Newcastle United 4-0 Birmingham City – Post Match

Before the game, many felt that this could prove to be a big test for Newcastle United, they had lost three in a row and Birmingham had a very good record against the better sides in the division.

This, though, was not the case. A hat-trick from Dwight Gayle and another goal for Yoan Gouffran sealed a much needed win for Newcastle.

However, despite Dwight Gayle getting three goals, it was not a one man show.

Jonjo Shelvey and Mo Diame were brilliant throughout, both creating opportunities and both playing as if they had a point to prove.

Diame, in particular, was incredible. He played with power and immense skill, twisting and turning the opposition inside out.

Vurnon Anita also showed just how good he can be, playing very well throughout, sniffing out any signs of danger throughout the game.

If truth be told, there was not a bad player in the Newcastle side yesterday and in the week that Rafa Benitez said the club would be talking about new deals, I would imagine Gouffran and Anita have cemented their places at the front of the queue.

Next up, we face Wigan Athletic away from home with the Toon just under even money with most bookies. Those who want to make money from a match, can go to the best sports betting websites by entering sportsbettingsitez.co.uk to make a wager. Tune into Nufcblog.co.uk to follow all the action live on Wednesday night.

 

83 thoughts on “Newcastle United 4-0 Birmingham City – Post Match

  1. could not really pick fault with any player they all seemed to have the same mind set,on to Wigan i think Rafa will change a couple only because another away game follows on the Sat this xmas period is very important time we dont need any slip ups,we will just see if any of the chasing clubs can stay injury free and their players can handle the amount of games to be played

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  2. Ice – I have no issues with Rafa rotating 1 or 2 players – but I think he probably realised that the Bburn game was just too many to maintain momentum.
    Anita has cemented himself as a RB for me, and a very competent one at that.
    Shelvey seemed to want to make amends for his silliness against Forest and worked hard yesterday.

    But Diame was stand out for me yesterday – I’m not saying he was the best player – but it was certainly his best performance for us so far this season.

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  3. Just watched the Derby v Forest game and really like Tom Ince & Will Hughes – we should defo be looking to prize him away from Derby.

    I think that’s 6 wins in a row for Derby now and up to the play offs – McClaren is working his magic ??

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  4. Sharpy17:
    I see the site is buzzing with life again

    i thought that mate i even thought i was on the wrong thread for a minute,well at least w/h got a result so Rafa will still be at toon next week 😆 😆 😆

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  5. icedog: i thought that mate i even thought i was on the wrong thread for a minute,well at least w/h got a resultso Rafa will still be at toon next week

    Ice – I saw those rumours linking Rafa as Slavs replacing. I don’t see Rafa going now though do you? – I mean if he wanted away he’d have left before this season. Things are going to plan & I expect he’ll have money to spend in the summer & get us promoted, so WH can look elsewhere!!! – Fat Sams available ?

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  6. Aye Derby are flying again under Macca. I think people are just suited to some clubs and not others. Weird isn’t it? Good luck to him.

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  7. I also think that Macca was not allowed to sign who he wanted and was ‘given’ a young Mitrovic, Thauvin etc. I don’t think you can fully judge a bloke unless he gets his own players, which they then rightly live or die by. I’m pleased we’ve moved away from this ‘head coach’ rubbish.

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  8. DJG:
    I also think that Macca was not allowed to sign who he wanted and was ‘given’ a young Mitrovic, Thauvin etc. I don’t think you can fully judge a bloke unless he gets his own players, which they then rightly live or die by. I’m pleased we’ve moved away from this ‘head coach’ rubbish.

    DJG – I agree mate. He certainly wasn’t given the players to keep us in the PL. But by the same token we really weren’t playing well under him with the players he had.
    Ultimately I’m pleased it all went so badly under his charge (nowt personal to him) coz it resulted in the kick up the **** the club desperately needed.

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  9. Pleased he tanked Forest, cheating bar stewards.
    If Derby and Villa aren’t in the playoffs at the end of the season I’ll be amazed. Huddersfield will probably be about tenth. 😛

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  10. Scrolling through about 6 thousand adverts before finding a single comment is doing my nut in to be honest! There is even a hotel advert popping up as I type and no option to close it!

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  11. To early to get excited. Good win against Birmingham all the same. I am more concerted about consistency at the moment.

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  12. On McClaren, I don’t think that he is a bad manager. I think that he just struggled with the pressure here!

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  13. Jake Swinburn:
    On McClaren, I don’t think that he is a bad manager. I think that he just struggled with the pressure here!

    Jake – he probably struggled with all the restrictions placed on him as well mate. The board playing stupid buggers with ‘head coach’ and Carr buying the players.
    That said, I still think his win rate should have been better than what it was with us – his spell was disastrous

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  14. He’s done well in a few clubs, poorly at others. He was better bet than some of the other losers we have had. Never up to Pards standards of course. 330 games in the EPL now, all midtable. Does that make him an average EPL manager?

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  15. Read someone on Ed’s blog saying that Birmingham were very poor. The record shows they are not. It is easy to say a team was poor when you have just beaten them four nil. Let’s give credit where credit is due. On the day we were excellent. To say that Birmingham were poor is to downgrade Newcastle’s performance. Well done Rafa.

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  16. To be fair you can only beat the opposition in front of you. We did that and well done to Rafa and the players. After 3 defeats in a row it does worry me that the squad may not be good enough to win the championship. I think consistency is very important.

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  17. Brighton are only a point behind and shouldn’t be underestimated. Chris Hughton is a very good championship manager and will want to win it himself.

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  18. Sharpy17: Jake – he probably struggled with all the restrictions placed on him as well mate.The board playing stupid buggers with ‘head coach’ and Carr buying the players.
    That said, I still think his win rate should have been better than what it was with us – his spell was disastrous

    I agree to an extent mate, but as you say, he still should have done better! Especially with his experience in the game!

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  19. I see they reckon we are close to agreeing Thauvin back to Marseille for £10m – we paid £13m for him like. But to be fair, having seen him playing for us, I never thought for a second we’d get as much as £10m back for him like!!.

    So with £10m for him (hopefully) and the £30m from Sissoko, Rafa should have a canny little war chest to spend in Jan should he want to.

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  20. I don’t think McMuffin would have been a good choice for us even with less restrictions placed on him He has shown himself to be average at best at several clubs. He usually has early success followed by mediocrity (sounds a lot like wor other mediocre manager Alan Parsnip doesn’t it)?

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  21. G2: at least Schteve wasn’t as annoying in every press conference as The Arrogant One. That was always about half my problem with Pards, I just did not like his personality.

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  22. Sharpy17:
    I see they reckon we are close to agreeing Thauvin back to Marseille for £10m – we paid £13m for him like.But to be fair, having seen him playing for us, I never thought for a second we’d get as much as £10m back for him like!!.

    So with £10m for him (hopefully) and the £30m from Sissoko, Rafa should have a canny little war chest to spend in Jan should he want to.

    dont forget it was 13 million euro we payed for him which £10 mil at the time so we lost nowt really,remember Austin? that fans said we should sign but toon held back because of medical concerns,well he was out for a good while with a injury,but hes been back for a few games,now hes out for four months with that shoulder he had the problem with before and the reason we didnt sign him,looks like we did the right thing there mate

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  23. icedog: dont forget it was 13 million euro we payed for him which £10 mil at the time so we lost nowt really,remember Austin? that fans said we should sign but toon held back because of medical concerns,well he was out for a good while with a injury,but hes been back for a few games,now hes out for four months with that shoulder he had the problem with before and the reason we didnt sign him,looks like we did the right thing there mate

    Ice – to be honest mate I think it was more a case of Austin wanting to stay South than the club making the right call – but either I think you’re right, we dodger a bullet there – unfortunate for him coz he’s a good goal scorer & might have had a chance with England at one stage.

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  24. well i see the two irish lads we were looking at both have signed for Preston,Rafa must not have wanted them i suppose

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  25. Very good goal from Ameobi. Is Atsu really any better? Also see young Callum Roberts had 4 assists last night for the 23s.

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  26. Read this on Football365. They were naming the top 10 flops of the season so far and Andros was number 3:

    “3) Andros Townsend (Crystal Palace)
    It was the most logical purchase of the summer. Townsend had missed out on a place in England’s Euro 2016 squad (cut from the original longlist), but had done more for his reputation in four months at Newcastle than in seven years at Tottenham. The winger was the only player to survive the Steve McClaren doom, and flourished under Rafa Benitez.

    Paying £12m to save Townsend from the Championship was a no brainer even before Everton paid £30m for Yannick Bolasie and Alan Pardew persuaded Christian Benteke that Selhurst Park was the best place to recover from his Liverpool nightmare.

    It hasn’t really worked out that way. While Wilfried Zaha has embraced the departure of Bolasie, Townsend has regularly struggled to justify a place in Palace’s team. Having started the season brightly his form tailed off badly, leading to him being benched twice in Palace’s last six league games. A record of 35 shots with only seven on target indicates that the lesson has not been learnt about cutting inside before shooting high and wide.”

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  27. I think Townsend was mad to join Pardew. Even with Newcastle in the Championship it would be clear to a bat with a guide mole that Newcastle are a bigger club and Rafa would get us back up. There must have been players still at NUFC who could have told him what Arrogant Alan is like? Which I have a new theory on, BTW.

    He is like that bad schoolteacher who plays favourites. If you are not one of them you are ridiculed or ignored. I think Alan does this, maybe subconsciously or perhaps as some misguided motivational tool. The players see this and see players being dropped or cast out who were even once his favourites. Eventually it alienates them and the team underperforms. He is also a **** defensive coach as has been seen at NUFC and now Palace where he was the one in charge of the defense.

    That, or he is just a c@nt.

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  28. I bet we are heavy favourites tomorrow as Wigan are 2nd bottom. And who are bottom? Only the team that beat us 2-0 at home – Wolves. Still, I think we will win and I’m going for 2-0.

    Hopefully Munich Mag will predict a defeat, as he hasn’t been very good with his predictions this year 🙂

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  29. Eric Sykes:
    I bet we are heavy favourites tomorrow as Wigan are 2nd bottom. And who are bottom? Only the team that beat us 2-0 at home – Wolves. Still, I think we will win and I’m going for 2-0.

    Hopefully Munich Mag will predict a defeat, as he hasn’t been very good with his predictions this year

    its our bogy ground mate we have lost there 7 times in 8 vists

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  30. I do remember that crazy game when Martinez was manager and we were down 4-0 in half an hour. Apart from that, I don’t recall all of those defeats Ice. I will take your word for it though.

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  31. Big mistake by Townsend but he couldn’t resist the Prem. Not sure what will happen to him but I would try to leave Palace if it was me. No hope for him as long as Parsnip is in charge.

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  32. GeordieTwo:
    Big mistake by Townsend but he couldn’t resist the Prem. Not sure what will happen to him but I would try to leave Palace if it was me. No hope for him as long as Parsnip is in charge.

    he will want 30mill plus for him if he does try to sell him

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  33. Just been looking through some of the transfer rumours and a couple stood out.
    Swansea reportly tracking Tom Carroll from Spurs but don’t want to meet the £10m Spurs want.
    Also Villa are supposedly looking at Robbie Brady from Norwich for £10m.

    I reckon I’d take both of those at £10m a piece like. Both 24 and Carroll would be a decent creative midfielder, and Brady has a cracking left foot – he’d be a similar style winger to Ritchie on the right IMO.

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  34. Sharpy17
    Brady is class, especially if Norwich didn’t get up, I would try and sign him and offer Dummett, Hiadara or Lazzar. I think he could easily play consistently in the PL, I don’t think either of the others will sadly. We need to be ruthless to get to the next level and PL quality players will need to replace some of our squad.

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  35. Steve Bruce knows Brady, as he managed him at Hull. If he’s going back for him with £10m what does that tell us?

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  36. DJG – Brady keeps getting listed as a LB but actually for Hull, Norwich & Ireland he plays more LW or LM.
    I like him too mate. He’s a real grafter – will work hard for 90mins similar to Ritchie, but he has a good left foot and could produce chance from the left the way Ritchie does on the right. I think he’d offer good balance. He’s only 24 but has a lot of experience both in the Championship & PL. I agree I think he’d be a good player in the PL too – £10m would be a fair price IMO when you think we paid £13m for Ritchie.

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  37. Why does Dummett get such a hard time? He is probably our most consistent player and Rafa doesn’t really play with wing backs so his perceived (by some) lack of attacking quality doesn’t matter so much in his system. Rafa wants us solid at the back first of all to allow the creative players to play. I am not saying I wouldn’t want Marcelo but I am quite happy with Dummett.

    And Little Vurn was never a PL midfielder but may be a PL right back.

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  38. Eric Sykes:
    I bet we are heavy favourites tomorrow as Wigan are 2nd bottom. And who are bottom? Only the team that beat us 2-0 at home – Wolves. Still, I think we will win and I’m going for 2-0.

    Hopefully Munich Mag will predict a defeat, as he hasn’t been very good with his predictions this year

    I think Rotherham would be deeply offended that you think Wolves are bottom of the table – they’ve worked hard to earn that distinction. Still, it is kind of odd that we’ve lost to Wolves and Blackburn while beating 4 out of the other 5 teams in the top 6. And we barely beat Rotherham, who are almost nailed on to go down, less than half way through the season.

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  39. Eric Sykes:
    Why does Dummett get such a hard time? He is probably our most consistent player and Rafa doesn’t really play with wing backs so his perceived (by some) lack of attacking quality doesn’t matter so much in his system. Rafa wants us solid at the back first of all to allow the creative players to play. I am not saying I wouldn’t want Marcelo but I am quite happy with Dummett.

    And Little Vurn was never a PL midfielder but may be a PL right back.

    Eric – I like Dummett – he’s my cult hero mate ?. I think he’s a decent player who always puts a shift in.
    I do think a winger can get in behind him and he’s not great with a over his head for a winger to run on to – got caught out a couple of times with that against Forest.
    But he’s still quite inexperienced in terms of games played, and I don’t think this rotation thing helps him – I think he’d be more settled playing week in week out in a settled back 4. Hopefully Rafa gets that and sticks with Anita/Jamaal/Clark/Dummett as often as possible.

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  40. Looking at the current table and taking today’s results into account, things are really tightly packed from 3rd through 10th. If we can beat Wigan tomorrow, we would be 9 points clear of 3rd with just over half the season remaining. I know there are a lot of games left to be played, but that seems like a huge gap.

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  41. CP aye hoots wins away again,things look canny,remember we lost 3 in a week it can happen to anyone in this lge mate

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  42. Yeah I’m with you Ice. 9 points is a nice cushion, but with 2 games a week it just takes a little **** up and we’re caught.
    Hoots is doing a really cracking job at Brighton, and for him I’d love to see Brighton come up with us. But we have to be beating teams like Wigan if we want one of those automatic spots.

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  43. Don’t get me wrong, by no means are we “safe” if we beat Wigan tomorrow. But if we can hold on to a cushion at least that big at the halfway mark, I think it would take something rather significant to knock us off course – a big injury, Lascelles or Rafa leaving, something of that nature.

    I think Reading have been getting results a bit above what their actual performances would lead you to expect, but Derby and Wednesday could be serious challengers for the top 2.

    But I 100% agree that we need to be beating teams like Wigan and Burton. That being said, I’d rather drop points against one of them and beat Wednesday than the other way around – hopefully it doesn’t come to that and we walk away with 9 from the next 9 available.

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  44. Sharpy17:
    Yeah I’m with you Ice.9 points is a nice cushion, but with 2 games a week it just takes a little **** up and we’re caught.
    Hoots is doing a really cracking job at Brighton, and for him I’d love to see Brighton come up with us.But we have to be beating teams like Wigan if we want one of those automatic spots.

    Thing is mate teams find another 10% when they play us they all want to beat Newcastle,,do they do they find the same drive to beat the likes of Brighton I doubt it,that’s what we have to fight against

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  45. Two other things:

    Sharpy, it’ll be interesting to see how Elliot fits in. I can’t imagine Rafa will drop Darlow without a concrete reason to do so, but Elliot should definitely be first in line if Darlow does get dropped.

    Secondly, I think “3 straight defeats” sounds worse than it was. One of those was against a PL team in the League Cup. It would have been great to win, but that would have been icing on the cake. And the Forest match was a joke – what are the chances that we pick up two red cards like that in the same game again?

    Also, I think Blackburn taught Rafa not to take anyone lightly. I guess we’ll see how he lines us up against Wigan and Burton.

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  46. Charlie Prince:
    Two other things:

    Sharpy, it’ll be interesting to see how Elliot fits in. I can’t imagine Rafa will drop Darlow without a concrete reason to do so, but Elliot should definitely be first in line if Darlow does get dropped.

    Secondly, I think “3 straight defeats” sounds worse than it was. One of those was against a PL team in the League Cup. It would have been great to win, but that would have been icing on the cake. And the Forest match was a joke – what are the chances that we pick up two red cards like that in the same game again?

    Also, I think Blackburn taught Rafa not to take anyone lightly. I guess we’ll see how he lines us up against Wigan and Burton.

    Charlie – I didnt make reference to our 3 defeats, i just said with the number and frequency of fixtures it would be easy to make up or loose a 9 point gap. But i agree with you. If you look at our 3 defeats, there were explanations for them – Bburn = too many changes. Hull = cup game, pens anything can happen. Forest = ***** reffing.
    The good news is that since those games, we’ve won and won convincingly IMO.

    I expect the likes of Brighton and Reading to have blips as well along the way, and all we can do is worry about winning our games.
    I think we should strengthen in Jan if the right players are available, but I think Rafa now knows his strongest 11.

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  47. Apparently Wigan were ultra defensive on the weekend but Villa managed to snatch a 1.0 win. We just need to be patient and keep probing and keep disciplined at the back and with a bit of luck and decent officiating hopefully the win will come.

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  48. By now Wigan must be desperate for a win so they may come at us which really would totally undo them. I expect us to win.

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  49. icedog: the evil ****,a bad apple never comes good,hope he gets 10 years

    Well Ice, I hope Southend did build in some kind of compo clause in his contract – it was only a matter of time – what a tool.

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