Non-thriller at the Villa! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle.

toonsy

Collins celebrates the only goal of the game.
Newcastle succumbed to defeat at Villa Park this afternoon in a match that saw Aston Villa ease their relegation fears and move further away from the dreaded drop zone.

A very thin on the ground Newcastle United was on show for all to see as absences through suspension and injury took their toll and forced Alan Pardew into handing Nile Ranger his first Premier League start whilst Fabricio Coloccini was moved into a more advanced role in midfield. In contrast, Villa’s full strength squad enabled their under-pressure manager, Gerard Houllier, to take his pick of who to play.

You could tell that the home fans were feeling anxious as you could hear a pin drop in the Villa end at times. Newcastle capitalised on that and started brightly with debutant Nile Ranger proving to be a handful for Richard Dunne and James Collins in the Villa defence. In fact Ranger had a couple of half chances which he could have done better with, but inbetween those chances Joey Barton should have given Newcastle the lead.

Some fine work down the left from Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique allowed the Spaniard to cross into the box from the byline. The cross cleared everyone in the middle of the box but managed to find an onrushing Joey Barton at the back post who headed the ball goalwards only to see his effort spoon harmlessly over the bar.

The game ebbed and flowed with neither side really being on top. Mike Williamson received a booking for cleaning out Gabby Agbonlahor, and seconds Joey Barton gave away a free-kick after tripping Ashley Young. It was from that free-kick that the home side took the lead as Young curled the ball into the box for James Collins to glance into Steve Harper’s bottom right hand corner.

That goal eased the pressure on Aston Villa and they began to look more assured on the ball. Indeed the home side could have made it two had Darren Bent kept his eye on Stewart Downing’s cross and had the Assistant Referee not been kind and chalked off a Darren Bent goal for offside. I’ve seen the replays and I’m still not convinced it was offside.

That was it for the first-half however as both sides looked that little bit off form. Newcastle never really created much and Villa looked nervous, and that theme continued in the second half.

Without creating too much themselves, Villa still had the better of the early exchanges. Steven Taylor, who had a poor game and couldn’t even head the ball at one stage, flattened Darren Bent in the centre circle before flattening him again in the penalty box. Fortunately Stuart Atwell decided against awarding the penalty.

Taylor was withdrawn not long after that and was replaced with another Taylor – Ryan – as Newcastle looked to create something for the strikers who had been starved of service all afternoon as the nerves returned to the Villa Park stands.

The game just ticked along really with not much happening in front of goal for either side. There was a few tasty challenges but not much else. Ranger was replaced with Shefki Kuqi for the last ten minutes, but he was also starved of service and, as a result of that, failed to make any real impact.

Lovenkrands had about the best chance of the second-half in the final couple of minutes but he was unable to direct Danny Guthrie’s deep cross towards Brad Friedel’s bottom corner and the American saved comfortably.

Joey Barton had been a booking waiting to happen all afternoon as he continued from his gobbing off in the press during the week by gobbing off at the referee at every opportunity, and that booking arrived as injury time commenced. Five minutes were signalled, and despite much hiffing and puffing Newcastle were unable to create that chance or grab that equaliser.

Full-time: Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle.

We simply had too many off colour performances today. Steven Taylor was poor, as was Jose Enrique whilst Joey Barton had a stinker having been given Kevin Nolan’s armband. We never really created anything today, which is why we didn’t have many chances to score. We could have had the best striker in the world wearing our white away kit today, but he wouldn’t have been able to do much as the service just wasn’t there.

Aston Villa: Brad Friedel, Kyle Walker, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Luke Young, Stewart Downing, Stiliyan Petrov, Jean Makoun, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Darren Bent.

Subs: Andy Marshall, Ciaran Clark, Carlos Cuellar, Nigel Reo-Coker, Robert Pires, Marc Albrighton, Emile Heskey.

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Steven Taylor, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Fabricio Coloccini, Jonas Gutierrez, Nile Ranger, Peter Lovenkrands.

Subs: Tim Krul, Shane Ferguson, James Tavernier, Michael Richardson, Ryan Taylor, Ryan Donaldson, Shefki Kuqi.

Referee: Stuart Atwell.

Attendance: 37,090.

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.

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136 thoughts on “Non-thriller at the Villa! Aston Villa 1-0 Newcastle.”

  5. the less said the better,**** just no depth in team,always the same when results go for us we **** it up 🙁

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  6. Sooner the summer arrives the better so Lovenkrands can ****** off. Waste of space and wages.

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  8. “I will love it if we beat them! Love it! ..”

    Preparation for next game. 😈

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  12. But id like to see how many sitters Loven has missed this season. Has to be in double figures.

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  13. The only chance we created today was the chance all my mates had to laugh at us in the pub. Villa were absolutely *****, their performance was awful for being the home team. We were worse though.

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  17. I know Loven has been poor but the **** that gets threw at him is Laughable he is that **** that without him last year we would prob still be in the fizzy.
    If I hadn’t watched the game and just went by the comments I would think that we were on the wrong side of a 5 or 6-0 thrashing, I just hope the players have a bit more belief and faith than some of the Fans

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  18. Lovo was 10x as good as Ranger, everybody reckons he’ll be the next big thing. Absolutley useless. I could have knocked him off the ball today.

    Imagine if he scores one day, people will be nursing a fecking semi about him

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  20. Said it before but Ranger will never make it as a striker, he can’t hold the ball up, can’t head the ball, makes all the wrong decisions and is not a natural finisher
    He was continually beaten for pace by Richard Dunne. His role is as an impact sub when everyone else is knackered, needs to be loaned out for next season IMO
    Bad performance overall today, sooner we get 3 points the better

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  21. I’ve always went on and on about Ranger but he didn’t take his chance today. Agree 4411 he should be loaned out next season.

    Biggest chance of the game for me was Lovens header at the end.

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  22. My problem with loven isnt just from this game its from a season of missed chances, and yes he was quality in the fizzy but thats his level and we should of got rid of him in the summer.

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  23. El toro @1 so the deal’s done is it? Done between whom? Enrique’s agent and Liverpool? A replica of the AC move where he’s been made an offer he can’t refuse! What happened to the bit about dialogue between clubs BEFORE talks with players? To use an Alf Garnetism – scouse gits!

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  26. He said that he loves Newcastle and the fans, Also he said he would be renegotiating his deal when we were safe, if he’s has agreed a deal now it just shows that he was lying to the fans about it.

    Not saying he has gone, but if he does.

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  27. Ranger is total utter tripe, 3 major things I have picked out over the last few weeks. First to open next from about 6yards agains west ham I think, fecking shyte. Next the miss last week I think, open net ok mabey 20yards out but he neally hit the corner flag finally, he could have played the simplest of balls to lovo today which would have put lovo in.

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  32. I can remember most fans saying how sh1te Best was when he was missing all sorts of sitters last season and some this season I can also remember a few air shots aswell where he swipt that hard he ended up on his ****, but now people are saying that we miss him and his goals 😆

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  34. ye but best worked hard and is where he is now, I cant see Ranger working hard.

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  35. I just don’t get why people are so down?

    Look at the Villa team on paper compared to ours. Evene if we had our first choice central midfield of Nolan and Tiote available we would have struggled.

    One win against Wolves and suddenly we’re world beaters again 🙄

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  37. This weekend nothing really happened, Westbrom and Villa gained points on us but overall it was just as if nothing happened. All that’s happened is there’s another game less to go 🙄

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  42. only because you corrected me about calling joey a pr1ck when i thought you were talking about toonsy.

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  45. Deep down i think you were Jobey, it was one of them comments with a shallow meaning, but also a deep meaning aswell. Get alot of them in poetry is what i learnt on friday 😉 😆

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  46. terrible performance from joey barton .should of really said nothing to the press about being the best english midfielder .im just wondering if barry was watching today .joey son keep your mouth shut and play football.not good enough boy .

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  49. Good thing is, look at the next set of fixtures for the teams down the bottom.

    Birmingham v Sunderland
    Blackpool v Wigan
    Everton v Blackburn
    West Brom v Chelsea
    West Ham v Aston Villa

    Not all of them can win 😉

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  52. were safe lads but only just .i do hope the scum go down to the fizzy pop .thats a good season . 😎

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  55. Birmingham v Sunderland Draw
    Blackpool v Wigan Draw
    Everton v Blackburn Everton
    West Brom v Chelsea Chelsea
    West Ham v Aston Villa Draw

    That was just a quick estimate without looking at the table!

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  59. I was expecting more form Barton. The way he built himself up in the pre-match magazine clippings I thought he would be out to prove a point.

    He did, but I don’t think it was the point he wanted to make.

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  60. toonsy- don’t you dare say that… Davey will be on here in a shot calling you personal insults…. YOU KUNT 👿 👿 👿 👿 😉 😉 😉

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  61. Barton didn’t lead by example at all either. All he did all day was to swear at the ref and argue against his decisions. Not his best game

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  62. Jobey – Davey wouldn’t dare come on here mate as it would blow his little game reet out the window 😉

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  66. Toonsy theres nowt like building yersel up before a fall, I think this should teach him to just let his feet do the talking in future, I do think all the fall out from his talk during the week did get to him.

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  68. Dave – That’s it mate. Not saying he is suddenly ****, but if you are going to use big words you need to back it up

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  70. im sick and tired of the people that go against newcastle when they lose or play **** , yes they didnt play well 2day but they are doing better than what every1 thought we would of done this season , we were 1 of the favs 2 go back down!! its totally different when we play mint!! my point im trying 2 bring out is we should stick through the thick and thin and be proper newcastle supporters not slag them off!!! when we play bad at home allot of fans boo the players off at half time??? i really dont get that!! we should be behind our team man !!

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  71. Yep, im watching the golf, me mate put 20 sheets on Woods the other day at 12s,
    i didnt bother putting the bet in meself 🙁 🙁 🙁

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  72. Army nail firmly hit on the heed as I said I could understand some of it if we were thumped but we got beat 1-0 😯
    Yeah Tiger on the prowl and Rory doing his best to throw it away 👿

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