Silly Stoke punished by United! Newcastle 5-1 Stoke

Remy scores the equaliser
Remy scores the equaliser
Scorelines can be misleading sometimes and although we did indeed score five goals while missing chances to score more, it would be fair to say that Martin Atkinson had a hand in the result.

In the end the result was fully justified, but it doesn’t tell the who story of the match. For 40 minutes or so Stoke looked the better side as Newcastle struggled to build up any kind of momentum going forward.

Handed the lead through a fine goal by Oussama Assaidi, Stoke were on top before some moments of utter madness just before half-time ended up costing the Potters dear.

First we have Glenn Whelan. Booked minutes earlier for a niggling foul, he then had a hack at the back of Yohan Cabaye in an area of the pitch he didn’t need to do such a thing in, picking up a yellow for each infringement ultimately seeing red. His manager was unhappy and displayed his frustration on the sidelines which was enough for Mark Atkinson to send Mark Hughes to the stands for the rest of the match. Three minutes before the interval Marc Wilson brought down Loic Remy in the box after a the Frenchman latched onto a through ball from Vurnon Anita. It was a goalscoring opportunity and the Irish defender had to go.

A tame start by United saw Stoke emerge on top in the early exchanges, and it stayed that way until the red card incidents to be fair. They very nearly took the lead twice from long-range Charlie Adam efforts before the Scotsman turned provider, laying the ball to Oussama Assaidi who fired an unstoppable shot past Tim Krul into the top corner of the Gallowgate net.

I’ve covered the red card incidents so we’ll fast forward to what happened after Marc Wilson had seen red. Obviously a penalty was awarded and top scorer Loic Remy stepped up to take it. He sent his spot-kick to the right of Thomas Sorenson but the shot was tame and Thomas Sorenson saved before the ball was hacked clear.

However Remy wasn’t to be denied and less than a minute after his penalty was saved he did find the back of the net courtesy of a deflection off a Stoke defender to ensure Newcastle went in at half-time level.

Half-time: Newcastle 1-1 Stoke

With 45 minutes to play against nine men, the pressure was on United. I said at half-time we either needed an early goal or to remain patient if it didn’t come because Stoke would park the bus, but luckily the early goal came just three minutes into the second period through Yoan Gouffran who fired in a weak Thomas Sorenson punch from the edge of the penalty area.

It was then a matter of how many for United who had Stoke understandably pinned back in their own box. A one goal lead soon became two when Loic Remy stooped in at the far post to head in a poor effort from Moussa Sissoko before Yohan Cabaye made it 4-1 through a curling shot with 25 minutes to play.

There were more chances for United through Hatem Ben Arfa who twice hit the woodwork before Erik Pieters (remember him?) brought down Ben Arfa for the award of another penalty. This time it was Papiss Cisse who was given the honour by the rest of his team and the Senegal forward duly dispatched his spot-kick into the top right corner of the Gallowgate net.

More penalties could have been awarded for United as Yohan Cabaye and Massadio Haidara were both brought down by dubious challenges but in the end the score of 5-1 had to do.

Full-time: Newcastle 5-1 Stoke

I can kind of understand the frustrations of Stoke but at the end of the day they were silly. You can take the Pulis out of Stoke but it’s proving harder to change their neanderthal mentality and the poorest away following of the season (just under 600 fans – two blocks of the Leazes) to date must have been wishing they never bothered in the end. Their fans may blame poor decisions, and I do think some of it was soft, but they do have a reputation built up over the years so maybe the chicken is coming home to roost.

Having said that, up until the red card stupidity, we were struggling so please don’t look at the scoreline and think everything is tickety-boo because it isn’t. It could have been very different today had the Potters not gone potty but I guess a win, however it comes, is a win. And let’s face it, we’ve (well Hatem Ben Arfa’s double leg break) been on the end of an Atkinson own goal before!

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Davide Santon; Moussa Sissoko, Yohan Cabaye, Vurnon Anita; Hatem Ben Arfa, Loic Remy, Yoan Gouffran

Subs: Rob Elliot, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Steven Taylor, Massadio Haidara, Gabriel Obertan, Shola Ameobi, Papiss Cisse

Stoke: Thomas Sorensen, Geoff Cameron, Ryan Shawcross, Marc Wilson, Erik Pieters, Jonathan Walters, Steven N’Zonzi, Glenn Whelan, Charlie Adam, Oussama Assaidi, Peter Crouch

Subs: Jack Butland, Marc Muniesa, Wilson Palacios, Kenwyne Jones, Marko Arnautovic, Andy Wilkinson, Stephen Ireland

Attendance: 51,665

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.

42 thoughts on “Silly Stoke punished by United! Newcastle 5-1 Stoke

  1. Having just watched two games I think Eric Pieters and Aly Cissokho are no better than what we have in Santon and Hiadara. Hiadara has a lot of potential. Mamadou Sakho had a shocking second half for Liverpool, he just looked nervy and was making silly mistakes. Just goes to show that these players we were linked to might not be all they are cracked up to be.

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  2. Just back from the match. Great result. **** at first until the sending offs but good to see us get an extension to our goal difference. I was up in leases next to the Stoke fans and give them their due they sang their hearts out all match. Even singing “it’s only 4-0” and then “your gonna win 6-1”. Ha ha…

    A bit puzzled why some were talking about Shola on the last thread since he didn’t play…?

    Anyway, great result. Bring on the **** (without Ramsay) 🙂

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  3. Best moment of the game for me was the celebration after Cisse scored i love that kind of celebration.

    @DT

    Shola did play. He didn’t do to much tbf though

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  4. Well it was a great result, no doubt about it. We got a bit of luck, but we came through and took the opportunities when they came.

    We’ll certainly need to play better than this against Arsenal but they’ll not be looking forward to the game.

    When can we start to dream? I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t grasp the nettle and sign a couple of good players this January to try and take us forward and give us a better chance of finishing top 4.

    Another striker and a creative centre midfielder would do me.

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  5. He said he hadn’t been to see the referee after the game, admitting: “I couldn’t trust myself to go and speak to him.” 😆

    Sparky the angry Welshman, did he think Stoke would have just cruised to victory and Newcastle wouldn’t have attacked the gallowgate in the second half without the sending off. 😛 He also said ‘”I was still going to the stand at the time, but I’ve seen it again. Marc is trying to get the ball and I don’t think the striker (Remy) felt he was going to geet a clean strike and so he went down. To get a red card is unbelievable.” Come off it! He took him clean out when he was in on goal. 🙄

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  6. Dubai-Toon

    Shola came on at half time.
    He obviously did not catch your eye.
    For such a big bloke it is surprising that he can be invisible on the pitch.

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  7. ‘”I was still going to the stand at the time, but I’ve seen it again. Marc is trying to get the ball and I don’t think the striker (Remy) felt he was going to geet a clean strike and so he went down. To get a red card is unbelievable.”

    😆 😆 😆

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  8. Dare I say it, but have we had the rub of the green so far this season like we did when we finished fifth? Don’t get me wrong I like it and we’ve had some **** kuck over the years but it seems from getting nothing last season we’re getting a lot this season?

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  9. That’s 5 home games in a row Gouffran has now scored in. He’s no Micky Mouse player that’s for sure. I love the nufc.com headline.. ‘Toon knock Potters Spark out’. 😀

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  10. TOONSY
    That’s true but I think you make your own luck to a certain extent. We’ve played a lot better as a consequence of the new signings bedding in and few injuries to deal with. The thing that’s pleasing me most is that when we came 5th it was with Demba Ba scoring for one half of the season and then Cisse scoring for the other half. The team just defended well and kept it tight. What we are seeing now is goals coming from different goalscorers and the team playing some good football at times, dare I say we are playing better now than the 5th season. (We got a few beatings in the season we finished 5th as well as workmanlike wins)

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  11. Toonsy , Agree and as you say it’s nice but it also gives a false sense of security too. I want to see us consistently playing well, in both halves of a game and creating more scoring opportunities for our forwards . Only then can we really say we are moving forward and that Pards is the real deal imo.

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  12. we got the 3 points and added 4 goals to our goal difference,nothing else really matters in my view job done

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  13. I sort of agree with that Kim. We’ve taken advantage of our luck thanks to good effort from the lads and getting goals from different ways. But still we need to start playing well for the full 90 if we are going to be among the elite and have a real shot at things come May. Sunday is a huge test in that regard

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  14. @Santii… Thanks mate. I didn’t see any subs at half time and it wax so noisy I couldn’t hear any of the announcements. He didn’t pull up any trees though did he? 🙂

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  15. I suppose disappointment is the wrong word, as I will be more shocked if we did go for it. Although I fear the total opposite could happen. Jabba will know we’re safe for this season and sell Cabaye. We’ll have a cracking balance sheet though, can’t wait to see on the open bus parade.

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  16. Did Assaidi’s first goal count anyway? I thought there was too much individual skill involved for it to count as a proper goal like 😐

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  17. Newkie, what a silly comment mate!! You should know by now that, that theory only applies to Newcastle! Not when other teams do it to us! Hang your head and take a moment to think where we would be without Remy’s goals! Or Kruls great saves! 😆

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  18. Sorry Aussie, seems I’m still struggling to keep up with how the great pioneers of the game who deign to visit us once in a while want us to play footie 😀

    How are things down under mate?

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  19. All good down here Newkie, on annual leave atm and the toon are winning,so I am more than happy!
    Hope all is well with you and yours mate! 😀

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  20. Watching that fan video of Cisse scoring.

    It’s obvious to me how important Cabaye is to this team. If we lose him its a massive, massive blow. Not just on but off the pitch too.

    It’s no coincidence that pur slow start to the season involved Cabaye sitting on the bench because he had his head turned by Arsenal.

    He is the heartbeat of the team. The spirit. Tiote is the rock. Second best midfield pair in the league for me.

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  21. I can realy understand Stoke being peeved after that result.
    We were pathetic in the first 30 minutes, lethargic, and Stoke had us chasing shadows and were deservedly in front. Our normally strong defensive line looked decidedly wobbly across the whole back four.
    I would put it down to two things, HBA in the starting line up, and us missing Tiote. We had no-one to put a foot in and win the ball back.
    The first sending of was ridiculous, HBA ran he ball out for our third goal, the referee allowed a blatant hand ball from Willo.

    What a really poor performance from the officials, I haven’t seen such a poor refereeing performance in a long time, which masked a lethargic and lazy toon performance.

    Ecstatic with the result though !!

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  22. There was a few bad calls from the ref that went our way but after seeing the ones that have went against us in the past i’ll take them 😀 .
    Was so glad to see Cisse take the pen and score so hopefully that will give him a bit of confidence, I also thought Benny had a good game and caused them loads of problems.

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  23. @ BIG DAVE
    we got lucky with a couple of shouts but got unlucky in others we could and should of had couple more pens in my view and to be honest we could of ended up in double figures there

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  24. they can moan on til the cows come home about the handball, the ball traveled less than a yard, and was fired at him, it was more ball to hand than hand to ball and thats my opion why the ref did not give it

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  25. TAE – Agree om that. Honestly cant see how it can be classed as deliberate handball when it was hoofed at him from point blank range. Should arms be taped to sides of players to avoid it?

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