Shola Ameobi who admits to his memory not being the best!

Th game yesterday was dubbed as our first real test, and on the evidence of what you are about to watch again I have to say that I believe we passed it with flying colours. I never realised how many chances we created in that second half and it’s only watching it again that has brought home the fact that perhaps we should have won the match. That’s just being greedy though…

It’s Wigan next at St James’ Park and we have to fancy our chances against a team that have only managed to pick up 5 points all season. This is no disrespect to Wigan as at the moment I fancy our chances against anyone at St James’ Park.

That’s now 11 league games unbeaten for Alan Pardew and Co who are on a run that stretches back to the last few weeks of last season. After a summer of discontent I must admit that even I never expected that!

Now we just have to see how long we can keep it going for.

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.

77 thoughts on “Newcastle 2-2 Tottenham – Highlights and interviews

  1. let’s not get carried away there Troy. We played at our best yesterday 2nd half and restricted them to get the draw. But they are at the moment a better outfit than us.

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  2. I’ve read some other blogs and a general consensus seems to be that Obertan is **** and hardly went forward. “Why pardew starts him every game is beyond me”

    I beg to differ. He was a 2nd man on Bale yesterday when he swapped to his preferred left side, matching – then beating his speed. We managed to snuff out Bale all game yesterday and kept him quiet. Simmo needed this.

    People say he hasn’t got the balls to go forward… his shot was only marginally wide, if it had went in people would of said what an amazing game he had.

    Granted he’s ugly and has a daft heed but I think he’s coming good. 🙂

    It was a class game and I wish Shola was consistant as that 20 minutes he was on was his best all season.

    Personally I think we controlled the game for most of it, the spuds are saying we were lucky (people outside of newcastle are going to have to come up with better excuses – we can’t be lucky all the time) 👿

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  3. Just done the predictor for the rest of the year. Last Game Bindippers @ Anfield, and I can see us in 4th well above them. prediction 2-2 again.

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  4. Nobby, he showed glimpses for me in the few games prior, but didn’t impress me much yesterday. A bit all mouth and no trousers. Just seemed to know where to go with the ball, but couldn’t work out what to do with it if/when he got there. Every time he got the ball I expected him to get dispossessed. It could be match sharpness I guess. Personally I’d jiggle the team about a bit for Wigan, dropping Obertan, Best and Simpson, and bringing in Marveaux, Santon and Barfa. Might as well. That’s just me though.

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  5. I dont think Obertan is *****, he had a couple of good moments and his tracking back was impressive, I never thought he’d do as much as he has done this season. However, not to bring Marveux on when he’s already a pretty recognised goalscorer, even for the simple sake of fresh legs is what annoys me. Best should have gone off, Ba maybe could have stayed, and I don’t think the Simmo sub was necessary, which would have allowed us to bring Marv on. Its not a massive issue as we drew the game in the end, but we had to wait till late on and a moment of brilliance from Shola, I just think it would have been nice to see what Marveux could have done against assou-ekotto as Obertan didn’t seem to be managing much whilst Jonas tore walker, a much better full back, to shreds.

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  6. Aye, agree newkie and rodzilla. I just think ‘****’ is a bit unfair. I would love to see Marveux as him and cabaye are my fave 2 signings from the summer.

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  7. personally I’m just looking at the bench and thinking we have game changers sat there and an unbeaten side on the pitch.

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  8. Nobby-Yeah exactly. I’ve been pushing for Marv since last november when we wanted backup for Enrique hoping we could pick him up ahead of the bindippers. Figured nothing would happen but when we got him out of the blue I was over the moon :mrgreen:

    Rodz- 😯 what a load of nonesense. Still, maybe if the scum go down this year it could be introduced… :mrgreen:

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  9. “Walker a much better fullback to Ekotto?” Offensively maybe but overall no ways.

    I really wonder about some of our supporters ability to read a game and see what players are doing off the ball. In defense. And with their movement.

    Obertan has been one of the BIG reasons we are are better team this season.
    But fans only seems to understand good play on goals and statistics.

    Same team for me against Wigan. With The exception of Santon for Simpson.

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  10. That is plain silly , how would they decide who gets to stay in the divison? No offence to a team like Wigan but how could someone justify them staying in ahead of the likes of Leeds and Notts Forest ( multiply league winners )?

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  11. Obertan needs a run of games and should keep his place surely unless Marv is doing marvellous things in training.

    Oba puts a good shift in and deserves his place IMO .

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  12. JJ, I always thought Obertan was an attacking midfielder who can play up front. Silly me for expecting goals and assists from him. I’m not slating him anyway, just think he’s frustrating, as I said probably down to match sharpness.

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  13. @rodz

    Been very busy. Plus the Toon have totally proved me wrong so I don’t have a difference of opinion.

    None of us could have expected the results we’ve had. I thought getting rid of Carroll, Jose, Barton and Nolan would see us suffer.

    Long may it continue and for them to prove me wrong. The only downside is, I find it boring when everyone is in agreement. 😛

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  14. JJ-you think Ekotto is better than walker defensively? I’m not even being biased because he’s english, or I hope i’m not, but I don’t rate ekotto defensively whatsoever. I’d rather have simmo or raylor than him if I’m honest. Going forward he is sweet though.

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  15. haha, yeah Troy I really thought we’d suffer too, and am also loving being proved wrong, so far. I just hope we keep this fantastic work ethic up. I think it’s one of the major improvements for me when I watch the team. Pardew seems to be a good leader too. Everyone works their bollocks off. Onwards and upwards…….

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  16. I agree with JJ

    Ekotto is far better than Walker defensively. Spurs fans will agree too. BAE(as they call him) is now one of their favourite players after his drastic improvement in recent years.

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  17. @rodz

    A season is a long time and we are only a fifth of the way thru.

    However, I predicted mediocrity this season and to finish mid table or there abouts.
    I genuinely think we have enough about us to finish 7th or maybe 6th.

    Where do you think?

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  18. Hmm fair enough then, maybe I’ve only seen his poor matches, I’ve never seen much good from him and thought he was always too reliant on dawson covering for him. Walker has the same pace, seems stronger on the ball and is about eight years younger so should have plenty of time to pick up more positional sense.

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  19. Obertan wasn’t very good yesterday. At least in possession he wasn’t. Lots of stray passes. Lots of confusing himself with his own touches. Lots of poor crosses.
    However… he’s very important to the team tactically. He did a cracking job chasing and irritating Bale in the 2nd half and he has an important role while the team has possession at the back….. showing clever movement and often finding space between the opponents defence and midfield to receive passes from Coloccini or Tiote and link play

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  20. Got to admit that I really have been surprised just how well we have played defensively considering we lost one of our best defenders. I was expecting us to be better in the middle without Tugboat but it’s amazing how little we miss Barton. It just shows the difference between running around looking “committed” and players who play for the team.

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  21. Newkie

    Akotto is very underated outside of Africa. Great player.
    Walker is very overated because he’s English. Good going forward but he’s actually like Glen Johnson reincarnated. Not a defenders ****.

    Rodz

    I think Obertan does a very similar job to what Jonas does. They both put in a shift defensively, they both are excellent outlets for bringing the ball from defense to attack. They are both lightning fast and great on the counter attack. And they both have great dribbling skills.
    Unfortunately they also both have an inconsistant final ball.

    But I think they are both doing a fantastic job. Why drop either of them, when they’ve done nothing wrong.

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  22. SJP14-Yeah, never thought we’d miss Nolan but I thought Barton would be a big miss, at least for the strength in depth he could bring to the squad. Really doesn’t seem like we’re missing him at all, although i was bricking it when Tiote was down. Let’s hope Ashley’s investment in the training pitch will save us from all the bloody injuries we seem to get from it!

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  23. I”d agree with that Troy. Admittedly we haven’t played the big boys yet, but there’s only 3 of them as far as I’m concerned, so that’s 6 games to drop points in. I know staying where we are now is incredibly ambitious, and to be honest probably very unlikely, but I think Europa League is a realistic shot. I’m expecting to see us finish anywhere between 10th and 6th, but 4th would be nice!

    I hope we spend a bit of cash in January though. I think if we lost 3 or 4 of our key players through bad injuries (out of Jonas, Barfa, Cabaye, Tiote, Colo, Ba, Santon/Raylor) we’d be up against it, and it could well go tits up. Hope we beat the form guide and keep a fully fit squad this season.

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  24. JJ@31, I’d agree with that, although I think Jonas is far superior at taking players on. I think I’m just chomping at the bit to see Marveaux more than anything else.

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  25. “showing clever movement and often finding space between the opponents defence and midfield to receive passes from Coloccini or Tiote and link play”

    M
    Its little things like that that make a huge difference to a team controlling play, keeping the ball. Releasing pressure.
    It goes unnoticed by most fans, but Obertan is brilliant at it. He always makes himself available. Then uses his pace to get the ball into the opponents half. Then retains possession by passing backwards often.

    Thats not a missed opporunity to pass. Its good coaching (probably from Sir Alex). There’s no point whipping in ball after ball into the box when theres no body there to collect it. Rather keep possession and creat a better chance.

    Look at a team like Barca, who don’t even whip crosses in from corners. They keep the ball.

    We finally have a good footbaling team, so lets use it…

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  26. Newkie, it will be interesting to see what happens with injuries this season. There’s no doubt that we have a pretty light squad in terms of defenders.

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  27. Without injuries, I think we’ll keep the position we find ourselves in after the 3 tough games coming up. Those will define our season. Capt. three eyes has spoken.

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  28. JJ-Aye I know he’ll be overrated due to the english thing as well as the goal against Arsenal, read Danny Rose, but I honestly rate him. Thought he was one of england u21’s best players along with the other full back Bertrand, who was actually really impressive. Even though its hardly saying much as the team mostly played **** i’d definitely have him over Johnson, not that it says much.

    As for benoit, maybe its just one of those things, I’ve never really rated him or his hairstyle 😛

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  29. SJP-Aye, if only it was our defenders though. The quality we’d lose if Krul/Colo/Cab/Tiote and possibly Ba got injured is a worry. If only colo got injured maybe Tiote and Cabaye might be able to drop deeper for willo, and if we lost tiote perhaps guthrie or gosling could cover, but two players out could see us really vulnerable. Still, its the same for anyone outside the top 4….wait, we’re not outside :mrgreen:

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  30. I’m encouraged by the fact that pardew took off simpson and let raylor continue at right back, and not just because he appreciated that raylor is playing well in the position and judging on performance not reputation. By playing santon at right back, whilst having identified the weakness at left back iin the summer, it gives he hope that he’s seen the weakness at RB too and will now get another fullback in.

    Hopefully pieters, hopefully january, but that’s down to the men upstairs, I’m just glad to see evidence of this thought process from Pards

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  31. Newkie, great shout with that stat, Pardew mentioned 400 as a benchmark CL teams look for, and i think he said we’d done it once this season, so a good indicator of us playing well

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  32. JJ – thanks for taking the time to read my post, haha

    I think that’s why Pardew is so loath to take him off even when he’s not doing so well with the ball. If he can improve his crossing and general consistency…. we’ll have a hell of a player on our hands

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  33. Read somewhere that only the top four clubs make 400 plus passes per game consistently, we’ve now done it in 2 of our last 3 games – must mean we are nailed on for 4th spot 🙂

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  34. Well done to you boys,feel fortunate to come away with a point.I do not think many teams will get much at sjp this season.Very impressed with your support as well.Good luck with the rest of the season.
    coys

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  35. Wyart Lane – cheers – same to yourselves, all your fans have been very reasonable and knowledgeable on the boards over the last week or so

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  36. Dubtoon….apart from 2 😉 ……cheers Wyart Lane, good 2nd half and both teams going for the win, the way it should be. 😀

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  37. i dont know how you can say spurs are ‘better’, we were better in the 1st half until a sloppy pen … then we were better in the 2nd half, Defoe intro unsettled us for all of 5min an we took control again, they have more strength in depth but 11 v 11 we were better !! HBA shudda replaced Obertan because for me best and ba were playing better that him and Santon shudda come on for Simpson sooner he was poor yesterday and made me nervous wen he got the ball and he took the sting out of all out attacks… Santon looked decent in his 18 min and has a bitta pace about him 2

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  38. Spurs started better. NUFC took control without creating chances. We gifted them a goal. Started the 2nd half well then Spurs were on top for a good while and had all the decent chances during that spell. Finally we finished strongly with Shola outstanding.

    We definitely didn’t batter them – a draw was a fair result and could’ve been a win if Pardew had made his subs a little earlier. For me the Defoe goal was no surprise, it reflected the general pattern of the 2nd half and had been coming for a while. When you’ve got so much talent on the bench you shouldn’t be afraid to make changes.

    Got to be more pro-active next time Mr Pardew, don’t wait until we’re behind…..

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  39. Darn, the highlights have been removed. Anybody got an other links to the MOTD highlights?

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  40. Fair play to the Spurs fans on here this week. I’ve enjoyed the banter and hope they return.

    Very impressed with the lads yesterday mostly because I really rate Spurs this year. From what I have seen of the league they will be battling Chelsea for a spot behind the Mancs.

    Looking forward to watching the match again to get a better read on Obertan’s performance. He did give the ball away unacceptable number of times, but also seemed to help out with Bale as others have pointed out.

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  41. I’m not having a go at them but thought simmo and raylor looked poor yesterday defensively.
    Raylor looked a mess for defoe’s goal.
    I love the effort mind.

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  42. Any chance the sloppiness was due to the break?
    Hopefully we can focus and pick up 3 points against Wigan and then get into gear for a deadly turn in our schedule coming up.

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  43. For me Obertan seems to play without conviction, without belief in himself – could be the 2 years wasted at Man U and far better players ahead of him. Having said that I’d like to see Marveaux instead. He can cross and finish.
    It’s a tough call for AP – Obertan is actually working his socks off but class tells. Hope the subs was AP being very clever – now he can field the team that finished yesterday without apparently dropping anyone!

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  44. Georgio@57-

    It would be great if we start against Wigan with the lineup that finished the game yesterday, but with Ba instead of Ameobi. Hopefully we can jump out to a lead in the first half, make sure we bring on Marveaux and possibly start him ahead of Obertan in the upcoming games, depending on how they both look.

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  45. ——-Ameobi/Best——
    –Ba——————–Arfa
    ———-Jonas———–
    —-Tiote——-Cabaye—-
    -Raylor-Colo-Staylor-Santon
    —————Krul——————-

    With jonas ghosting around the pitch to wherever he likes, Marveux, Obertan, Bambi for super subs?

    **** it, i’ll try it out on football manager 12 anyway :mrgreen:

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  46. Well the 1st half was aweful and we could have been 2 down. Second half both teams really went for it. We just did not look like producing that bit of class moving forward with a 4-4-2 for the end product and as I thought would happen, Best & Ba were pretty much wasted for much of it as the ball failed to reach them. That said the front two did a lot of work off the ball and ‘softened’ up the Spurs defence a bit.

    When we went 4-5-1 we looked really dangerous and could have won the game. Shame we did not change to that formation earlier…

    End of the day it was a good result to continue a good start to the season, but I would like to see 4-5-1 against Wigan from the off for two reasons:

    1) We will surely hammer them with it?!
    2) Give game time to Marveaux, Santon & Ben Arfa, otherwise they will stay or get rusty and maybe even a little peed off at getting constantly overlooked….

    The 4-4-2 has done good so far, but it nearly undone us yesterday. It will serve us well in lots of games in the future too – but we need to show we are not a one trick pony otherwisw we will get shown up.

    Howay the lads 😀

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  47. Obatoon is similar to Jonas in what they try to do, but totally different in terms of ability and style . He is young tho.

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  48. “The French lads have got straight into the banter and team-bonding the gaffer has us doing. They’ve absolutely loved it. But Cheik Tioté, an absolute animal on the pitch, is like a little girl at paintballing. He looks like he could run through a brick wall, but hit him with these little pellets of paint and it’s like he’s been shot. All I could hear was Tioté screaming”

    Great stuff from staylor :mrgreen:

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  49. @63 HAHA quality

    Must say that I Fookin love Colo and Tiote!! I dropped a nugget when he was down.

    These 2 are the best players I’ve seen since the SBR days. Love the attitude of the whole team though. People slagging Obertan – did you not see the determintation in his face when he chased Bale the length of the pitch and kept up with him and we got the ball back. Don’t see Marv doing that just yet.

    Jonas playing out of his skin – earned praise from Saddy Redknapp

    Tiote and Colo best players on the pitch (Modric was good mind)

    Shola – left me speechless. Where did that pace come from? And that goal was from the good old days. He used to be like that lol.

    Ba – Our Drogba, absolutely immense if he stays fit.

    I think yesterday was the start of the end for Best though, our passing was much better after Benny came on.

    Overall what a fantastic game and AP deserves massive credit, there was a bit when the camera was on him and you heard him say “that was facking brillyant saaaan!!!” think it was to Colo. Love it 🙂

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  50. Much better subs by Pardew against Spurs although I thought Best should come off not Ba. Surely Marveaux could have come on for Obertan for the last 20 minutes or so? Obertan is a real mix of pros and cons. He has great pace and can get back to cover but wastes a lot of balls going forward. Surely Marveaux deserves a chance at some point and the only place to put him is Obertan’s spot. Hard to believe that was the same Shola. Does he have a lazy slow twin brother? Hatem and Santon should get more and more playing time from now on to show their class. Let’s grab some more points before November comes.

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  51. I thought Pardew’s subs were actually really good yesterday. When I saw Ba was coming off I thought he was crazy but it was a very tactical move. We waited until they had made two substitutions and then the double change completely changed the way we attacked (all on the wings before that, then the last goal was brought from attacking in the middle). If he had made that change any earlier Spurs would have been able to adjust to it with their own substitutions but since they only had one left they couldn’t do much to counter it.

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  52. This was copied and pasted from .com and is my mates post called BamBams;

    cant name my source (and wont anyway )but the mutterings in the nufc accademy from the first team training ground is Andy Carrol has asked Dogleash if he can get more games or go out on loan in Jan. Dogleash has went beserk that AC attitude cannot be right if he wants to go out on loan and has stated AC is wanting to return to NUFC- Dogleash will NOT let this happen.
    Has anyone else heard anything similar, you never know if these are just rumours started from within the club for a laugh.
    (The same source was spot on about Pardew three days before the press got hold and about the defoe dinner with Pards)
    The source cannot confirm if this is correct just what they had heard

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  53. Troy……could be true but as long as he doesn’t come back here I’m not really arsed one way or another.

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  54. I dunno. Carroll changes the way a team plays, which is why the Liverpool fans aren’t too keen on him in fairness. In that sense you’d have to believe that he would do the same here and given that we have a different style of play these days would he be so successful again?

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  55. not sure who it was but the little dink through to Shola for his goal was a piece of brilliance…have a feeling it could have been Cabaye. Check it out on the highlights, brilliant touch !

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  56. Moreno…I think you’re right mate…

    We have so much skill and pace throughout the team now, absolutely brilliant.

    I would stick with Obertan too, he has so much pace and works so hard…stick with the lad. He was one of the main reasons why Bale was so ineffective. Not sure where HBA and Marveaux will fit in but it’s a great headache for Pardew !

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