In terms of performance it was more of the same as the hosts struggling to assert themselves on the game, but the bigger news concerned yet more injuries as Alan Pardew’s threadbare squad took yet another battering.
First off Hatem Ben Arfa hobbled off with a hamstring injury that has already ruled him out of the clash with Southampton on Sunday and could potentially sideline him for a few weeks. Whilst the manager has said it’s not looking too serious these are the types of injury that should be treat with care. Papiss Cisse was the other injury victim on the night, coming off with a calf problem although he should be fine for Sunday.
Newcastle left the field to a chorus of boos come the full-time whistle after nearly suffering a shock defeat to the Group D strugglers. In the end the draw as probably a fair result but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the 21,632 strong crowd after yet another dire performance.
Davide Santon had the first chance of the game as he stung the palms of the Maritimo goalkeeper with an effort in just the third minute but his powerful effort was turned away by Salin.
Aside from that chances were at a premium for both sides until the home side took the lead on 23 minutes. Hatem Ben Arfa rolled the ball down the right for Sylvain Marveaux to curl past Salin and register his first senior goal for United.
Ten minutes before half-time Papiss Cisse thought he’s doubled the lead for the home side after he turned in the rebound from a Gael Bigirimana shot only to be called offside by the linesman. the last real significant action of the first-half was the aforementioned injury to Hatem Ben Arfa who was withdrawn five minutes before the interval and replaced by Demba Ba.
Half-time: Newcastle 1-0 C.S. Maritimo
The first real significant action of the second-half saw yet more injury troubles for United, this time for Papiss Cisse who hobbled off the field to be replaced by Romain Amalfitano. In terms of goalmouth action it was the visitors who looked most threatening as Tim Krul had to be on hand to deny Dias with a smart save in 54 minutes.
Newcastle struggled to make anything happen really with long, hopeful balls from Tim Krul failing to connect resulting in attacking momentum failing to build up. It came back to bite us ten minutes from time as Brazilian substitute Fidelis eased past Steven Taylor and fired past Tim Krul.
Danny Simpson and Davide Santon both tried to grab a winner in the closing stages, but it was the visitors who very nearly grabbed all three points in stoppage time as Fidelis fired wide at the back post.
Full-time: Newcastle 1-1 C.S. Maritimo
At the end of the day we are through but it has come at a cost. We’ve lost our only attacking player who looks likely to create something which makes it something like 11 senior squad members out of Premier League action through various injuries and suspensions. I hear the argument about lack of investment and champion it somewhat, but I do wonder whether any further investment in the summer would have been able to deal with a crisis of missing players such as this?
It wasn’t pretty and we’ve lost top spot in the group and now we must head to Bordeaux in a fortnight knowing that we have to win on French soil if we are to regain top spot and avoid a potentially tricky draw in the Round of 32.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Vurnon Anita, Gael Bigirimana; Sammy Ameobi, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sylvain Marveaux; Papiss Cisse
Subs: Rob Elliot, James Tavernier, Shane Ferguson, Mike Williamson, Mehdi Abeid, Romain Amalfitano, Demba Ba
C.S. Maritimo: Salin; Diogo, Roberge, Rosario, Ferreira; Luiz, Miranda, Simao; Dias, Adilson, Sami.
Subs: Ricardo, Fidelis, Olim, Briguel, Antonio, Brigido, Guilherme
Attendance: 21,632
I appreciate the review since I wasn’t able to catch the game over here. So apparently it was more hoofball, avoiding our talented midfielders?! What the hell is it going to take for Pardew to see how much that old style English **** hurts us?! 👿
AndrewT(Quote)
I think that’s a very good summary, Toonsy, and I totally agree with you when you say:
“but I do wonder whether any further investment in the summer would have been able to deal with a crisis of missing players such as this?”
I did notice on the previous thread that a few people were somehow trying to link last night’s performance with the lack of investment in the summer, which seems a bit tenuous to me. As I recall, most fans have been saying for a long time that the top priority is to bolster the defence by bringing in a couple of quality players – ie. an additional CB (who would probably be 2nd choice behind Colo)) and a RB to replace Simpson (ie. Debuchy). If we had brought in those two players in the summer, as well as Anita, and without losing any of our ‘purples’, then I think most fans would have been very pleased and looked on it as a good transfer window. But would it really have made much difference to the team that we were able to put out last night and the result we got against Maritimo? I doubt it.
For example, we had Simpson, Taylor, Colo and Santon in the starting eleven and Willo and Tavernier on the bench. If we had had a couple of extra defenders in the mix I guess it’s possible that we could have started the game with a slightly stronger back 4, but I think the main advantage would have been that we could have rested a couple of the better players and kept them fit for the Southampton game. In that situation I think it’s likely that the two players Pards would have rested would have been his new 1st choice RB (with Simmo stepping in to take his place) and his new 2nd choice CB (because Colo is still suspended for the next league game). In other words, he would probably have fielded exactly the same team as he did last night, even if DL had brought in those extra players in the summer that everybody wanted.
However much people may dislike Llambias, I don’t think he’s the person responsible for the shambles we saw last night.
Chris G(Quote)
We wanted European football but as a club, have not prepared for it and are paying for it big style. Its now time for the manager to earn his corn and get the team playing again, something they have only done in patches all season, and stop moaning about injuries, fixtures and other self inflicted absences, and also put a stop to the infuriating way we keep giving the ball away.
Robert(Quote)
It was the worst game of Hoofball I have seen in a long time.
Why does Krul have to kick the ball into the sky all the time. Look at their goal and they got posession of the ball off one of his useless kicks into the night sky.
Our first touch was very poor again. There was no movement the midfield couldn’t have have found space even if they were orbitting the moon.
The whole team was deviod of any imagination and the biggest worry was a total lack of skill.
How Pardew can pick two of that midfield last night to play with with Jonas Cheick and Shane on Sunday I do not know. For experience maybe go with Anita and Marveux.
At least we are now expecting nothing so getting a point away to Southampton will make us feel Christmas has come early
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
bl;loomin disgracefull only geting a draw with them
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Agree with every post so far ❗
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Tbh I only saw this Hoofball tactic when Ba came on. Cissé had the ball at feet but was poor with his control, this needs to improve. Bigi and Santon were positives and Coli was cool wasn’t sure about the rest of the team, Sammy and Marv played alright and Benny was good.
Andymag(Quote)
Toonsy good read and a lot of good points made.
We’re **** and we know we are, and the players look lost and very low on morale.
Big Dave(Quote)
very poor again passing is sloppy marv scored besides the goal he was poor sammy needs to go out on loan he just is not good enough we are heading for a hole a deep one i bet southamton carnt wate for sunday pardew earn your corn and get things right be for we are a laughing stock
chris(Quote)
What a total bunch neggars 🙂 🙂 except for Andy 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie have you still got that good feeling 😀
Or are you back in the real world 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
Haven’t got a good feeling about this weekends game to be honest mate. Maybe that might be a good thing 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie we might be ok this sun then 😉
But we need to start playing asap or we’ll get dragged into a scrap
Big Dave(Quote)
Spot on BD. We are simply not playing well. We don’t suddenly have a **** team, just one that is not firing on all cylinders.
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie atm we seem to only firing on 1 cylinder and he’s out now . So need to pray that one of the other cylinders will start firing soon
Big Dave(Quote)
As bad as we are playing at the minute i still think if we can keep relatively tight at the back on sunday well win because southamptons defending is dog and duck standard and theres no way they will keep Ba out…
CC(Quote)
Woke up and still p. off .We are utter tripe at the moment , two bright sparks last night Santon and Marv ,the rest were **** imo.Fecking hoofball in the second half and Benny and Cisse out now ,I despair I really do. 👿 . Dreading sunday when I would normally relish getting 3 points from that lot,add in the Pards used to manage them factor and it’s a potential nightmare.Good article Toonsy ,good points raised. Right off out for a bit .
KIMTOON(Quote)
I didnt see the game but from the reports above we were ****. I think Sunday is going to be very hard for us and Id settle for a point now. We can only hope Cisse is fit for sunday and we can have himself n Ba up front so we have some sort of chance of nicking a goal or two.
On the plus side we have qualified for the next round and Europa league is over for some time after the game in two weeks. Maybe Im hoping against hope that once our Europa league campain ends for winter we might re dicover our league form and we climb the table. But with the way we are playing its hard to see.
Johno Toon(Quote)
BD, you are not far off the mark there mate… Kim, we’ll come good, Arsenal last year were worse than us at the start of last season and they clicked and came good.. I have a good feel……….. actually, no I don’t 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Johno – very hard to see. I actually switched off last night when Benny pulled up. Just moments earlier I was dreading what we’d be like without him and how with every game we risk that. AP said ‘he’s feeling his hamstring’. Well it looked a lot worse than that to me.
So we go to Southampton with just three purples missing. Problem is they’re our only real purples. Never mind, Obertan and Perch will be back soon.
georgio(Quote)
Dave-didn’t you have a good feeling about this mate? You’re both rubbish, what we need is Toonsy to predict a comfortable win for Southampton in the pre-match review and we may have a chance… 😎
Newkie(Quote)