Alan Pardew Off To a Flying Start at St James’ Park
Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Andrew Carroll were all on target as Alan Pardew won his first games as manager for Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The Magpies were facing Liverpool in their English Premier League fixture; their first game under Pardew
after the sacking of Chris Hughton. In the end, they proved to be too strong for the struggling Liverpool side as they cruised their way to victory.
Newcastle United came into this match after a week of drama and upsets off the field. After a series of great results, including the away victory at the Emirates Stadium, it was shocking when the owner of the club, Mike Ashley, sacked Chris Hughton. He was
replaced by Alan Pardew, but the decision was not very well taken by the fans or the players at St James’ Park.
More than 50,000 fans had gathered to witness the match and speak their mind regarding the controversial decision from the past week. The supporters of Chris Hughton and Newcastle were carrying banners and placards voicing their concern regarding Mike Ashley’s
decision and showing their support for Hughton. The match started with jeers for the owner and the new manager sitting in the stadium for this very important match. However, towards the end of the match the cries of the fans had already turned into cheers
for their players who displayed phenomenal football against one of the big teams of English Premier League.
The first goal came from Newcastle United and it involved all three of their goal scorers on the night. It was a free-kick taken by Barton and was headed down by Carroll for Nolan to strike home his eighth goal of the season. Carroll did brilliantly in the
course of this goal as he muscled his way to the header on the far post. Once again the English striker showed his brilliance as a strong target man in the area.
At that point, the match was evenly poised with Liverpool trying their luck with the offense. The reds tried to create space for their striker, Fernando Torres, but Newcastle defended well and kept it tight at the back. On the attack, Newcastle tried to
exploit the physical presence of Andrew Carroll but Pepe Reina kept the goal clean. Liverpool on the other hand kept pressing towards the other side of the pitch in search for their equalizer.
They eventually succeeded in the 49th minute with Dirk Kuyt scoring the equalizer. The Dutch forward made his way past Sol Campbell and his shot was deflected by Steven Taylor into the goal with the goalkeeper in no position to stop it. After
the goal, Liverpool tried to get the one point from the game as they did not look keen on attacking. On the other hand, Newcastle kept on trying to find the winner which eventually came in the 80th minute.
Again Carroll did great, along with Ranger, to find Barton who made no mistake in finding the back of the net. Towards the end, Carroll scored his 10th goal of the season as he took a great shot from a distance of 25 yards from the goal. This
was a great victory for the Magpies, in the end, as they put the worries of the last week behind them.
After the match, the players dedicated this victory to Hughton, who really deserves most of the credit for the performance. The man of the match, Joey Barton, and the captain of the side, Kevin Nolan, had only praises for their last manager. Nevertheless,
Newcastle United did not seem perturbed after the recent incidents and their campaign stays on the right track. Liverpool, on the other hand, are really struggling and need to find their rhythm in order to get a decent finish in the English Premier League
season.
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