Newcastle United 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date:	Saturday 30th November 2013
Competition:	Barclays Premier League
Newcastle: 6.5	Krul, Debuchy, Williamson, Coloccini, Santon, Sissoko (Ciss, 95), Tiote, Cabaye, Gouffran, Sh Ameobi, Remy (Anita, 84) Unused subs: Elliot, Ben Arfa, Yanga-Mbiwa, Obertan, Sa Ameobi
WBA: 5.0	(4-2-3-1) Myhill 5.3, Jones 6.3, McAuley 6.4, Olsson 6.0, Ridgewell 5.3, Morrison 3.4, Mulumbu 5.8, Amalfitano 4.7 (Gera, 88 4.9), Sessegnon 4.3 (Anichebe, 77 3.8), Brunt 5.6 (Berahino, 76 5.0), Long 6.7 Unused subs: Daniels, Popov, Yacob, Lugano Manager: Steve Clarke 4.3
Scorers:	Gouffran (36), Sissoko (57); Brunt (53)
Referee:	Phil Dowd (Stoke on Trent) 6.6
Attendance:	49,298 Home Fans 5.8 Away Fans 6.5

Summary:

Albion succumbed to only their second away defeat of the season at St James' Park. Billy Jones and Liam Ridgewell were both restored to the starting lineup after recovering from injury and Zoltan Gera made a welcome appearance on the bench.

Yoan Goffran opened the scoring shortly after half an hour when Boaz Myhill punched the ball straight in the air from a corner and he outjumped Youssouf Mulumbu to head home when it dropped. After being on the wrong end of a few refereeing decisions lately, Albion counted themselves a little lucky to still have eleven men on the pitch when Jonas Olsson pulled Loic Remy down by his shirt in the box.

Albion improved on their poor first half showing after the break and Chris Brunt equalised with Albion's first shot on target after Morgan Amalfitano crossed from the right and it glanced off Shane Long's head for him to apply the "wand", but they were level for only three minutes before Moussa Sissoko blasted home an unstoppable shot from the edge of the area.

Steve Clarke made a double substitution with Saido Berahino and Victor Anichebe replacing Brunt and Sessegnon, and gave Gera a brief cameo towards the end in place of Amalfitano as Albion piled on the pressure, but it was all to no effect. Albion slip to twelfth place as a result of Villa drawing at home to Sunderland.

Jenny Hall:

Sunday Morning so had time to calm down & reflect a bit- just a few observations:-

Watched the interview with Lukaku at lunchtime. He is young, talented, dedicated, ambitious- looking forward to playing for his country, and also very intelligent & articulate. I have no idea who was responsible for letting him go back to Chelsea without a hell of a fight but whoever it/they are, were idiots.
The game - Pardew said he had been to see us several times in recent weeks so it was not hard to sus us out. I just can't get rid of the feeling that we are naive and simply just not clever enough to read matches. Once again we see Clarke motionless on the touchline with apparently no answers- compare with Lambert last week- and our substitutions always seem too late.
Is it only me that feels that I don't know my team any more? We seem to have so many players I hardly recognise let alone know what they can do- Lugano, Anic hebe, Vydra etc. And we seem to have so many strikers - add Rosenberg & Anelka to the list and ask why. Are they really better than Fortune?
To me it seems that as a club our ambitions are so low - as long as we stay in the Premiership all else is OK. What was the target for this year and did we even have one? - I'm sure it wasn't Europe - but why not. I have some admiration for Jeremy Peace for the way the club is run, but surely we now need new blood, new ideas & ambitions at the helm. Or are others just happy with mediocrity?

Paul Gainham:

Once I had got my breath back from the ascent of the north face of the Eiger and taken my seat what I witnessed was a really poor game between two sides who both struggled to really impose themselves on the game. In that comment lies my real frustration, if we HAD bothered to show up properly, IF the coach had done his homework, we could and should have got something from this, but no we limped away to the sound of the usual BS comments from the coach and players.

We were simply awful in the first half, woke up a little in the second but Clarke yet again left it way too late to change anything in a meaningful way.

Just what is Clarke?s plan? What sort of team are we under him? I STILL cannot tell you. He seemingly has no game plan other than try and hold the opposition for the first half by sitting back and then having a go at them in the second. Schoolboy coaching at best, criminally inept at its worst and at Newcastle we saw the worst of it.

What has happened to our new signings?

Sessegnon suddenly looks like a little boy lost who runs around not sure where he is going and ends up either losing it, getting muscled off the ball or losing it.

Amalfitano looks like a journeyman. Fails to beat people, does not make himself available and makes all the wrong decisions. Is it confidence? At least with Anichebe its clear. He isn?t a footballer.

Our midfield was simply awful, Long was left on his own and we hardly troubled Krul. The number of times we had the ball and went backwards was embarrassing. Like watching a team made up of Ray Wilkins' and Jonathan Greenings'

The defence mostly did ok but two sloppy mistakes sealed our fate. Firstly opening up a gap as wide as the Tyne for Sisoko to score their second and secondly, Myhill chosing this game to blemish his previously very good form with a flap for their first.

Last night really summed up for me why I have been calling for Clarke?s head since before the season has started and will continue to do so, PLUS my real concern that if we don?t fully course correct soon, have a look at the table and you tell me in which direction we are headed?

Player Marks

Myhill 6 Pity, his flap lead to their first goal, has been playing really well of late
Jones 7 MOTM Great to see him back
Ridgewell 5 Looked more solid than Popov but all the usual failings were there
Olsson 6 On the whole not a bad game against Remy and Ameobi
McCauley 6 Did OK
Morrison 1 Awful
Sessegnon 1 Awful
Mulumbu 2 Very Poor
Amalfitano 1 Awful
Brunt 4 Only because he scored a good goal, rest of the game, rubbish
Long 6 Long did what he does, chases everything but was left criminally short of any support

Subs

Berahinio 3 Only had 15 minutes but did nothing
Anichebe 1 Only had 15 mins ? did he actually touch the ball in a meaningful way?
Gera N/A Brought on with 5 mins left ? why?

Clarke 1 Tactically and motivationally totally inept

Referee 6 wasn?t too fussy.