Newcastle can do well against Manchester City - Kevin Nolan
Newcastle front man Kevin Nolan is determined to unleash a severe backlash of Magpies against the cash rich Manchester City in their next league match. Newcastle lost to Stoke City on the weekend after taking the lead in the first
half.
It was the 2nd consecutive loss for Newcastle in the league at home, as Stoke City came back to win 2-1.
It was more demoralising for the magpies because a fortnight ago they had lost 2-0 to Blackpool at home. However Chris Hughton’s team has been good away from home with a smashing 4-3 Carling Cup win against Chelsea at Stamford
Bridge and league win against Everton at Goddison Park.
Newcastle make the long journey to Manchester this weekend and club captain Kevin Nolan believes that his team’s good away form will continue against Mancini’s men.
He said: "That's the main thing now. Manchester City is the next game and we want to win that game. Well, we hope that's going to happen.
"We are going to do our best and we are going to work as hard as we can to make sure we keep going in the right direction.
Nolan said that his team has been playing fantastic football but there are some areas that need to be addressed. He said that scoring goals is always good but they do not count for much if the team concedes them at the other end.
Nolan went on to say that there are massive problems in the setup of the team, and if they are not addressed quickly it can be detrimental.
"There were a lot of positives to take out of the game, but we have got to make sure we eradicate the massive negatives - don't get me wrong, when I say massive, they are only massive because they are goals.
"They are little mistakes, but little mistakes in this league are massive, so we have got to make sure we get them right. If we get them right, we won't be far off." Said Nolan
In their last game Newcastle were all over Stoke City in the first 45 minutes, Potters on the other hand looked like a team determined to go home with a point. However it all changed once Newcastle got a penalty and it was the
captain Kevin Nolan who slammed it in for the 1-0 lead.
The visitors finally came out of their shell in the 2nd half and came hard at the Magpies, that is where the frailties in Newcastle’s defence were exposed. Robert Huth who had cost Stoke the penalty, first headed one
across for Kenwyne Jones to head in the equalizer and later pressured Percher to knock in an own goal which turned out to be the winner.
It was once again Kevin Nolan who got the best opportunity late in the match to level things, however the striker could not wrap his feet around the ball and it went wide.
Reflecting back on the match Nolan said that in general they were still the better team, but set pieces were something that gave the visitors the edge. He added it remains to be the problem area for his team, and the manager has
been working hard in training to rectify that.
The captain said: "They didn't really pose any threat except from set-pieces, but we didn't defend them and that's what cost us.
"We have got to learn from that and make sure we eradicate that from our game because there are going to be a lot of teams this year who are going to come and throw a lot of set-pieces and throw-ins at us, and we have got to be
prepared for it.
"We were prepared, but we didn't deal with it, and that's what cost us.
Newcastle were relegated to the championship at the end of 2008-09 season, but bounced straight back up next year. They did loose number of big names, especially their age old goal keeper Shay Given but still posses enough quality
players to extend their stay in the top flight.
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