Premier League: Newcastle v Aston Villa half time report
Newcastle 3 Aston Villa 0
Goals from Joey Barton, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll have given Newcastle a 3-0 lead at half-time against Aston Villa at St James Park.
Barton scored a screamer on 12 minutes after he hit a tremendous 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 squandered the chance to take the lead after John Carew missed a penalty early in the match. Ashley Young went tumbling under Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper’s challenge somewhat theatrically. Carew hit the ball so hard the ball went flying over the bar, and it was more like a rugby conversion than a penalty kick for a football match.
Aston Villa had a decent amount of possession, but 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 20 minutes, Stewart Downing threatened Harper with a shot as he cut in from the right-hand side onto his favoured left foot.
Aston Villa will be regretting the penalty miss, as now salvaging anything from this game is out of the question.
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