Sissoko settles it! Newcastle 2-1 West Brom

toonsy

Moussa's magic moment
Moussa’s magic moment
Newcastle maintained their 100% record for the month of November by beating West Bromwich Albion 2-1 at St James’ Park yesterday.

Goals from Yoan Gouffran and Moussa Sissoko either side of an equaliser by Chris Brunt proved to be enough to give United the points in what was a game of few real chances.

The victory moved us into fifth position in the table ahead of the matches on Sunday where results will likely see us drop a couple of places. Not that it really matters at this stage of the season as it’s all about getting points on the board and we’ve done that in an impressive fashion since the defeat to Sunderland by going on a run that has eased the pressure on Alan Pardew who now must surely be in with a chance of winning the Manager of the Month award.

Tim Krul had to be on hand to tip a long range effort from Chris Brunt round the post but West Brom hardly troubled Krul or our defence for the majority of the first period. Mind you the same could be said for Newcastle who could only muster a headed effort from Loic Remy which deflected wide before taking the lead in the 36th minute.

Yohan Cabaye sent a corner in from the left which Boaz Myhill failed to clear. The ball bounced high into the air in the centre of goal allowing Yoan Gouffran to rise highest and head home from just a couple of yards out. 1-0.

Added time in the first period brought a note of controversy as Yohan Cabaye played Loic Remy through on goal only for the striker to be seemingly pulled back by Jonas Olsson which would have surely resulted in a red card for the West Brom defender had Phil Dowd deemed it to be a foul but he waved play on.

Half-time: Newcastle 1-0 West Brom

The opening exchanges of the second period saw more controversy after Chris Brunt’s robust challenge on Yohan Cabaye went unpunished with many feeling that a second yellow should have been waved in his direction. If he was off the pitch he wouldn’t have been on hand to level the scores in the 53rd minute, finishing powerfully past Tim Krul at the far post after getting on the end of Morgan Amalfitano’s cross.

Parity only lasted four minutes however as Newcastle broke forward. A sequence of neat play saw Loic Remy head to Moussa Sissoko who let the ball roll across him before firing an unstoppable right-footed shot past Boaz Myhill and into the top corner of the Gallowgate net.

A late rally from the visitors failed to conjure up a second equaliser for Steve Clarke’s side who bombarded our penalty area with crosses only to find the United defence, and Mike Williamson in particular, equal to most of them with the one exception I can think of being a header for Victor Anichebe which went wide.

At the other end United had a couple of handball decisions turned away, most tellingly when Yohan Cabaye’s effort bounced of both hands of Billy Jones before being cleared.

Full-time: Newcastle 2-1 West Brom

Not a fantastic win but another three points all the same. It’s reminiscent of the 2011/2012 season where we ground out wins for the majority of the season, not that I’m fussed by that of course. Away trips to Swansea in midweek before a Saturday lunchtime date at Old Trafford await us now. Tough games where positive results are hard to come by.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Moussa Sissoko, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Yoan Gouffran; Shola Ameobi, Loic Remy

Subs: Rob Elliot, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse

West Bromwich Albion: Boaz Myhill, Billy Jones, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Liam Ridgewell, James Morrison, Youssouf Mulumbu, Morgan Amalfitano, Stephane Sessegnon, Chris Brunt, Shane Long

Subs: Luke Daniels, Goran Popov, Victor Anichebe, Saido Berahino, Diego Lugano, Zoltan Gera, Claudio Yacob

Attendance: 49,298

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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297 thoughts on “Sissoko settles it! Newcastle 2-1 West Brom”

  3. Arf Arf …. Hull 3 Liverpool 1 what a crazy third goal.

    The Hull owner sounds like a COMPLETE radgie ! 🙂

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  4. Nice banner being held aloft by the Hull City fans, defending the name of the club, indirectly protesting against the owner, within touching distance of the stewards.

    Why aren’t the stewards frogmarching the fans out and the club banning them dastardly protesters ?

    Oh I forgot, this isn’t NUFC 😳 😳 👿 👿 👿

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  5. Wonder if Mike Williamson has a chance of getting on the plane to rio in the summer .It helps that he is playing for a top team 😆

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  6. MM@75, makes you sick doesn’t it, media have a collective orgasm every time Liverpool are mentioned like.

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  9. Kimmy@81, you know that this is my favourite whinge don’t you mate 🙂 I hate the way certain parts of the media fawn over certain clubs, Liverpool being one of them. 👿 👿 👿

    Axel, Titanium Mike Williamson up against Neymar. I can see it now mate. 😉

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  21. I thought it might be his last game in charge of Fulham.

    He must have known it was coming.

    On another note:

    Over the last 10 league games, only Everton & Arsenal have collected more points than us.

    Results wise, that’s quite an achievement.

    I still don’t think Pardew is getting the best out of the players but if he keeps collecting the points as he has done so far, it’s hard to call for his head.

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  22. KK

    Pardew has found the winning formula and just needs a quality striker to replace Ameobi as the battering ram. Gomis continues to keep an eye on our performances and tweet our players congratulations, so I would imagine that one is still on the cards. I would much rather we went for Dzeko on loan though.

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  24. Dzeko on loan would be quite impressive if Joe could manage that.

    I’m not a fan of Gomis.

    Do we need a battering ram or could a different type of player work better? I’m not sure.

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  25. Do we go with the same again or make a couple of changes to freshen it up a little. December is a hectic month.

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  26. KK

    I think both ourselves and Arsenal are showing how important it is to be able to mix style of play up by going from intricate passes to long balls.

    Not a big fan of Gomis either, but reckon he could do a better job here than Shola. For one, he could probably chip in with around 8-10 goals per season.

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  27. mm – they had the same banner out last week and did indeed get thrown out the ground – there was a load of bad press about it so they’ve obviously let it go this week

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  29. Stevep@102, I didn’t know that mate… 🙁

    I heard a radio interview with the Hull owner a few weeks ago, and he is a complete radge. He kept repeating aggresively “I am the owner of Hull City and if I want to change the name I will, and NO-ONE, I repeat NO-ONE will stop me!!!!”… a radgie of the highest order… 🙄

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  30. Toby – Strola won’t be able to play Sat, Wed and Sat again. I think he’ll rest him for Man Utd.

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  32. The new-found Legendary Makem Slayer Super Eagle Shola Ameobi up against an aging Rio Ferdinand is quite a mouthwatering prospect. We should wrap Strolla up in cotton wool for the Man Ure game.

    I fancy that HBA may start against Swansea, with Remy up front in the Shola roll…

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  33. Stuart79
    Aye he looked dead on his feet yesterday. Played 90 minutes which is rare. I would go with Benny instead of him. Would also give Anita a start resting Tiote.

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  35. Haven’t been on here much recently so i don’t know if its been said but anyone seen the plans for our new state of the art training facilities. Don’t know to much about top class training facilities 😀 but these new ones sound top notch.

    Now if we could get our youth recruitment/training sorted we would be a force to be reckoned with for years.

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  36. So that’s all todays results gone in our favour.
    We cant complain with that.
    Sitting pretty in 6th place, ready to pounce when the opportunity arises.
    Let all Laugh at cesspool :mrgreen: 😆

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  37. Sock! Capow! Doosh! 😡

    I’ve took a hammering from some of you today whilst I’ve been sleeping in the wardrobe. 😆

    Cheers Eminem. ;-). Thanks for having my back from Aussie, Richie & Sharpy. 👿

    “It is better a man should be abused than forgotten.”
    Les Kellet. 1976

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  38. Santii – that’s the plan.
    It’s going to be cheaper n the long run to invest heavily in the youth setup and hopefully reap some rewards in a few years.

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  39. Regarding the next two matches:- I think we should go all out for the win at Swansea. Make that our priority match.
    I think it unlikely we will come away from Old Trafford with anything, although I hope we give them tw@ts a run for their money.
    Swansea are in a spot of bother right now and ripe for the taking.

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  41. I thought that was a really impressive win and a tough game. The baggies had only lost once in nine games (against Liverpool), so they are obviously a well organised premier league outfit under Clarke. We seem to have found a formula to winning games and it involves hard work mainly and having two banks of four. Then using the quality of Remy or yesterday Sissoko to win us the game. I think Gouffran has been a huge player for us this season. He has it all, pace, work rate, control, defending, attacking. He is like a player who does the job of Gutierrez to a greater level and then gets in the box and is a proper striker as well.

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  42. I think at the start of the season Pardew was saying Gouffran would be like a Lovenkrands, a trier who will come on and give everything for the team but I think he is more than that, he is a good player in his own right and we got him for nowt really when you consider what he gives to the team (including goals)

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  43. Liverfools decline has started.
    Everton and Newcastle to battle it out for 4th spot. 😯
    😛 😛

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  44. BB Why do you think its unlikely we will get anything at Old Trafford ? we have beaten Chelsea and the spuds at WHL in recent weeks were on a role and have some real quality in the side .I just hope Van Persie is still injured when we play them but i truly think we have a good chance of doing them over .

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  45. AXEL
    Agree mate but the only problem is they’re starting to find some form at the same time as us and Rooney seems to be in the best form for a long time (he would when he’s about to play us wouldn’t he) . I would have loved to play them at the start of the season, but I still think there are weaknesses there at the back for Remy and Shola to exploit IF we see enough of the ball and the midfielder are in top form.

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  46. Axel
    Rooney 1 yellow away from suspension also. Fingers crossed he gets riled up against his boyhood club 😈

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  47. Well yes Rooney is their main man.
    I would love it if he gets a booking on Wednesday.
    OT is a very difficult place to go and get even a point.
    I just prepared for the worst, anything else is a bonus.
    HTL

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  48. DJG i think if Tiote and Cabaye are on their game we will win the midfield battle and i see Remy and Goofy giving their back 4 plenty of problems . I would be tempted to try HBA with those two in a front 3 for that game .Trouble is though we will need to play a pressing game and thats hardly HBA’s stong point .

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  49. I would keep Shola for Old Trafford as he is just a handful for anybody at the moment and jumped to force the goalkeeper into punching in the build up to Gouffrans goal. I can’t see him playing 2 games in a week so I would experiment against Swansea and we might see Ben Arfa or Anita I would have thought. Pardew won’t want to change things too much though. Swansea like to keep possession so Anita would be a great player to come in as he picks people pockets.

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  50. Goofy is becoming my favourite player, his workrate is amazing and his goal tally is starting to look pretty good too.

    Of the December games I fancy us to collect 2 wins ( Palace and Stoke) and a draw v Swansea and I would be pleased with 7 points, 27points going into new year isn’t too bad at all. If we could get a point at OT or an extra 2 from Swansea so much the better.

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  51. Kim I said to Ice after Goofy played a few games that he would become our unsung hero, as he isn’t a main man but in the background he works his socks of for us. He was my motm yesterday

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  52. DJG
    With Tiote being suspended I can imagine Anita will go straight in.
    I think Ameobi would be more effective against Man United than Swansea if he only has the legs for one. With Vidic out I can see him and Remy bullying their centre backs like Ba/Best did a couple of seasons back.

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  53. Kim
    Don’t think you’re looking at an updated league table.. That would actually give us 30 points, even better 😉

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  54. Kimtoon two wins and a draw would give us 30 points. I would be very happy going into the new year with that and the magic 40 point mark in sight. :mrgreen:

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  55. Kim – we already have 23 points.
    So another 7 would give us 30.
    Bang on target for a top10 finish. 😉

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  56. I think most of us agree that we’re a side better playing without the pressure or “the big matches”-if we can get to 40 points asap and possibly hit it by February (10 games before then-so 5 wins needed basically) then we could have a really great end to the season. Many sides drop off after 40 points and struggle to motivate themselves, but with us who knows?

    We have done well with injuries but December is the month that historically destroys us, but if we can keep a clean bill of health and attack our F.A cup fixtures with some quality players rather than just throwing younguns or players who’ve barely featured at them then we might finally have a half decent cup run!

    Still i’d prefer to play down all our chances and keep us out of the headlines. The higher we climb the more attention other teams and the media will pay us and that’s never good for us.

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  58. I worry about Manure coming up. Rooney used to smash us in his younger days but he has been a bit of a shadow in the last three seasons against us. He might look to cleanse himself of that, his record used to be immense and he is looking better now than he has done in a fair old while 😕

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  61. I would back Tiote and Cabaye to keep Rooney quiet when we play them. Both have been in great form and I’d imagine Pardew will have worked on a system that focuses on keeping Skrek’s influence on the game to a minimum.

    On a separate note, is anyone else we didn’t try and trump the likes of Norwich, Swansea and Southampton for their expensive striker signings?
    None are performing well.

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  63. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pardew isn’t even thinking about the manure game yet.
    The next game is the most important one for him.
    He is being very level headed and keeping everyones feet firmly on the ground.
    He has already said all talk of CL is ‘ridiculous’
    He will be fully focused on the Swansea match, make no bones about it.

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  64. **** I forgot yesterdays win lol 😳 ,See what happens when you keep winning , so many wins so little time to fill in my match chart 😉 :mrgreen:

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  65. Kid, I’m happy with how the team is playing. There wasn’t much chance of money flying around over summer what with last January’s buys. My crystal ball says that this January will be a quiet one for us, other than the usual Cabaye -> everywhere talk. If I was advising Ashley, I’d tell him to sell after the World Cup when values are inflated, not before.

    Speaking of the ‘Cup, when I loaded up my stream to see Athletic play Barcelona, the chat there was full of “Ameobi for England”. I didn’t have the heart to explain the problem with that. 😆

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  66. Dave@132 ,No don’t, I still haven’t gotten over that weird dream I had about him last year like. By the way Goofy was my MOTM too Dave.

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  67. Kim@139 – that’s your problem, you’re making it too complicated. Just make a little progress bar from 0 to 40 and colour it in as we go. 😉

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  70. I think Cabaye should be dropped.

    He looks like a player that might burn himself out pretty soon as he’s trying so hard.

    I would give him December off as holiday.

    I think i remember him saying he needed a winter break otherwise he gets depressed.

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  72. ‘Depression? I am not afraid to say that. It was that,’ he told French sports paper L’Equipe.

    ‘But I was reassured reading the books of Jonny Wilkinson and Rafael Nadal, who both talked about post-competition depression and the need to have a break.

    ‘Euro 2012 was the first big international competition I had played. It is completely different than what you could experience in daily life with your club.

    ‘My season was long in a league where the pace is higher than in Le Championnat. I started with Newcastle early in July 2011 and finished late in June 2012 and, for the first time, I didn’t have any winter break. So then to resume in July 2012 was difficult.

    ‘Maybe it is difficult to start again after a big competition such as the Euros but my body didn’t allow me to do what I wanted to do. On a morning when I woke up I could still feel tiredness. I wanted to think about something else rather than football.

    ‘I am lucky to earn a living with my passion but it was the right moment for a break. So my groin injury at the end of the year was finally not such a bad thing. Maybe that is why I was back earlier than expected.

    ‘I asked myself a lot of questions. As long as you didn’t experience it [depression] you cannot understand. But I was not worried.

    ‘My injury allowed me to have some rest, meet my family and friends in Lille. When I was back in Newcastle in December, I knew I felt better but I never complained to anyone but my entourage.

    ‘Physically I feel perfectly fine now and I am keen to fight for the club. I want to give twice as much to save the club from the drop. I want to prove to the fans they can trust me and I can defend the Newcastle colours.

    ‘Now that episode is over, I have much more fun going to daily training. I realise how lucky I am. I felt enthusiasm could leave, and that is most dangerous.’

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  73. I’m almost sure this is his last season with us, maybe Colo too.

    Both of them would rather be somewhere else but i’ll still support them while they’re here.

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  75. KK, depression is a terrible thing to go through ,wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. As for supporting Cabaye , yes without a doubt if he’s depressed he needs support but I won’t back a player with a strop on. Has his recent form caused us all to forget his refusal to play in the first couple of games because he didn’t get his move?

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