Full-time
What a brilliant win for Leicester. What a disaster for Newcastle. The jig was up after 17 minutes for the visitors. They are now perilously close to the relegation zone. Leicester are just a point behind them. They’re booed off by the travelling fans. As for the home team, they’re given a rousing reception by the Leicester fans, whose support was tremendous all through the game. Leicester also have the best goal difference of the teams in and around the bottom now too. Pearson will have to be creative to get angry in his press conference. Carver may need to use hypnotism to give his team a lift for the final three games. That’s eight losses in a row. There’d be a strange kind of glory in that if it wasn’t so serious. Right, I’m off. Thanks for your emails. Bye.
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90+2 min: Vardy, who has been – and still is – everywhere, should make it 4-0 with a free-header from five yards, but he jumps too early and nods it over. And that’s that.
Janmaat sent off for Newcastle!
90 min: So, I said Newcastle don’t want to suffer any further damage. Janmaat has just taken a hammer to John Carver’s plans for the West Brom game. He hoofs Vardy up in the air as the livewire forwards spins him near the half-way line and is given a second yellow card. Oh Daryl. Oh Newcastle.
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89 min: The game is drifting away, which probably suits both teams. Newcastle don’t want to suffer any further damage. Leicester are just happy with the three points.
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86 min: Vardy takes a knock and looks as though he may be withdrawn … but no, he’s up again. He’d carry on running even if his legs were attached to two anvils. Newcastle win a corner, but there’s hardly anyone in the box and the ball just drifts across and out for a goal-kick. They may as well have waved at it, such was the lack of desire to attack it.
83 min: So Leicester have Southampton at home, QPR at home and Sunderland away. Newcastle have West Brom at home, QPR away and West Ham at home. That looks good for Leicester. At any other time that wouldn’t look too bad for Newcastle either but they could be playing Accrington Stanley, Bacup Borough and Prescot Cables and you wouldn’t fancy their chances at present.
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80 min: Newcastle concede a corner 30 yards out on the right. Vardy plays it short to Mahrez, who cuts inside and whips a left-footed ball into the box that Coloccini clears. Leicester get hold of possession again – and look unlikely to give it away again anytime soon.
79 min: “One Nigel Pearson, there’s only one Nigel Pearson,” chant Leicester’s fans. Feel the love Nige, feel the love.
76 min: Nothing much of note has happened for the past few minutes. Leicester are happy to stand off a bit and have a breather. Ulloa is brought off to huge applause. Kramaric, the club-record signing, is on. This is a great match for the youngster to come into and try to get a few goals to boost his confidence. I’d fancy my chances against this defence today.
75 min: “I watched Cambiasso against Chelsea the other night, and again today,” begins Rob Hobson. “Bloody hell, what a buy. 34 he may be but what a maestro. I’ve just looked at him on Wikipedia and apparently he’s the most successful Argentine footballer of all time, with one more major title than Di Stefano. Is this true? Anyone?” Readers, do our research for us. Is this true?
@GreggBakowski Err.. a certain nimble, record-breaking Argentine springs to mind..
— Abhishek (@ATintOfBlue) May 2, 2015
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73 min: Perez is replaced by Armstrong for Newcastle. For Leciester, Hammond is on for Cambiasso, who has been fantastic dictating play in midfield. And a few minutes ago De Laet replaced Wasilewski. Leicester probably never imagined they would have the luxury of resting their older players today. That’s how much better than Newcastle they have been.
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72 min: Newcastle win a free-kick. Colback hits it straight at Schmeichel. At least it was something. “I think you’ll find that Kevin Borseth (12:07) has been studying the entrance technique of Cosmo Kramer.” Some light relief for Newcastle fans.
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70 min: Vardy has just run from nowhere to win a free-kick on the edge of the box towards the touchline. He’s been non-stop and Leicester’s best player, in my opinion, like a pound-shop Luis Suárez. And I mean that in the kindest way. Or perhaps the Aldi Craig Bellamy. Oh, I don’t know.
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69 min: Sissoko has just had the chance to clear but somehow been confused by the spin on the ball and the fact that the corner flag was within 10 yards of him. That was appalling. He had an age to decide what to do with the ball there. Meanwhile: “This fixture was the first match I ever went to. March 1982 at the old Filbert St. It finished 3-0 that day. I don’t think Leicester will settle for 3 today,” writes Sean Boiling. No, I don’t think they will either.
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66 min: Pass, olé, pass, olé, pass, olé, pass, olé, pass, olé, pass, olé, pass, olé. Shot. Ooh. That’s how it’s going for Leicester now. That’s how it may be going for some time. It’s going to be a long old 25 minutes for Newcastle.
65 min: Anita on for Newcastle and Riviere off.
63 min: Vardy is OK. He has the cushioning on the base of the camera to thank for not losing a dozen teeth and perhaps being knocked out. As for Newcastle, well, this could be an even bigger disaster for them if Leicester are ruthless. Their goal-difference could take a hammering.
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Williamson is sent off for Newcastle!
He clattered late into Vardy , who was running at his usual hare-like pace, and sent Vardy thumping into a TV camera. This could be nasty.
60 min: Newcastle’s defence currently has its head down the toilet. And Leicester’s forward line are threatening to flush it, over and over again.
58 min: Some lovely interplay leads to Schlupp setting Vardy off on another buzzing run towards the Newcastle defence. His shot is blocked by Williamson and lands at Mahrez’s feet. He dinks a delicious little ball into Ulloa, who heads powerfully at Krul, who shows great acrobatics to tip over. They’re creating chances at will.
57 min: De Jong, a good player, but one who has been injured for most of his Newcastle career, is on in place of Ryan Taylor.
54 min: Leicester just won’t lay off. Vardy spins off Coloccini at the back-post. He gathers a diagonal ball and tries to toe the ball past Krul from 16 yards out on the angle but the keeper does well to palm the ball away. This is relentless.
53 min: Mahrez, who is thinner than a halved lollipop stick, is knocked to the turf by Williamson. The free-kick is whipped in to the back post, where Huth almost diverts in to the goal. Huth scoring would be ignominy indeed.
50 min: Cambiasso, who has played as though in slippers today, plays a perfectly-weighted pass in to Schlupp who is on the run into the box. He crosses low and behind everyone from the left. Albrighton should make it 4-0, but slashes wide from 12 yards out. Newcastle were dragged out of shape with ease. This could be embarrassing for Newcastle. Well, even more embarrassing.
48 min: Leicester pile forwards as though they’re not content with holding Newcastle in a headlock. They want to rub their knuckles against the tormented team’s hair too. I can’t see what Newcastle can do to come back from this. Leicester are far too energetic from them. If they have a go, they’ll be caught on the break.
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Goal! Leicester 3-0 Newcastle (Ulloa 48 pen)
Ulloa thumps it into Krul’s top-right corner. I think Newcastle need to work on how they start halves. Blimey lads.
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Penalty!
Riviere jumps into Wasilewski and it’s a clear penalty after Leicester won another corner an it was swung in to the near-post. Oh dear.
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46 min: But Albrighton’s free-kick is too low and Newcastle clear it, dare I say, comfortably.
45 min: Leicester win an other early free-kick. A shove from Sissoko on Schlupp gives them a crossing opportunity in around the same area as the one they had which led to the opening goal.
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Right then. The teams are trotting back out. There are no changes, as far as I can see.
So how likely is that Newcastle turnaround then? Well …
0 - Newcastle have won none of the last 103 PL games in which they've trailed by 2+ goals. Doomed.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 2, 2015
Oh well.
Newcastle fans hold up a banner that says:
“We don’t demand a team that wins, we demand a team that tries.”
They also need a team that isn’t scared. They look petrified out there. The protests are understandable but I wouldn’t like to play under that pressure. No wonder first-touches are going astray.
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Some emails
“Criminy, Newcastle, eh? This seems like the kind of situation that could lead to a Dyer v Bowyer type of deal. I can’t decide which players would be most likely get involved in a throwdown. Of course if Tiote was around he’d be my first choice,” offers J.R in Illinois. The only one I can think of who’d be up for a bit of biff would be Ryan Taylor. Although he might get injured swinging at Sissoko’s head.
“NBC offered no apology at all to me for having to hear fattist comments spewed out by the baying Newcastle fans. I am now awaiting two apologies at least,” sniffs Ian Copestake.
Half-time
Leicester lead by two deserved goals. They’ve been full of energy and have preyed on their wounded visitors ruthlessly. That was a fantastic first-half performance. As for Carver’s side, apart from a few bright moments from Riviere and Perez there’s been a chasm between the two teams in terms of confidence. Their defence has been a shambling mess and Sissoko has been anonymous. Carver needs a team-talk for the ages to turn this one round.
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44 min: Dummett whips a ball into the box that is going nowhere only for Morgan to throw himself at it like it’s a hand-grenade. His clearance goes whizzing out of play for a throw-in and invites Newcastle to throw some men forwards to have a go at getting a goal back before half-time. That was the first time Leicester have suffered from the heebie-jeebies.
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42 min: Leicester just seem to be able to cause mayhem in the Newcastle defence at will. Mahrez plays a routine ball into the box that bounces in front of Coloccini and isn’t dealt with. Vardy, Ulloa and James collectively smell blood – and only some defending of the panicked fashion leads to the danger being snuffed out.
39 min: Leicester win a corner. Albrighton, whose deliveries have been great today, lands another one right on the back post, where Morgan connects to send the ball back across goal but Coloccini clears. The ball lands at the feet of Matty James on the edge of the box. He shows some twinkle-toed skill to lift the ball past Dummett and then lash a shot across goal that goes a yard wide.
38 min: BT Sport apologise for the bad language we may have heard from the Newcastle fans. Behave.
36 min: Schmeichel does very well to watch a Ryan Taylor shot – that swerves in the air like a 99p flyaway – on to his gloves. Newcastle win a corner, Taylor swings that into Williamson, but the defender seems to reel in his neck when he has a great chance to nod home and get the away team back into the game. Newcastle are having their best spell now. That’s not saying much. But from small acorns and all that …
34 min: Newcastle fans protest against Mike Ashley on the 34th minute, to make clear their disdain that the club had £34m in the bank last year when it would have been handy to invest just a little of that in the club. That would be a bit maverick for Mike Ashley.
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33 min: “I am watching this game to remind myself what it is like to watch a team playing with balls,” begins Ian Copestake, building up to something … “because later I will be watching Liverpool struggling to play it out from defence.” Ah, there it is.
30 min: Wasilewski has just been praised by Michael Owen for what looked like a two-footed tackle on Riviere. He won the ball and didn’t hurt the Newcastle forward but I’ve seen some referees send players off for similar tackles. Maybe I’m being harsh but it was a dodgy attempt at a tackle. Perez and Riviere then combine but Riviere tries to shape to curl around Schmeichel but lets the ball run away from him and can’t connect cleanly.
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28 min: The first corner from Taylor is dreadful but somehow they win another. His second swings out of play before coming back in. What a waste of a rare opportunity for the away team to put a bit of pressure on Leicester.
26 min: Cambiasso is caught just inside the Newcastle half. Free-kick. Albrighton floats it in to the box. Newcastle make a meal of clearing it and Ulloa misses a swipe at goal. Newcastle clear, break and then win a corner. Matty James is booked for a late tackle on Gutierrez.
23 min: Leicester are pressing Newcastle’s defence and midfield to within an inch of their lives. Ryan Taylor is forced across his own penalty area as he desperately tries to find a pass out of defence but he has to go back to Krul, who punts the ball upfield and gifts possession back to Leicester.
21 min: A snapshot from Riviere has Schmeichel stretching across his goal to cover it, but it’s a foot wide. A decent effort though.
Newcastle United have conceded 12 goals from headers in the Premier League this season. Only Burnley (17) have more. pic.twitter.com/fTipmOqVLk
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) May 2, 2015
19 min: Leicester are trying to kill this off in the first 30 minutes. They win another corner immediately. It’s played in to the near post by Albrighton again, but this time a Newcastle head is first to it. Meanwhile, the camera is shaking as the Leicester fans bounce around joyously.
Goal! Leicester 2-0 Newcastle (Morgan 17)
Look away Newcastle fans. Albrighton swings the ball in to the penalty area where both Ulloa and Morgan are unmarked. Ulloa glances a header onto Morgan’s outstretched leg and the ball is past Krul before you know it. But that defending? Yay gods, that was bad.
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16 min: Janmaat is booked for catching Schlupp with a late tackle. It wasn’t intentional, he just caught him late and wasn’t quick enough. Free-kick on the left 35 yards out.
14 min: One thing Newcastle shouldn’t be doing with Vardy waiting to pounce like a sneak-thief is play a high-line. What do they seem to be doing doing? Playing a high-line (slaps palm against face).
12 min: Perez turns Morgan in the box and is unlucky not to get a corner. He’s been bright so far. He then helps to win a corner with another spin away on the right, but the corner is played short and comes to nothing.
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10 min: Vardy looks like he’s had a dozen espressos for breakfast. He’s as switched on as a nosy meerkat. He almost pounces on a bit of dawdling between Krul and Williamson and then he tries to hook a first-time effort past Krul that he has no right to get on target, but does.
8 min: “1-0 after less than a minute. And the most embarrassing thing? Newcastle kicked the game off,” begins Shaun Wilkinson. “We are starting to approach the level of performance of our last relegation now, which I didn’t think would be possible. Still, Pardew out, eh? That will sort out our problems.” Any other Newcastle fans out there? Feel free to give out on here. Could be cathartic. Could be …
6 min: Mahrez stretches his legs and whips a ball in from the left towards the penalty spot, where Ulloa meets it powerfully with his head, but his effort is straight at Krul.
4 min: Perez fizzes a ball across the six-yard box that was either a shot or a cross. Only he will know. But it was positive at least from Carver’s side, with the Spaniard showing a razor-sharp turn to leave Schlupp standing before giving himself the opportunity to fire the ball across the box.
3 min: Apparently the Kingpower is actually bouncing such is the giddy din being created by the home fans. Newcastle need to take stock here and take the sting out of Leicester. Then they can think about playing.
Goal! Leicester 1-0 Newcastle (Ulloa 1)
Did I say Leicester are up for this? A great corner, whipped into the near post by Albrighton that Ulloa gets to at the near post, in front of Sissoko, to head home. Magic start for Leicester. Dreadful for the visitors.
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1 min: Yup, Leicester are up for this. Schlupp wins a corner.
There’s a cracking atmosphere at the King Power. This definitely isn’t one of those soporific early-afternoon Premier League kick-offs. It means too much for that.
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The teams emerge to the post-horn gallop and a huge surge of noise.
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Right, almost time for kick-off. These two met each other at the King Power in January – in the Cup. Neither took it seriously. It was a dire match, won 1-0 by Nigel Pearson’s side. I’m surprised I even remembered it. But anyway, there you are. I’m sure Pearson would take more of the same today but I expect it’ll be much more entertaining given the defensive blunders that both can be capable of. Leicester not so much in recent weeks. But Morgan is fond of a slapstick moment every so often. And Newcastle, well, picking a contender for comedy gold is difficult. Many contenders.
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Ah, but now it’s May!
Leicester City picked up 12 points in April, only Chelsea (13) earned more points in that period. #LCFC pic.twitter.com/s5WkwfqAY7
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) May 2, 2015
An email! “Afternoon Gregg,” chirps Stuart Morphet. “Hoping for some goals from Rivière today. A foolhardy bet at the start of the season saw me back him to score more Premier League goals than either Danny Welbeck or Ricky Lambert. We are currently enjoying the lowest scoring, highest-goal scorer bet in history. Come Emmanuel, grab me five today!” Good luck with that one Stuart. That’s turned into a three-legged horse race for sure.
Let’s talk team news and tactics!
So Leicester make three changes from the 3-1 defeat by Chelsea, with Andy King dropping out through injury and being replaced by Matty James. Riyad Mahrez and Jeff Schlupp return in place of Paul Konchesky and Danny Drinkwater. For me that suggests they’re going to attack more today. The 3-5-2 against Chelsea was more compact. I expect it to be a lot more expansive today.
As for Newcastle, they make two changes, with Moussa Sissoko and Paul Dummett replacing Vurnon Anita and Remy Cabella after the 3-2 home defeat by Swansea. Newcastle’s formation looks set to be a diamond in midfield, so either a 4-1-2-1-2 or just your 4-4-2 with a bit of jiggery pokery in there. Ryan Taylor will anchor midfield and Sissoko will play behind Perez and Riviere. Sissoko needs to be on it for Newcastle to flourish. He’s a very talented player but his confidence appears to have suffered more than any other Newcastle player’s during this dire run.
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This coach v Nigel Pearson would be a bigger pay-per-view hit than Mayweather-Pacquaio. In fact, what am I on about. Pearson doesn’t come close in the crazy stakes. His entrance is a thing of beauty.
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Teams
Leicester City: Schmeichel, Wasilewski, Huth, Morgan (c), Albrighton, Cambiasso, James, Mahrez, Schlupp, Ulloa, Vardy. Subs: Schwarzer, De Laet, Konchesky, Drinkwater, Hammond, Wood, Kramaric.
Newcastle United: Krul, Janmaat, Coloccini (c), Williamson, Dummett, Gutiérrez, R Taylor, Colback, Sissoko, Rivière, Pérez. Subs: Woodman, Abeid, Anita, Ameobi, Cabella, De Jong, Armstrong.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
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Preamble
Morning. So how are you then? Probably, one imagines, a tad more relaxed than the mangers of Leicester City and Newcastle United. Nigel Pearson and John Carver have both felt the squeeze this week, what with Pearson’s mouth going off on another bizarre but highly entertaining rant and Carver having a couple or irate fans round to watch his team train to prove that they really do care, even if a pitiful run of seven defeats in a row would suggest they switched the lights off on 2014-15 a long, long time ago.
Carver desperately needs to find a way to tease out a bit of fight from his sorry, depleted, squad. If he doesn’t, they’ll go down. Simple as that. He obviously cares and should be spared abuse. He’s been hung out to dry by the owners. But if Leicester beat them today, they’ll move just a point behind them with three games to go. Seven matches ago Newcastle were 17 points clear of Leicester. That’s how dreadful they’ve been. No other side down at the bottom is playing as badly as Newcastle at the moment. They’ll reacquaint themselves with the Championship again without something, anything positive being sparked somewhere in their ranks.
Having a couple of mouthy supporters around to the training ground, as Carver did yesterday, doesn’t appear to have helped much either. Their quotes suggest their main function was to hoover up the last remaining confidence scattered among the battered and bruised group.
“We told him he wasn’t good enough as a manager,” said 22-year-old Allen O’Connell. Charming. “He [Carver] told us he tells [Mike] Williamson not to play long balls but he keeps doing it. I told him I’m a better player than Williamson and he didn’t reply.” Hmmm, wonder why.
Anyway, as much as Pearson may have been miffed for unfathomable reasons after the 3-1 defeat to Chelsea his team still showed the enterprise, spirit and aggression that is required to keep clear of the bottom three. I’ve been impressed with Leicester throughout the season, not just in the last four or five games. Pearson’s right to point out that they have lacked a bit of luck at times, but they have a lot of experience in the squad and players who are willing to take responsibility. Their average age is 29. They’ve got the right mentality and some good leaders.
The only positive for Carver is that at least Newcastle have scored three goals in their last two games. They may have lost those matches but it’s something to cling to at least. But, I can’t see this being anything other than the match that drags Newcastle deeper into the mire.
My prediction: Leicester City 2-0 Newcastle. Shortly.
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