Premier League: Newcastle v Aston Villa full time report
Newcastle 6 Aston Villa 0
A hat-trick from man-of-the-match Andy Carroll gave Newcastle a well-deserved three points in a 6-0 win over Aston Villa at St James Park.
Newcastle were the much better team throughout the match, and they could have scored more than six goals, with Aston Villa struggling in defence.
Joey Barton got the ball rolling, with Kevin Nolan also scoring twice to complete the rout.
Barton scored the first goal with a screamer on 12 minutes after he hit a magnificent shot from outside the box, beating Aston Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel with sheer power to score Newcastle’s first Premier League goal of the season.
Nolan doubled Newcastle’s lead on the half hour mark after he headed in Carroll’s knockdown at the second time of asking. All credit was due to Carroll, who leaped superbly to head the ball to Nolan, who did well to score after missing the first chance.
Carroll scored Newcastle’s third three minutes later, as poor Aston Villa defending from a corner resulted in the No.9 thumping a shot into the back of the net.
Aston Villa missed an opportunity to take the lead after John Carew missed a penalty on nine minutes. Ashley Young won the penalty after he went tumbling under Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper’s challenge somewhat theatrically. Carew put so much power behind the penalty that he skied it well over the bar, with the ball coming down with snow on it. In all fairness, it was probably one of the worst penalty misses.
Aston Villa had a decent amount of possession but barely troubled Harper. It was Newcastle who looked dangerous on the counter-attack. In addition to his goal, we saw the best and worst of Barton, as he received a yellow card six minutes later after scoring his goal for a late high challenge on Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov.
On 20 minutes, Stewart Downing threatened Harper with a shot as he cut in from the right-hand side onto his favoured left foot. It was the best Villa had to offer other than the penalty in the first half.
In the second half, Wayne Routledge broke clear after an hour’s play, with the pass to him making it look so easy for Newcastle. Routledge’s shot was saved by Friedel comfortably, but serious questions will be asked about the shaky Villa defence.
Carroll grabbed his second of the game on 67 minutes with a quality finish on the volley, scoring 10 goals in his last 13 appearances in a Newcastle shirt.
Nolan also scored his second of the game, tucking in from close range following another corner.
The No.9 shirt is very significant for the Geordie faithful, and it has put a great responsibility on Carroll, as he aims to follow in the footsteps of Alan Shearer, Jackie Milburn and Malcolm Macdonald.
Carroll was denied a hat-trick by Friedel as the Villa defence were at sixes and sevens at the back. His close-range effort was instinctively saved by the veteran American shot-stopper.
Ryan Taylor’s free kick just whistled past the post 12 minutes from time, leaving Friedel standing and admiring the shot.
Aston Villa new boy Stephen Ireland fired a shot extremely high over the bar on 83 minutes as Villa looked lacklustre and almost feeling sorry for themselves.
The game then became a perfect one for Carroll, as he did manage to get his hat-trick after he slotted the ball past Friedel having been put in by Xisco.
Aston Villa may well have been feeling the affects of losing James Milner to Manchester City this week, and the shock departure of manager Martin O’Neill at the start of the season. For Newcastle, they avenged for the defeat against Villa in May 2009 when they were relegated from the Premier League and will enjoy their first win of the season.
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