Mark Hughes and the Stoke City supporters can thank one man for ensuring that the return home with a point this evening as Jack Butland put on a masterclass to enhance his growing reputation and pulled off a string of fine saves to deny Steve McClaren’s men the win they both required and deserved.
There should also be meaningful mentions for the post who denied an Aleksandar Mitrovic header and for Eric Pieters who was in the right place to block another Mitrovic effort from point blank range on the line – both of whom when combined with an inspirational Butland ensured a share of the spoils.
At the other end – the troublesome end – our defence was rarely tested and the one time our goalkeeper was required Rob Elliot popped up to scramble a Jonathan Walters effort away from goal. Otherwise, aside from the odd Stoke foray forward it was a largely uneventful day for our creaky defensive unit.
After the derby defeat last week it would have been easy to let the heads drop but to be fair to the Newcastle players that didn’t materialise as both sides made a flying start from the kick-off. But it was United who had the first glimpse of goal through Mitrovic who had a couple of early attempts before Ayoze Perez curled a shot a yard or so wide of the post
Stoke had half-hearted appeals for a penalty waved away by Roger East after Paul Dummett appeared to have fouled Bojan with TV replays showing that Newcastle this time had the beneift of a correct decision from a referee before Jonathan Walters found himself inches away from putting Stoke into the lead by just missing connecting with a Charlie Adam cross. Aleksander Mitrovic then struck the far post of the Gallowgate goal with a glancing header from a Moussa Sissoko cross which was just about the last meaningful note to report from an entertaining yet tense first half.
The second half started with United on the front foot and creating a number of opportunities. First Perez fired wide before Jack Butland tipped a free kick from Wijnaldum over the bar. Perez had another crack which was turned round the post by the impressive Stoke ‘keeper before Chancel Mbemba headed wide from the resulting corner.
Then it was Stoke’s turn to attack as Jonathan Walters found space in the penalty area and forced a reaction save from Rob Elliot before things threatened to turn ugly as Aleksandar Mitrovic threatened to lose his cool following altercations with Ryan Shawcross and then Philipp Wollscheid – with the pair booked following their handbags.
The game the turned a bit scrappy as Stoke settled for the point and while United tried to unlock the defence they found Stoke’s last line in fine form again as Butland foiled both Moussa Sissoko and Jamal Lascelles.
A sour point was the removal of Daryl Janmaat who, following a heavy challenge from Marko Arnautovic, had to hobble off through injury. The Swiss international failed to collect a yellow card for that challenge but moments later did find himself in the ref’s notebook after another cruncher on Siem de Jong. In the end he was perhaps lucky to remain on the field of play after inflicting another hefty challenge, this time on Chancel Mbemba which escaped a booking before he was swiftly (I use that term loosely based on the amount of time it took him to leave the pitch) withdrawn by Mark Hughes.
It also subsequently appears that Rob Elliot has suffered a recurrence of the injury that had kept him out for the last half of last season so is now doubtful for the trip to Bournemouth next weekend leaving us with only Freddie Woodman as a fit senior (sort of) goalkeeper. United could enter the emergency loan market as now three goalkeepers are out but whether they do or not remains to be seen.
One thing is certain though is that next week is a game we cannot afford to lose, but I’m confident in our approach and the results will come. Threatening the goal has been an issue but the last two games have seen us have 36 attempts on goal so sooner or later they’ll start going in the back of the net.
Howay the lads!
Attendance: 47,139
Newcastle: Rob Elliot, Daryl Janmaat, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Paul Dummett, Moussa Sissoko, Vurnon Anita, Cheik Tiote, Gerginio Wijnaldum, Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic
Subs: Freddie Woodman, Jamal Lascelles, Massadio Haidara, Yoan Gouffran, Florian Thauvin, Siem de Jong, Papiss Cisse
Stoke: Jack Butland, Glen Johnson, Ryan Shawcross, Philipp Wollscheid, Eric Pieters, Xherdan Shaqiri, Glenn Whelan, Charlie Adam, Amrko Arnautovic, Bojan Krkic, Jonathan Walters
Subs: Jakob Haugaard, Stephen Ireland, Marc Wilson, Ibrahim Afellay, Marco Van Ginkel, Mame Biram Diouf, Peter Crouch
Toonsy, I agree, it will come good but it doesn’t help when we keep losing players to injury. This keeper situation is a major concern now, it’s unbelievable that 3 senior pros are all out. 🙁
kimtoon(Quote)
It isn’t that unbelievable, it basically happened last season, lol.
Newcastle is a time warp. We are incapable of learning from or improving anything.
funkyjesus(Quote)
I’d argue they have improved.
It’s just injuries. Nobody could foresee Krul being out for the season due to an injury picked up on international duty.
Same with Darlow and Elliot.
You can’t put Woodman in. He’s highly rated but the fans will ruin him if he makes an error because you know that’s not allowed and will forever mean he’s ****.
toonsy(Quote)
You know like in the same way Wijnaldum is apparently **** lol
toonsy(Quote)
Crawley town fans love Freddie, they think he’s fantastic and their forums were full of their fans gutted to see him return to us but all wishing him well. He is young and IF he is put in the side, we must make allowances for his age as it is very young for a goalie in PL 1st team. Sadly we have a section of fans who would turn on him in an instant and I fear for the lad if he makes a ricket .
kimtoon(Quote)
Perez was brilliant today, neat skills and runs himself into the ground.. Can’t believe SM had him dropped for most of the earlier games, admitting he didn’t know he was capable of playing upfront 😯 some coach…
If we could break our defensive-minded two up we might start creating chances. I reckon Abeid would of worked well with Perez, who often drops back to play some clever football. Tiote / colback / Anita offer nothing going forward. We messed up releasing Abeid
Gashley(Quote)
Why does Butland playing a blinder at age 22 have anything to do with Elliot?
Butland was loaned out until the start of this season to get some experience. .
Elliot had a good game, Butland had a brilliant game. If Woodman played WE COULD HAVE NOT CONCEDED LESS GOALS… Elliot did not concede any goals, so I think he did OK.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We could have won by 3 or 4 today except for a brilliant ‘keeper. And they do not come along that often and do not get played as teenagers (except for a prodigy at Meelan for 2 games so far). Not even Butland was played in the PL as a teenager.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
How long can we be unlucky for? When does it start to become just rank coaching?
I lost count of the amount of times we had just 1 or 2 in the box when we were attacking. How are we suppose to score?!
Stuart79(Quote)
I would like to comment on tiote~ Anyone realise he seems to be back on his good form.. Quiet in midfield without card, spraying passes. Although he still occasionally played too dangerously.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
stuart79 our attacks are labourious and predictable. we swopped cabella, who had at least a few tricks and could have been used as an impact sub, for thauvin who is shocking. de jong lacks pace and fitness, and cisse…well what can you say.
Munich Mag(Quote)
is aarons injured again ?
Munich Mag(Quote)
9 excuses and counting…
roy cropper(Quote)
Adam Armstrong – man of the match for Coventry in a 3-2 win.
Mike Williamson – man of the match for Wolves 😯 in a 2-0 win.
Credit where it’s due.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
I have been reading the Chronicle boards and everyone is so negative on there. I thought we played a good game today and were very unlucky. Stoke are a decent team and have made some relatively expensive signings. The way some people act you would think we should limit them to zero chances. That simply does not happen in the Premier League. I doubt that they will keep Butland for long. I think Liverpool will probably bid for him. If not, we should.
Anyway, the old cliche of if you are being chased by a bear you don’t have to outrun the bear just your fellow runners. It looks like it will be 3 from 5 going down so we must get something at Bournemouth. Even with our awful start there is still a decent chance that we will stay up especially if we spend again in January. There was more to be encouraged by than disappointed by today. FIX THE CENTRAL MIDFIELD.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Back to my hobby horse. It should not be the end of the world to play Woodman for one game, but hopefully Elliot will be fit. The Chronicle say we may be able to get an emergency loan for that one game and then Darlow should be fit for after the International break.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Norwich and Bournemouth are within reach with a win on the South coast. They have injuries and a leaky defence. Sylvain Distain is 37 and played for us on loan in 2001! The players know what they have to do, three points down there and we’re back in the race. Good luck Everton for today. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
DJG: good luck Spurs and Southampton also.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We could catch Chelsea with a couple of good results, just shows anything can happen. I agree with others that although we are attacking, not many players are actually committing to runs into the box and we’re not creating many clear cut chances. Mitro was unlucky with his header onto the post though. I agree with Steve that the results will come in the end. We only have to better S’land, Norwich, Villa, Bournmouth and I think we will. Then next season will be about adding more players and replacing the likes of Steven Taylor.
DJG(Quote)
Well Watford beat an in form West Ham, so our loss to them doesn’t look so bad now I suppose.
We are better than Stoke that is obvious after watching us yesterday, who sit in 13th. We sure as hell are better than Scum, Villa, and Norwich currently 16th . Interestingly Bournemouth have the exact same goals for and against as us, 12 for and 22 against so it will be an interesting contest and one I would hope to get something from. I refuse to panic yet as we had the worst set of games to start of anyone this year and some awful injury luck along the way. Throw in idiot players doing dumbass things and incompetent refs and it’s no wonder we are where we are. The biggest part of our downfall though is our lack of work in the defensive market in the window. I can’t moan about our coaching as I am actually staying awake during our games now, something I was finding increasingly hard to do under Pards and Carver.
kimtoon(Quote)
I think it is highly likely Chelsea will get Stones and Griezemann in January. Abramovitz won’t let this carry on.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Up the Toffee’s and up the Spuds today.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eric, he must be desperate to pull the trigger but knows he is still liked by the fans, that’s the only thing buying him time right now.
kimtoon(Quote)
Just goes to show you can throw a **** load of cash at a club, hire a great manager but if it’s gonna go tits up it will. What is so different from last season when they were outstanding? How have Leicester City gone from being totally awful early last season to outstanding and never giving up this season? How on earth did we not win last week when Scum were beyond awful? How in the hell did Butland stop so many shots yesterday? sometimes football defies logic.
kimtoon(Quote)
For once I don’t think our goals against fairly reflects the way we have played. We ran into the best striker in the league on fire for 20 minutes and then the Ref gifted Scum a game that we had to chase.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Some truth in the lack of players in and around the box. We seem to have reverted to one up front again.
Groucho(Quote)
Kimtoon: Chelsea are knackered because Mourinho played a lot of their players for about 60 games last year, plus Terry is showing his age. Mourinho only used about 14 of the squad for most games and I think they have 26 players out on loan. I was in the Pub yesterday and they showed Chelsea, and then the room was split between us and West Ham. There weren’t many happy campers I can tell you.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Spot on Eric! That was a tough game yesterday. A game we shaded. A game between two well matched midtable sides.
georgio(Quote)
I meant at 25.
georgio(Quote)
Eric@27, Bloody hell that must of been the most depressed pub in the states yesterday 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
http://www.themag.co.uk/2015/11/what-wolves-fans-have-been-saying-about-mike-williamson/
Happy for Willo
kimtoon(Quote)
Well on the subject of our loanee’s Gillesphey scored for Carlisle united yesterday and the assist came from Gilliead . My brother is a Carlisle fan and hè says everone their rates Gilliead very highly the fans reckon hè is the best young player they have had since a certain Peter Beardsly 😯
Axel(Quote)
If the fa dont grant us an emergency loan keeper i wonder of their is a decent keeper out of contract somewhere that we could bring in . Even if it was as reserve too sit on the bench too cover Woodman , beter that than forcing an outfield player too cover the keeper.
Axel(Quote)
We’ve won one away game in the last 20 odd, so what’s the chance of us winning next week? Some said we needed at least 4 points from the next couple and we have drawn our home game.
When does it start to get serious? Before we know it we will be adrift.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart: we are getting shots on target now so hopefully the goals will come. The Sunderland giraffe played a blinder against us and so did Butland. We have to get some luck going our way at some point.
I haven’t looked but I bet we are awarded the least number of penalties in the League, and I mean all 4 divisions. Last I remember was Cisse scoring last year.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
STUART what your take on Shawcross,I thought he was top notch in his first Pl game in a long time one of the reasons we found it hard to stick it in the net,just shows how badly we need at least two defenders in Jan
icedog(Quote)
Icedog: If I may. He tried to maim Haidara 2 seasons ago and did maim Aaron Ramsey. He’s a dirty *******, so let’s sign him up 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
ERIC imo he’s a top c//h beats me how he’s never been picked for England would have loved him at the toon,agree he’s a hard sometimes over the top just the way I like my c/h takes no prisoners Mis just bounced off him all game,hasn’t had many red cards at Stoke,pity he had his come back against us,the swine
icedog(Quote)
So, we’re struggling to score goals (Southampton Excluded as a freak) so why are we leaving Cisse on the bench and why can’t De Jong get a game?
Stuart79(Quote)
Ice – He was top class. Shame we wouldn’t sign someone like him.
Stuart79(Quote)
STUART cheers mate always best to take the view from someone who knows footy and was there at the game rather than armchair fans,yes wish we had him
icedog(Quote)
For me our current predicament has nothing to do with luck or rank coaching, but more to do with our transfer policy coming back to bite us on the ****. We are playing good football and creating real chances to win games.
But in my opinion we have too many poor players in our squad. That is thanks to years bear minimum investment resulting in a lack of quality that hasn’t been upgraded. The 2nd aspect to that, is buying young players ‘on the up’ as they put it. That’s great to a point, but it comes with its problems too. Yes we lack PL experience, but I also think we lack a bit of maturity and composure at times too.
I’m a fan of Mitrovic, but I do wonder how many of the chances he’s had in recent weeks would Austin have scored if he had them for example?.
I think our biggest problem at the moment is that our best players are young, inexperienced and at the moment are just failing short.
If we could add a bit of expericence & not just quality to the squad then that would make a big difference.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ice – when you consider that the likes of Phil Jones & Chris Smalling have a good few England caps now, I think it’s outrageous that Shawcross has been overlooked so often. I think he’s a terrific player and I’m amazed a top 4-6 side haven’t took him before now.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy – McClaren has two proven scorers on the bench in Cisse and De Jong yet neither get a start, even when we are struggling to score goals. Why is that? Sorry, that’s not got anything to do with our transfer policy, that’s poor decisions and lack of imagination from the coach. He continues to play two defensive midfielders. Why?
Stuart79(Quote)
get in toffees
kimtoon(Quote)
IMO we missed out on a PL c/h at 8mil in Evans not a top player but better than we have,Pulls seems to rate him
icedog(Quote)
Stu, I’m a massive Cisse fan as you know, but he’s not interested at the moment, you can see it in his play. Mitrovic was a pain all afternoon to Stokes back line and was, yes, unlucky his effort came off the post. Right now I would have his work rate over Cisse’s all day, same with Perez he works non stop and would of had one yesterday but for a world class Butland save. As for the dm players, that’s due to the weak defence we have. De Jong is not fully fit of that I’m certain and I’m not even sure he will ever be PL ready.
kimtoon(Quote)
**** off Defoe
kimtoon(Quote)
Stu – De Jong a proven goal scorer? How many PL goals does he have to his name?. Cisse has scored goals in the past and yeah he’s been clinical in the past but when was his last really good game?. Mitrovic & Perez were getting into goal scoring position yesterday & have been in previous games. Yesterday I maybe would have swapped Mit for Cisse after his yellow card coz he seemed to loose his way a bit I think.
But I don’t think Cisse has a future with us to be honest, and De Jong looks a different player since his injuries – I’m not sure he’ll ever get back to the player he was.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ice – Evans would have been a great purchase alongside Mbemba IMO. He’s certainly proving his worth, I think WBA have something like 6-7 clean sheets this season. He let Lescott go to bring him in as well.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Firstly, Sharpy, the fact remains that for all Perez and Mitro’s chances we are struggling to score. Something needs to change. We need goals and Cisse is a goal scorer. De Jong consistently scored goals wherever he’s played and he’s played at a higher level than we currently play. Not sure how you can say he’s not looking like the same player as we have never seen him get a chance. Another of McClarens mystery decisions. We need goals yet McClaren continues to play two defensive midfielders and leaves two very good alternatives on the bench.
Stuart79(Quote)
Sunderland looking like having a new manager bounce. Where’s ours?
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – you’re right they have. So has Kane, Rooney and Costa – all keep getting selected by their respective managers and up until recently Giroud was being questioned, yet Wengers loyalty has paid off.
As for De Jong, it wasn’t that long ago you were saying he wasn’t good enough and we’d bought a dud 😆
I’m not sure what your point is with the midfielders. We created chances and only lost the game coz Butland was outstanding – not coz we were too defensive. We won the midfield battle and limited a dangerous Stoke attack to only 1 real effort that I can remember.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stuart – you haven’t been watching mate. Whenever he’s on the field the game just passes De Jong by. He had 15 mins v Arsenal and didn’t touch the ball. Yesterday he had 3 touches. Goalscorer? He’s totally unfit for the PL.
georgio(Quote)
Georgio – he had zero impact on the Watford game either – a game Cisse also played in and was *****.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Give over, Sharpy! I’ve never once questioned De Jongs quality.
It really doesn’t matter how much sugar coating you do, we struggle to score goals yet you seem happy to continue doing the same things, and missing!
My point about the midfielders is that there were many times yesterday that we only had two players in the box when we attacked. Maybe playing De Jong instead of Anita and moving Gini into a central role so he can attack is an option? For some reason McClaren seems content to keep doing the same things and seeing the same results. It’s poor and your defence of him and his tactics is bordering on the insane.
Stuart79(Quote)
Georgio – The guy needs to play more than 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there to have an impact. Jesus Christ! Talk about unfair judgement.
Stuart79(Quote)
Not sure I’ve seen a worse PL defence than Sunderlands. Jesus they’re ****! Make sit even worse that we couldn’t score and got beat 3-0.
Stuart79(Quote)
Looks like that new manager bounce for the Scum has buggered off 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
Stu, Well we can thank the ref for not giving Gini a pen he should of had before their pen and sending off Colo for that.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kimtoon: it was a referee bounce! And Stuart, the Ref gifted the scum the game so it it hard to compare with the Everton result.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stuart – there’s a reason he only gets a few minutes here and there. He’s not fit for the PL!
georgio(Quote)
Oh and I should point out that I see we are playing better football and I accept that, but I can’t accept that we attack in small numbers and we need to fix that.
Oh and another thing, Butland made 3 or 4 saves yesterday but they were all right at him and in my opinion they were more poor efforts at goal rather than good saves. Any keeper would have saved them shots.
Stuart79(Quote)
Georgio – He seemed to look ok against PL opposition when he was destroying City in the CL.
Stuart79(Quote)
De Jong is unfit, end of. Impossible to make an accurate judgement, imo he will struggle to ever regain the fitness required of a PL player. Collapsed lung takes a massive amount of recovery let alone twice followed by surgery on it.
kimtoon(Quote)
6.2 😆 talk about pride before a fall.
kimtoon(Quote)
Every football pundit that has spoken about last weeks game and this weeks game all agree we were unlucky not to win both. Butland was outstanding yesterday and NOT easy shots to save.
kimtoon(Quote)
Stuart: absolute bollocks. That save from Lascelles was brilliant.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Kim – How is he supposed to get fit without playing, or are you saying he would be worse than what we are currently doing? Is it possible to be worse than not scoring? He can only add a threat, and it can’t be any worse.
In my opinion we need a change of formation.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – McClaren saw a lot of De Jong out in Holland and has spoken of how highly he rates him as a player. So the fact he isn’t getting game time and only starting on the bench would suggest to me that he’s not ready to contribute 90mins yet.
Carr brought in Thauvin when McClaren wanted Austin. If we had his composure and quality in front of goal, I think we’d be looking at a different story. My defence of McClaren may be seen as bordering insane, but I think his constant attack simply coz he wasn’t the man some wanted is beyond shameful.
I see scum are 6-2 down now – that new manager bounce didn’t last long 😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – It was straight at him. One foot either side and it was a goal.
Stuart79(Quote)
He was also really lucky with the one that hit his legs from Sissoko. You are fitting the facts to fit your view of us lacking firepower.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
4 of the Scum’s next 5 are against – ****, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Well at least we’ve no longer got the worst defence or GD in the league 😆
toonsy(Quote)
Sharpy – So McClaren didn’t get the players he wanted – well it’s his job to find a formation that gets the best results with what he has. Are you telling me this is getting the best out of what he has?
Stuart79(Quote)