Ten man Toon hold firm! Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool

Delight for Dummett
Delight for Dummett
Newcastle produced a resilient performance to take a deserved point against Liverpool at St James’ Park this afternoon.

The hosts lead twice during the course of the game but found themselves pegged back on both occasions, which is perhaps understandable given the fact that United had to make do with ten men for more than half of the game.

In fact prior Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa’s red card five minutes before half-time it could have been argued that we were the better side and fully deserved to go in at the interval holding the lead courtesy of a fine strike from Yohan Cabaye but an error from Mbiwa saw him allow Luis Suarez to get goal side and when the former Montpellier defender pulled the Uruguayan back referee Andre Marriner was left with little alternative other than to award a spot kick to the Reds and send Mbiwa off allowing Steven Gerrard to level the scores from 12 yards out.

Before that though United had been the better side. Liverpool were chased and harassed out of the game and couldn’t build up a head of steam. Cheik Tiote was playing well as captain in the absence of Fabricio Coloccini but he wasn’t the only one as most players in black and white rolled their sleeves up and got involved.

However the sending off changed the game, but surprisingly it only really changed the game until half-time. This is not to say that United were dominant in the second period because they weren’t and Liverpool with the man advantage had the bulk of the possession. I had the sinking feeling and felt it was only a matter of time before Rodgers’ men took the lead but the home side proved resilient and provided another shock ten minutes into the second half.

Yohan Cabaye sent in a free-kick from the left hand side which managed to evade everyone apart from Paul Dummett who stole in at the back post and fired past Simon Mignolet in front of the Gallowgate end. A first senior goal from the local lad who became the first Englishman to score for United since Boxing Day 2012 and the first Geordie to score for us since Boxing Day 2010.

Holding out for over half an hour was always going to be a big ask and so it proved as Liverpool once again pulled level on 72 minutes. Luis Suarez burst down the left and crossed for Daniel Sturridge who nodded the ball into the net from six yards out.

Aside from the odd counter-attack United rarely threatened the Liverpool goal and holding on for a point became the aim. Ultimately it was mission accomplished albeit via a nervy ending which saw Luis Suarez graze the crossbar on one occasion before stinging the palms of Tim Krul from a free-kick which proved to be the last action of the game.

As I’ve said, it was a deserved point for United and I’m happy with it considering we played for 50 minutes with a man short and only one recognised central defender on the pitch. There were some great performances all over the park and if we can produce that level of performance on a regular basis we’ll be alright this season and might end up surprising a few. Cheik Tiote was largely excellent despite the odd lapse in concentration but I’d probably plump with Mathieu Debuchy if I was asked to pick a star performer. He’s had his critics but he performed well, rarely got beaten and linked up well in attack when called upon. More of the same please.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Mike Williamson, Davide Santon; Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Moussa Sissoko; Yoan Gouffran, Hatem Ben Arfa, Loic Remy

Subs: Rob Elliot, Paul Dummett, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi, Papiss Cisse

Liverpool: Simon Mignolet, Glen Johnson, Aly Cissokho, Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho, Jordan Henderson, Steven Gerrard, Victor Moses, Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge

Subs: Brad Jones, Dan Agger, Martin Kelly, Jon Flanagan, Luis Alberto, Raheem Sterling, Joe Allen

Attendance: 51,703

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.

127 thoughts on “Ten man Toon hold firm! Newcastle 2-2 Liverpool

  1. BBC headline:-
    “Liverpool twice came back from a goal down as they had to settle for a point against 10-man Newcastle.”
    .
    I would have thought: “Liverpool fortunate to get a point against 10 man Newcastle” would have been more appropriate.
    👿 👿

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  2. Troy, I thought you had committed uzzy kuzzy (the act of punching yourself in the head until death befalls you!!). 😛 After you had hissy fitted the other week, I thought you had passed on because we have hardly seen you on here… 😕 oh well, the happy times are over, your back! 😆 😆

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  3. MM I agree with you about the T4C marches I say well done for getting of your *** to try to let the regime know your not happy, I find it strange and sad that some will snipe and run them down for wanting to show their disgust at how the regime is running the show, yet at the sametime they are on here complaining about how **** the club, manager,team etc are.

    Troy I noticed lately Pards has confirmed what we were saying last season, in that he was putting teams out that he knew couldnt really go and win a game, as he was trying to stop us losing at all costs.
    So he seems to have learnt tjat the best way to do well is to try to win games rather than not loss them.

    I’m sure young Dummett is still in the clouds after yesterday, what a game for him

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  4. Dave – I think people are questioning the both the timing of the march (why yesterday?) and also what changes do they want?. I can’t get behind something if I don’t know what it stands for.
    The fact is that we are not doing too badly. Yes we could improve, but equally change could be for the worse – ie Blackburn.
    If Ashley chose to sell then we would have no say or influence over who he sold to.
    Change doesn’t always mean improvement mate – ask those down the road now they’re back from Swansea

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  5. Dave – what’s ironic about your last post mate is that the march is against the lack of ambition shown by the club, and lack of money spent in the last window. Yet had we spent money buying players, someone like Dummett may not have got his chance as he did yesterday.

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  6. Sharpy17@70, I would imagine that they in fact do have a voice, maybe you have been reading the wrong articles ? I personally think the need for protest is there, if not solely to try and change the owners mindset as to engaging the fans. Maybe you should consider joining the March protesters group to try and help them formalize a common voice. Or as Big Dave mentions, we can all just sit back and take what the owner and his directors want to deal us ?

    I don’t life on the Tyne any more, but I may have been tempted to join the march. Whether anything can be achieved remains to be seen, though people are entitled to jump on the bandwagon once the snowball starts to roll, it’s only human nature, some people are at the forefront, and others in the background…but the opinions are out there.

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  7. Sharpy17@79….. my apologies as you are addressing Big Dave’s point, but this statement has me baffled…. “The fact is that we are not doing too badly.”….

    Weren’t we a gnat’s tadger away from getting relegated last season, having played some really pish poor football ? 🙄

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  8. Sharpy its not hard to find out what changes they want they T4C and NUST have run stories on it.
    As for timing 😕 when would have been the right time.
    The main gripe for me is that all they want is for the best for the club that they and wee love with a passion, and how else do they let the club know ❓

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  9. Sharpy17…your “better the devil you know” philosophy may ring true mate.

    We can all look back at the end of next season and guage how far the club has come. If Ashley has moved the club “forward” then you will have been spot on. At the end of the day, we are all in Pardew’s hands, he will stand and fall on the performance of HIS team, without the distraction of pesky Europa League FA Cup distractions…

    TTBAWA !!!

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  10. Excellent from all concerned, The only gripe for me is Yanga-Mbiwa fouling him. Why not just let him shoot he misses something like 70% of his chances and even if he did score we’d stand a much better chance of regaining the lead with 11 on the pitch.

    Good point and performance to build on cardiff sets us up nicely for next week, Who are we playing again 🙄 😈

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  11. CC@87, I reckon Yanga-Mbiwa will come good, he seems to need a bit more time to come to grips with the EPL, but he has the strength and athleticism to be a great toon defender.

    I hope Cisse starts to pull round soon too…we need him badly..

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  12. Dave/Munich – sorry lads, dog walking duties.

    Munich – that’s my point mate. Fans were pissed off at the end of last season, then again in the summer when Joe came in, and again at the end of an unsuccessful transfer window – so why leave it 6 games in?, why not before the Hull game?. There may be a valid reason, like getting permission from the authorities, I don’t know – but that’s it – nobody knows.

    Dave – trust me I’ve looked. There are no definitive points that I could find. I’m not on Facebook or twitter or anything else other than blogs. Here’s what I’ve found from yesterday:

    http://mobile.newsnow.co.uk/A/674584045?-11058

    Still no specific changes they want Ashley to make though. With respect, if they are trying to drum up support this was a perfect opportunity to drill home their point. Ashley won’t be reading their Facebook pages, so if they want him to change – tell him in what way!.

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  13. Munich

    Aye i like him he was ok up to the red card just think maybe pardew should tell all the players not just him from now on in a similar situation to let the player shoot and hope for the best. MYM showed at Villa up against Benteke what he can do on his day, I reckon he will come good in the long run.

    Cisse needs a run of games, He showed against Leeds and for senegal that he hasnt forgotten where the net is. The lad just needs a couple of goals even if it is only against an absolutely **** team who leak goals for fun, Next week maybe… 😉

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  14. Munich/CC – I don’t know many other CBs who won’t have been caught out and made that same tackle in fairness. No way should we right the lad off yet, coz we all know what happened with Colo.

    Regarding Cisse. He certainly has his faults but I also think its worth remembering that the lad has had little consistency up there either. He’s played alongside Ba, then on his own, then on the wing, then as part of a front 3. I don’t think he’s lost the ability to score, he just needs to be settled and the players around him to be settled as best as we can.

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  15. Sharpy17@91, regarding Cisse, the lad seems to have lost his enjoyment for the game. When he first arrived at the Toon every other picture of him had him flashing his pearly white’s laughing and smiling. He seems to have lost that, and even having scored his goal against Leeds he didn’t celebrate with wild abandon and celebration, more a subdued FFs statement. Ditto his goal in midweek for Senegal….

    He doesn’t seem a happy camper at the moment, I reckon it will take him a good while to pull round, and he can probably only do that via the Senegal National team, and coming off the toon bench. No doubting he knows where the goal is, he seems to be player who needs to have an arm around the shoulder as such, and a bit of encouragement…especially since he has toasted his Geordie totty too 🙁

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  16. After HBA’s performance yesterday i would not be surprised if Cisse is back in from the start against the Scum .It will also be interesting to see how far down the pecking order Saylor has dropped with Williamson’s performances in the last 2 games and Dummett breaking into the first team .

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  17. Sharpy i’ll try to sling a link up later when im on the PC mate.
    On Mbiwa I find it strange how little stick he got as im sure if it was Saylor he would have got shed loads of stick, but I have to say what he did do happens in almost every game by almost every defender, in this case he was unlucky that the ref was right behind him.

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  18. Axel@83, you could be onto something there with Cisse next week mate…excellent point…

    With HBA coming off the bench to crack in the 1-4 goal 🙂

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  19. Then again MUNICH MAG we also have the Mackem slayer , we can hardly not play him at some point against the inbreds . You just know he will get a goal 😉

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  20. Axel, keep talking dirty mate 😆 😆 😆 . Shola comes off the bench with HBA to crack in the 1-5 goal and give 5under1and a glimpse of a Brazil bound International World Cup striker 🙂

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  21. Munich – yeah mate, this lost of form and the Wonga/gambling craic over the summer seems to have taken its toll doesn’t it. The celebration after the Fulham goal last season where he was off into the crowd seems along time ago now doesn’t it. I do think though that he’s only one game away. If he has a game where everything comes off for him or he bags a brace – or even just one goal against the scum next week could well turn things round for him though.
    I know Remy is playing well at the mo and scoring the goals, but I do think that Pardew needs to put his arm around Cisse alittle but and find out what’s going on and fix it if he can. To have his goal threat alongside Remys and Goof and Cabs chipping in now and again as well would be frightening for opponents I think.

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  22. Big Dave…Cisse is “the Untouchable” mate, closely followed by HBA …. I wasn’t aware that Mbwia was devoid of criticism. There again, there are a few “told-you-so’s” on here who tend to wait for the wind to blow before coming down off the fence 😆 😆 😆
    Maybe Staylor has had a chance to take a good look at himself during his enforced break ? Hope he cuts out this dancing like a puppet on a string ****, takes a look at young Dummet and how he should conduct himself. There’s no doubting he’s a canny centre half, but only if he cuts out his acting and amatuer histrionics .. 😀

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  23. Sharpy17, spot on mate, Cisse seems to have a bit of a lip on, he is obviously a striker who needs a bit of TLC, and probably rightly so, it’s a long way from Senegal / Freiburg to Darras Hall 😆 😆
    I genuinely think that the majority of the toon fans have his back, and are just willing him to get back to his scoring ways. I don’t get the impression that they have cast him off as a one season wonder.

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  24. Sharpy 17, Cisse doesn’t to take too kindly to competition, the scenario with Demba Ba a while back was also a bit hefty… 🙁

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  25. Dave – I want to make it clear that if a set of fans feel strongly enough to protest, then it’s well within their rights – and it was done in the right way – nee bother, nee arrests, nee bad publicity.
    But I’d imagine that communication will be one of the changes that they are looking for – that’s all I’m wanting from ‘time4change’ too.

    Regarding Mapou. He was clearly at fault and it was a stupid mistake. But many defenders would have made the same mistake. For me though, the fault was Tiotes who had a brilliant game other than that. Tiote took too long getting out having fastened his lace or adjusting his shin pad or whatever. He should have been more switched on and realized he was better off staying in there rather than trying to play the offside – coz he wasn’t really breaking his neck to get up to the back line either.
    I think it was just instinct for Mapou to make that challenge, but it was only ever likely to have one result.

    It was interesting watch MOTM, coz it showed an earlier similar incident between Remy and Skrtel where Skrtel won the ball. Shearer was saying that Remy should have possession himself differently to win a pen for us. That’s the thing with Suarez – he has those tricks or cheats in his game.

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  26. Thought MBiwa was doing well until the hand on the shoulder – Williamson also did well defensively but the real plus point was the way he was being very vocal including telling HBA how to play – we are usually very quiet with Collo and MBiwa at the back… Williamson is never going to be world class but if Shawcross, Jagielka and Stevie Taylor can play for England……. 🙂
    Looks like we need a new fall guy now Willo and Tiote have stepped up … Actually that Remy should of scored yesterday – I coulda fine better me self man – get rid of the fooker

    Haha – Pards being vilified prior to Cardiff game and two games later being praised … Only in football

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  27. Pardew has revealed Williamson was injured and a doubt for the game, hence why Dummett was prepped for playing centre back.

    Maybe people will realise Willo is premiership quality and useful to have. What teams at our level have a more reliable third or fourth choice centre back?

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  28. Good result, disappointed we didn’t win (placed my first ever bet on us to win) but pleased all the same. If we can play like this against Sunderland then we will have three (much needed) points in the bag.
    Can’t believe Pardew’s comments, everyone (including himself) is praising dummet’s performance and then he says he’s still behind Stevie T and Willo for the CB position next week. Does anyone know if Colo will be fit for that game?

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  29. I was expecting us to lose yesterday, who wasn’t?

    A point is a good result under Pardew but if Liverpool had been a little bit more interested in winning the game they could have really hurt us.

    Liverpool could have & should have won with a big scoreline just like last season.

    They had the SAS (who thought of that silly acronym??)
    They had 11 players vs 10 for more than half the game

    We had 3rd or 4th choice centre back
    an inexperienced left back (unable to break in to the first 11) playing as a centre back

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  30. Andy…Why can’t you believe that? he’s right 😉

    KK…I wasn’t, I said we’d win 2-1 😉

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  31. Brendan Rodgers didn’t get his players mentally prepared for the game. Pardew did.

    I haven’t seen anyone mention this but Pardew finally played Ben Arfa in the middle & it looked good.

    Ben Arfa didn’t have a great game but tactically it was really difficult for Liverpool to know who to pick up.

    Were the 3 centre backs suppose to follow Remy & Gouffran out wide or were they supposed to stop Ben Arfa? Who was supposed to pick Remy and Gouffran up?

    The play was so much more fluid before our first goal with balls played on the ground cutting lots of Liverpool players out of the game.

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  32. KK was it that Liverfool were not interested or was it that our defence manned up , stood firm and more than earned their coin yesterday ?Lets face it up until the red card there only looked like one team would win , the red card allowed them back into the game . Yes i expected us too loose yesterday but what yesterday game did was send out a signal . Pardew has the team playing as a team and that we have that little bit more quality in the squad than most of us thought .

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  33. @richietoon

    Wow, you were more optimistic than me & i think we should be challenging to finish in the top 6 this season!

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  34. @Axel

    I think we have the best team outside of the top 6 despite people putting down players like Debuchy, Tiote, Jonas, Willamson etc.

    I still think if Liverpool had turned the heat up we would have lost. However you are right, the team played as a team. They didn’t panic when Liverpool scored whereas previously we would have fallen apart straight away.

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  35. They only real disappointment was that Anita didn’t start. For me he is the better player to Sissoko.

    Alternatively i would have dropped Sissoko & played Cisse in a 4213.

    Sissoko is not angry/determined enough at the moment. His attitude reminds me of Marveaux. Both players are really good but they need to toughen up & have more confidence/be more greedy.

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  36. KK…I always “think” we should be challenging for top 6, whether we’re good enough is another matter.
    I just think when we’re at our best or even at 95% I’d expect us to be able to give any team in this league a game at home.
    I’d seen enough 2nd half v Everton and against Cardiff to know if we carried on like that there was no reason we couldn’t get owt off Liverpool, they’re a decent team but not a great team playing in an inconsistent l league.

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  37. Well done the players and well done Pardew, playing a top team and the ref it was a good result. As soon as you lay a finger on Suarez in the box, he’s going down like a sack of spuds.

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  38. Good comment richietoon but only because i agree with what you’ve said!

    We still need a change behind the scenes. If Pardew won’t be sacked then some members of his backroom should be.

    I have yet to see this team play at it’s best.

    & where are the people that were giving Debuchy stick? The guy is an epic player!!

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  39. Andy…Seriously? So you think an inexperienced Left Back who’s played half a game at CB should be first choice ahead of 2 CB’s with years of experience in that position? 😯

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  40. At this rate we’re due to finish with about 50 points.

    So somewhere between 10th – 8th.

    To me that would be a rubbish season.

    A decent season would be 60+ points finishing in the top 7.

    A good/great season would be finishing finishing 5th or 4th.

    All of these are possible but under the current football management we most likely to finish mid table.

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  41. KK i agree about Debuchy i dont know why he gets so much stick and the same with Santon . Yes Santon does make mistakes sometimes but he is still young and imo improving all the time i think in another season or 2 he will be an automatic first choice for the Italian national team .

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  42. @Axel

    In another season or 2 he’ll also be at a Champions League club.

    If we want to keep players like him, Cabaye, Krul etc we need to challenge for the top 4.

    If we don’t then we’ll just be a stepping stone.

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  43. Arsenal’s first goal yesterday was an incredible goal. I’m not sure how you could defend against it as it was so quick.

    It looked like pros vs amateur but it also looked like stuff that they would practice in training by doing drills.

    Our training sessions must be terrible as i don’t see any style or system. It’s either Pardew, the coaches or both.

    Why is it so difficult to copy what other coaches & managers do

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  44. God dam French showing determination and not giving up what are they thinking don’t they know they are french.

    Dummett has broke the french scoring record btw 😀

    Axel agree about the fullbacks. I think Santon is the same age as Dummett (maybe a year older) which people seem to forget.

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  45. Cabaye still needs to convince that he can complete 95 minutes in the EPL. He tires the last 15 every game…

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