Newcastle 1-0 Burton: Rafa rotation, rubbish refs and Ritchie’s right foot

Newcastle United took another step towards a Premier League return last night thanks to Matt Ritchie’s glorious second half strike, which was enough to see off Burton Albion  in a game that will be remembered for one of the most bizarre refereeing decisions you are ever likely to see.

The Team

Rafa Benitez fielded an attacking line up, with three changes from Saturday’s victory over Wigan, seeing Gouffran, Colback and Hanley drop out the side for the incoming Atsu, Perez and Mbemba – the first appearance of 2017 for the forgotten Congolese centre-back.

There were no complaints from me as I saw the team announced. It was a welcomed sight to see such an attacking line up. I was also buoyed to finally see Benitez start Mo Diame in his most natural position, seeing him drop back into central midfield, replacing Jack Colback alongside Jonjo Shelvey.

First Half

We came out of the blocks quickly and were immediately on the front foot, with it quickly becoming apparent that Burton were happy to surrender possession and get men behind the ball.

Newcastle, to their credit, began moving the ball well, with the forward thinking partnership of Shelvey and Diame spreading the play nicely, as Dummett and Atsu combined well down the left in the early stages. Rafa’s men were dominating the ball and looked by far and away the better side, however were just missing that piece of quality in the final third.

The first incident arrived in the 6th minute, as Dwight Gayle turned John Brayford in the box, only to be scythed down by the Burton defender. It looked a stone wall penalty from where I was sitting and Benitez was incensed. Keith Stroud and his officials remained unmoved, however.

Burton were seeing very little of the play, however, a long ball into our box wasn’t fully dealt with, seeing the loose ball fall perfectly for Jackson Irvine, who lashed a right foot volley just over Karl Darlow’s crossbar. It was a rare attack form the visitors but a reminder that they were very much in the game.

The big moment, for all the wrong reasons, arrived on the half hour mark. Dwight Gayle was adjudged to have been bundled over in the box as he latched onto a through ball. For what it’s worth, I found this one to be less of a penalty than the challenge earlier in the game. Nonetheless, up stepped Matt Ritchie, who converted from the spot for his 11th of the season. Or so we thought.

Referee, Keith Stroud blew his whistle and indicated that a free kick would, in fact,  be awarded to Burton. No sooner had my goal celebrations ended, I, like all fans was left utterly bamboozled, with the United players and coaching staff pleading with the officials for an explanation on this mind-boggling decision. This dragged on several minutes, with chaos descending around St. James’ Park,  to the point where an Ipad emerged from the NUFC dugout to illustrate further to the 4th official just how big of a mess-up the referee was about to make.

As the picture below shows, Gayle was guilty of encroachment, entering the box as Ritchie struck the spot kick. The rules dictate that the penalty should therefore have been re-taken, however, Stroud took it upon himself to award a free kick to Burton, disallowing the goal in one of the most barmy refereeing decisions I have ever witnessed.

 

Chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ soon followed as the game finally restarted. Newcastle never quite re-settled in the moments that followed, but if the disallowed goal did one thing, it certainly raised the volume levels inside the stadium

As if the officiating wasn’t bad enough already, the fourth official’s board then indicated just 3 minutes of stoppage time – seeming way off the mark, given the post-penalty antics took well over 3 minutes alone.

The half time whistle was met with a chorus of boos, directed towards the man of the moment, Kevin Stroud, as he left the field. Fans and players were left with the bit between their teeth, however, eager to see justice done in the 2nd half.

Second Half

Newcastle began the second half buoyed on by the wounded crowd, desperate to see justice done.

We continued to see waves of possession fail to materialise into any clear cut chances, until a superbly waited Christian Atsu through ball set Ayoze Perez in on goal. The Spaniard’s first touch was excellent, however the finish was narrowly wide. It was a golden opportunity and one that the patchy Perez would have hoped to have buried.

As the second half went on Burton appeared to be tire, as I began to wonder if their exploits from Saturday’s 1-0 win over Huddersfield were starting to tell.

Half chances continued to come and go, but just as the game begun to fall a little flat, our big moment arrived..

With just over 20 minutes remaining, Matt Ritchie picked the ball up on the left-hand-side and after cutting in on his right, curled a delightful 20 yard strike around the helpless Burton goalkeeper & into the top right hand corner of the net. Relief spilled out around the ground, with a feeling that justice had been done. Thankfully, this one did stand!

It was yet another moment of brilliance from Ritchie, who continues to work wonders at St. James’ Park.

Straight from kick off, however, a long ball hoisted into Newcastle’s defensive third was latched onto by Lucas Akins, with Matt Ritchie then adjudged to have tripped the Burton winger. It looked incredibly soft and provided Burton with a rare opportunity in a dangerous area. The free-kick was curled across the box and met by Ben Turner, who looked odds on to equalise, only for the out-rushing Karl Darlow to deny their goal bound effort. It was a big moment in the game, seeing Darlow, not for the first time, make a vital stop when called in from the cold.

As the game entered the final stages, certain players looked leggy, with the team appearing to need an injection of energy or presence to help see us through. One criticism I would therefore have of Rafa was the time taken to make such changes. Burton rarely threatened but it was clear that Atsu’s race was run well before he was eventually subbed, seeing Ameobi replace him in the 89th minute.

The full time whistle sounded to confirm another narrow but precious victory for the Magpies, lifting the curse of back-to-back home league wins, with victorys over Wigan on Saturday and Burton last night being the first time Newcastle have done so since 2013.

News of Huddersfield’s 3-0 victory against Norwich fell on relatively deaf ears, with a feeling amongst the crowd that Newcastle are not about to let this one slip, sitting 10 points ahead of the Terriers (effectively 11 points given goal difference) and within touching distance of a return to the top flight.

Player ratings:

Darlow 7 – Crucial save to deny Burton from equalising soon after Ritchie’s opener.

Anita 6 – Solid if not unspectacular from the Dutchman who was rarely tested defensively.

Lascelles 6.5  – Won most of his battles in a more assured display, with Burton’s long balls playing to his strengths.

Mbemba 7 – Read the game well on his return to the side. Calm and composed in possession. Almost had a mix up with Darlow late on, with communication appearing to be something he must work on.

Dummett 7.5 – Carried a threat going forward in the early stages, linking up with Atsu particularly well in the first half. More assured in possession than in previous weeks and some dangerous balls into the box.

Diame 7.5 – Much improved from the Senegalese midfielder, who looked far more comfortable and confident in a deeper, central midfield role alongside Shelvey. Worked hard and spread the play nicely.

Shelvey 7 – Pulled the strings for most parts of the game, given license to roam as Burton sat deep.

Ritchie 8 – Man of the match yet again; a typically busy performance from the winger, capped off with an outstanding strike to seal all three points. Also worth noting he technically scored two..

Perez 5 – A few clever touches but struggled to make a real impact on the game. Robbed of possession too often with his attacks often coming to nothing. Missed big chance in second half too.

Atsu 5 – It was the ideal game for the Ghanaian to impress, however the pacey winger often flattered to deceive with poor final product. He looks to be a confidence player and it wasn’t his night last night.

Gayle 7 – Tireless running and some nice touches in and around the box. Starting to look sharper again, just needs to be given the service he craves.

With our next two games posing tough tests, with a trip to Sheffield Wednesday (Saturday) followed by a visit of Leeds United (Good Friday), there are challenges to overcome before any celebrations can begin, but results over the past week suggest Newcastle are fully focused on the task-in-hand and will continue to do so until the job is complete.

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About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

13 thoughts on “Newcastle 1-0 Burton: Rafa rotation, rubbish refs and Ritchie’s right foot

  1. Lovely read Olly, good summery and nice when it’s from someone actually at the game. In the build up to our 2nd goal 😉

  2. Nice to see Mbemba back in. Steady game too although there was a communication issue with Darlow (again!). Maybe Darlow needs to see a voice coach. That’s the fourth or fifth time this season his defenders haven’t either heard or got the shout involving Clark, Dummett, Lascelles and now Mbemba. They can’t all be deaf!

    Can’t add anything on the ref situation. He should be sacked for not knowing basic rules.

  3. There’s a guy on the BBc website claiming that Stroud has previous. In a Reading v Tottenham game he allowed a goal after pen had been saved. The scorer had encroached however. Bloke’s just thick it seems. 🙄

  4. kimtoon:
    Lovely read Olly, good summery and nice when it’s from someone actually at the game. In the build up to our 2nd goal

    PC playing up ignore that post as unfinished .

    What I was gonna say was that in the build up to the goal there was 10 attempts on goal in 13 minutes by us. We totally deserved to win on the night. Don’t think I have ever known a ref get such a common simple decision so wrong. Turns out it was simple encroachment in the end and a retake, how he got it so wrong and his linesman is staggering.

  5. Hope Diame plays more regularly in the position he played last night. Thought he had a good game. I like Mbemba and was glad to see him back. I thought he showed a little bit of rustiness at first and a lack of confidence. Hardly surprising given his lack of playing time. Think he will get back to his previous best with more games. Full marks to Rafa for being prepared to switch things around. Atsu promises much but delivers little. Personally wouldn’t buy him. Might as well stick with Sammy if that is the standard we are aiming for. Hope we are aiming for a higher standard though. Good to see that Dummet is at last learning what direction we are supposed to go in.

  6. Good write up Olly. I think Atsu is too raw for us in the PL. 15 goals for Ritchie this season. Good effort.

  7. Good wingers are like gold dust. There’s an awful lot of Sammys and Atsus floating about whereas the genius of Ben Arfa is ditched for not tracking back. Ritchie despite not being the best dribbler really delivers with heart.

  8. When you think about it, there aren’t that many rules in football to learn and some aren’t even enforced – foul throws, anyone? I don’t know how many times a see a player duping the Ref by taking the ball back with two hands but following through and throwing it quarterback style mainly with one hand. But I digress.

    Most of the rules are simple; like take a free kick when the Ref blows the whistle, ball has to be stationary and wall 10 yards back. Even offside isn’t that complicated.

    The football rulebook is less complicated than the written driver’s test and this Ref fails on one of the most simple questions ! I would give him a 12 month ban and points on his license for 3 years pending any other offenses.

  9. Is Stroud a professional Ref, like in the PL, meaning this is all he does? He doesn’t have another job? And attends all of these junkets where they spend a few hours in meetings and then the rest at the pool and the bar, I mean conferences?

    If he is not full-time there is no excuse for not knowing the rule. If he is full-time, then that is a joke.

  10. Just looked up the Laws of the Game and there are ONLY 17. How can these 4 clowns not know this rule? They must have seen it enforced on TV as well, I have, quite a few times.

  11. The annual results are out and we basically broke even last year. You can also see that last year’s January spending emptied the bank account in an effort to stay up. What this hides though is the incompetence that got us there in the first place – the power grab by Carr and Charnley leading to first Ugly John and then Schteve. Now we are paying (and Ashley is loaning) because they are saying already that we will make a substantial loss this year.

    That was always going to happen although some have naively pointed to a profit on transfers this year meaning we had plenty of money to spend. We didn’t, we were paying in cash and getting paid in installments so there was always going to be a cash imbalance. We also kept a Premier League wage bill that the parachute payments were never going to fully make up for.

    I have looked at the figures quite a lot over the last few years and my unscientific/gut feeling is that we made a loss of probably 30 million this year. That means Ashley adding that amount to the loan. However, he must have doubled the value of NUFC because we will again be a PL team – all you have to do is look to the fact that 100 million bought 1/3 of Palace in the PL and 60 million bought all of Villa in the Championship.

    I doubt we will see massive investment in the summer, more spending of some future anticipated revenue. There will be some trading because we have players who are not up to the PL but are valuable in The Championship. Also they have to give Rafa a kitty or he will be off.

    I think Charnley has learned his lesson and will stick to the books and will do all he can to get Ashley to spend to stay up.

    Who knows, we may even be sold.

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