Stoke City’s defensive start gave Newcastle lead
Newcastle United ended the first half against Stoke City one goal ahead, courtesy a spot kick from Kevin Nolan. The away side (Stoke) for most of the first half had looked to be on the defensive and finally paid the price 3 minutes from the break. Andy Carroll
was brought down by Huth resulting in a free kick.
Newcastle was the team making the moves right from the start. There was an early blunder for the Potters. Their goalkeeper, Thomas Sorensen, made a total hash of a back-pass but his sliced clearance landed at the feet of Ryan Shawcross, who could not make
use of the chance.
Soon there was a neat move by Newcastle that saw Joey Barton release Hatem Ben Arfa down the left and his cross found Wayne Routledge inside the box. Sadly for the Magpies, his touch let him down and Stoke cleared.
The Magpies were enjoying all the early possession but that Wayne Routledge half-chance was as good as it had got for them in front of goal by then.
Stoke had not moved forward once till then. Kenwyne Jones, another ex-Sunderland player, had just latched on to a long ball over the top from Ryan Shawcross. But made a mess of his second touch and sent the ball straight out of play. He didn't get much sympathy
from the home fans either.
To be fair to the Potters, Newcastle was hardly pouring forward in full-flow either. Andy Carroll climbed to meet a Jose Enrique cross from the left but he had men all around him and he could not direct his header goal-wards.
Thomas Sorensen looked like he needed a change of boots, or some kicking practice. He had no problems catching the ball, dealing well with a hoisted Joey Barton free-kick, but he could not kick the ball. He immediately smacked it straight at a Newcastle
player on the halfway line, and the Magpies were soon on the attack again. But once again the score remained 0-0.
Hatem Ben Arfa had a go from a free-kick after a neat bit of Mike Williamson skill resulted in him being chopped down. Thomas Sorensen was happy to see that one sail wide.
Newcastle had definitely had the better of the first 20 minutes and they were playing some good stuff. A neat passing move ended in Jose Enrique being released down the left but his whipped ball across the face of goal beat all of his team-mates as well
as the Stoke defence.
Newcastle attacks continued and Joey Barton had a pop from a free-kick, about 25-yards out, and it went straight into the Stoke wall. Newcastle needed to start making their superior possession count.
There was yet more skill from Hatem Ben Arfa, who was leading the Stoke defence a merry dance. Still no end-product though. And there were only five minutes to change that before half-time.
2 minutes later it happened, it was Stoke defender Robert Huth, who elected to body-check Andy Carroll despite the fact that Jose Enrique's deep cross was heading straight for Thomas Sorensen. That was a clear penalty, and Kevin Nolan stepped up to send
Sorensen the wrong way from the spot.
The first half ended at 1-0 for Newcastle and there was no question that he deserved the lead. Stoke would have to come out and play now, and that can result in a good contest or the home side making use of space at the back in the 2nd half.
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