A knockout blow! Blackburn 4-3 Newcastle (AET)

Not a penalty?
Fans of NUFC can put any hopes of League Cup silverware on ice for yet another year after bowing out at the hands of Blackburn Rovers last night.

Gael Givet struck the hammer blow right at the end of extra time as Blackburn shaded a share of seven goals on the night, although the reality is that the away can feel lucky to even have been involved in the game at that stage.

We were poor on the night and deserved to lose, although that in itself demonstrates the ability and belief that this team has in reserve. They never let their heads drop and even at two goals down with only stoppage time remaining they still managed to dig deep and take a game that looked dead and buried into extra time.

It was the hosts who started the brightest and they threatened from the off. Junior Hoilett went close before the home side took the lead inside the first five minutes after good work from Martin Olsson who cut the ball back from the left for Ruben Rochina to fire home past Tim Krul.

The visitors very nearly hit back immediately through Demba Ba who thumped a shot against the post but that was just about all the away side had to offer in attack as they struggled to get a foothold in the match.

In truth Blackburn were at risk of running away with things and we can thank Tim Krul for keeping us in the match. The Dutch stopper was on hand to deny a Chris Samba header, a Rochina shot and a couple of scrambled efforts from Morten Gamst Pedersen and David Goodwillie.

However with the tie delicately balanced it wouldn’t have taken a lot for Newcastle to get back into it. They nearly did that in the second half through Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and a rather gilt edged chance from Hatem Ben Arfa who somehow managed to head over the bar from two yards out.

Newcastle were getting back into the match and had strong appeals for a penalty waved away after Demba Ba was brought down by Chris Samba. The referee waved away the protests and Newcastle switched off as a quick clearance found Ruben Rochina who sprinted clear of the defence and chased after his own poor first touch. Tim Krul came out to deal with that and cleaned everything out, ball, player, the lot which was enough to convince the ref to award a penalty in favour of the home side. Replays have subsequently shown that Krul cleared the ball first, by some margin, but the decision was made and Yakubu slotted home from the spot to make it 2-0 on the night.

That was pretty much game over in fairness as it looked to kill off any attempt on our part to get back in the game. The match was petering out and even a 25-yard goal from Danny Guthrie in injury time failed to lift the spirit amongst fans. But then the unthinkable happened.

Yohan Cabaye lined an ambitious free-kick 30-yards out and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top right hand corner of Mark Bunn’s net. An unbelievable turn around. Two goals in stoppage time is something that few of us expected but extra time it was.

Unfortunately it was Blackburn who regained the lead in the first half of extra time through Morten Gamst Pedersen’s hugely deflected free kick which left Tim Krul with no chance despite his best efforts. However you rule this Newcastle side out at your peril and they equalised once more after Yohan Cabaye was brought down on the box. To me it was a soft penalty, but so was the Blackburn one earlier and don’t forget we should have had one ourselves! Peter Lovenkrands took the spot kick and levelled the score at 3-3 at the end of the first period of extra time.

The second period of extra time was an altogether tighter affair as neither side looked willing to take a chance with the match finely poised. It really looked as though the drama of a penalty shootout was on the cards, but that was until Blackburn has the final say in the last minute of extra time thanks to Gael Givet who headed home from point blank range. From that there was no coming back.

So Blackburn are into the Quarter Finals at our expense then and we must put dreams of a Wembley final on hold for another year. Still it’s been that long that another years won’t hurt, and there is still the FA Cup to consider!

The League Cup is the one that is supposed to be winnable however which is why it’s a shame that we’re out of it. It’s supposed to be the one that the real top teams scoff at allowing the unlikely lads to get a pop at winning a pot. It’s a myth of course. Just look at the teams that are in the last eight of the competition.

It’s also the end of our 14 match unbeaten run so it will be interesting to see just how we come back from it. If the spirit shown is anything like what we saw last night then we’ll be fine. We deserved to lose last night because we were rubbish for 88 minutes of the game. We may have had 70% of the ball but we rarely threatened the Blackburn goal. However the spirit in this team should be applauded and ensured that we went down fighting in the end.

Next up, Stoke City!

Blackburn: Mark Bunn, Jason Lowe, Martin Olsson, Christopher Samba, Gael Givet, Ruben Rochina, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Radosav Petrovic, Junior Hoilett, David Goodwillie, Yakubu

Subs: Paul Robinson, Grant Hanley, Myles Anderson, Robbie Cotton, Mauro Formica, Jason Roberts, Simon Vukcevic

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, James Perch, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Davide Santon; Sylvain Marveaux, Danny Guthrie, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez; Hatem Ben Arfa; Demba Ba

Subs: Rob Elliot, Peter Lovenkrands, Mehdi Abeid, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Nile Ranger, Dan Gosling

Referee: Robert Madley

Attendance: 10,682

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.

102 thoughts on “A knockout blow! Blackburn 4-3 Newcastle (AET)

  1. I still can’t believe we had 70% possession. 😯

    That must be a record for us against Premier League opposition?

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  2. Without threatening the goal?

    We scored three, hit the post once and two blatant penalties turned down!? 😆

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  3. I only heard the game but it sounded like Benny was still off the pace. Any report on Santon’s performance? Better on right or left?

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  4. and before I forget – any defence featuring Perch and Simpson will ship goals, 7 in two cup games.

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  5. Couldn’t resist a little dig at Perch eh? Even though he did **** all wrong in both games! 🙄

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  6. Actually Preman is spot on…

    70% possession and after 85mins we had zero shots on goal to their 10… That is a bit concerning 😯

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  7. @georgio

    I don’t think anyone should expect HBA to be up the pace for atleast 3-6 months of continuous Footy.

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  8. JJ says:
    October 27, 2011 at 15:01
    Actually Preman is spot on…
    70% possession and after 85mins we had zero shots on goal to their 10… That is a bit concerning
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    Maybe we are best in a 4-4-2 after all? At least until HBA is back to normal?
    Then switch to a 5 man MF when we have a lead?

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  9. Lets take the positives from this. Santon, Benny & Marveaux all got good long run outs for the first time in ages in a competitive match. Will do them the world of good considering it was good Cup tie in a country NOT ONE of them has any meaningful experience in as of yet…

    Ba’s knee can’t be as bad as Stoke thought it was in the summer, as he has played a fair numberof games in a row now and was risked in a potentially fiery midweek cup game only a couple of days after our latest league match – good sign…

    We have discovered another quality free kick taker in Cabeye…..

    We are now in no doubt where our main defensive weakness is – Simmo, who was basically eaten alive last night…(Lets get his replacement in this January)

    Tim Krul was again exceptional and not to blame for the penalty.

    Our whole squad does not know the meaning of throwing in the towel. Priceless… 🙂

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  10. I think my only worry from yeserday is a tired team for Stoke. Big match for us since points will be tough to come by in November

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  11. TC & Premandup

    No surprise, NUFC lose and look who comes crawling out of the woodwork.

    Don’t feed the troll.

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  12. Too right Shamrock. Last season’s vintage would have had their heads down and their tails between their legs when the second goal went in. Not this team.

    Bring on the Stoke!

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  13. Disagree thad , last season we came back from 4-0 down at half time against a good arsenal team.

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  14. True Johno, but the difference now is that sense that we are never out of it. I certainly didn’t feel that way last year.

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  15. Definitely a strange one-off game. Lots of possession but no shots on goal. Clearly the ref wasn’t great. To fight back so late in the game is brilliant though. And done with Benny having an average game at best. Seems to me maybe it is time to bring Santon in at right back and leave Raylor at left back. Hopefully Saylor and Tiote can play against Stoke. Would be happy with a draw as they are very good at home. There shouldn’t any heads hanging after that fight back.

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  16. for you thad

    selected results from last season when we were losing and fought back

    wigan home D 2-2
    chelsea 3 – 4 newcastle (league cup)
    newcastle 4 – 4 arsenal
    Chelsea away D2-2 (league)

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  17. Got myself a half price season ticket yesterday…just in time to witness our hull-esque slide doon the table! 😉

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  18. I believe we have to stick with what’s been successful so far this season.

    HBA will have to get used to playing a bit part until he is fully fit.

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  19. Come on Witters you don’t believe we’ll do a Hull or you wouldn’t have spent the money. We have a very young but promising side which lacks depth in quality but is better than at least half the other sides. 😆

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  20. GeordieTwo….just messing man, I can’t wait!

    This is the best we’ve had it in almost a decade just as I’d predicted (Troy) & ain’t going to miss out!… 😛

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  21. where is everyone ❓ don’t tell me you’s are all bad losers.
    Troy good to see you back Fella whats the craic, I see you have been getting a bit of stick 😀
    Still can’t get over Colo lastnight he made a few school boy errors, but I guess thats Saylors fault

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  22. lets just move on…still doing well and great to see the club looking for loan spaces in league 1 or hopefully championship for shane ferguson and harris v!!!love to see sammiobie get a place too.the lower clubs seem to love taking our young players on loan,…and long may it continue!!!!!!!…bring on stoke!!!

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  23. @big Dave

    Hello fella. . I’ve posted quite a few times today and not once criticised the team.
    Yet some on here just find any excuse to have a dig. Mind Toonsy did as well.
    And their reason is because the toon lost and they think I’m here to criticise.

    Not at all. . How can I with the start we have had. Long may it continue.

    I do find it boring though when everyone just agrees with one another, so quite often I tune in but only read.

    I see nothing wrong with that personally but some vulnerable souls go in defensive mode.

    They know who they are. 😛

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  24. DAVE aye cannot fault the lads effort,but to let 4 in says nowt for the defence but thats the cup like ime afraid.how dare they get your forcast wrong 😀

    i blame shola and smith 😆 😆

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  25. Troy don’t let them get to ye Lad 😆
    I was gutted that they nicked the winner after us fighting back so well, But i’m happy that we did fightback as that was one of the things I was worried about with the new players, if they had the stomach for a fight but i’m not as worried after a few times that we have fought back now.
    So its back to bread and butter footie now for us, so bring on the Stoke 😉

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  26. Ice its funny the way we think about things, yesterday I really wanted us to go through, but now I think its better that we have it out of the way and we can concentrate on the Prem because it was ONLY the Carling cup 😆 😆 😆 😆

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  27. its funny how the so called big clubs now what everything going now FA cup Carling Cup ect,think these new owners what everything now and who can blame them the money they are paying out in wages ect as before they never played there best players until the semi or final in cup games,cups mean europe =cash

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  28. Dog- some teams have an embarassment of richs- I think City made 11 changes to their side from the weekend and still won handlily. 😯

    For those that don’t, the cups are all that’s left since the Prem is unwinnable to all but 2-3 clubs.

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  29. MDS aye thats my point city,chesea, l/pool ect want there pound of flesh from players and who can blame them,it will become the cups for 3/4 teams now imo

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  30. some say we havent played the top teams but tell you what stoke is one hell of a place to go for “any” team imo

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  31. Stoke will be tough but I know we will go out fighting.

    Think the big teams taking the cups more seriously also means the teams that finish 6-7 in PL have a better chance of getting into Europe than a random like Birmingham getting through on a cup win. That could be good for a team like us. And then there’s always the fair play league 😉

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  32. I just looked at the Fair Play table. How are we dead last? Have we even gotten a single red card this year? Is it all due to Barton and Steven Taylor during the Arsenal game? We’re 7th in the Disciplinary table, but 20th in Fair Play. How does that make any sense?

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  33. Yeah as Susan says, its one table which doesn’t make sense in the fact that the dirtier teams are at the top and its the bottom where you actually want to be at

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  34. Alright lads and lasses. I think we can get a point perhaps out of the stoke, it will be tough but I think we can do it.

    Toonsy: I’m working on an article, could be with you sometime tomorrow. It’s taking long as I had to tidy my room today aha

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  35. Steven Taylor remains Newcastle’s top ranked player in the EA SPORTS Player Performance index, having won 94% of tackles attempted along with 15 clearances and 12 blocks

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  36. Dave, you should have seen it. Was a right tip! Now looks like a room again 😆 Also I’m left footed :mrgreen:

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  37. @Batty

    Those stats need throwing at Stardust.

    Hold on, I will cut and paste and text them onto him.

    It will rile him right up! 😛

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  38. Zoe aslong as it wasn’t as bad as my daughters room it’s like a tip 😯 Aye I thought you might be a left footer, 😆 funny enough a ‘left footer’ over here is someones religion 😀

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  39. Ha! Batty it took him 10 secs to reply and was slagging Taylor off. 😆 Oh and you! 😯

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  40. @big Dave

    There’s no doubt that Taylor is a decent player but he is still too erratic and makes rash challenges that he doesn’t seem to be able to get out of his game.

    There’s no doubt Krul has saved the reputation of a few of our defenders this season.

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  41. Dave, what made you think that I was? Seriouly took me about 5 hours to clean! Now just have to keep it tidy

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  42. Zoe just from when you were talking about how you play etc 😉
    Troy I agree he can do the odd stupid think but I love a defender that will throw himsel in the line of fire, I have never seen him wimp out of a challenge or out of the way of the ball.
    I can remember Tugboat lastyear in the Liverpool match and he was in the line and the ball came straight at him and he ducked out of the way and it resulted in a goal 👿 , to me you have to take one for the team sometimes, I hate bottlers

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  43. @big Dave

    He’s defo not a bottler that’s for sure.
    He gives everything for the cause.

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  44. Just watched the highlights, and man our defending was horrendous.
    Having said that, they looked to have been given 2 clear offside goals. The second goal was really bad, the bloke ran forward with the ball for at least 10 seconds in his own half, then just lumped it forward Barry John style over the back of the defence, the bloke looked miles offside…..first goal was also ***** come to think of it, we lost EVERY tackle in the build up, then lost the attacker in the box. The winner also looked offside, ffs he just lumped it forward again, where was wor left back…really disappointing…

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  45. changes made big difference,just look how many weve conceded in cup games,justifies obertan and guttierez,inclusions,for helping out defence,cant be just a coincidence,we leak more goals when they arent playing.

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