Full-time: Newcastle 1-2 Southampton
And that is that. The crisis at Newcastle continues, Southampton’s great form continues and the booooooooooos from the fans continue. That’s your lot from me. Thanks for all the emails and Tweets. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Bye!
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90 +3 mins Controversy ahoy. Rivière shoots from the edge of the area and Fonte, inside the area, stops it with what looks like his hand. The home players and home fans want a penalty but the referee says no.
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90 + 2 mins Perez attacks down the right before setting Ameobi free. On the end line, he puts the ball in the mixer. It comes to Cabella but he fluffs his lines from a few yards out. Poor from one so talented.
90 mins Four added minutes separate Southampton from three points.
88 mins The last few minutes have seen Newcastle put the pressure on the Southampton goal but they are desperately short of a target man and so said pressure goes unconverted.
86 mins Agreed:
Make no mistake, it's a big job for whoever comes in at SJP. Surely can't be Carver who has overseen a drop in performances & results
— Mark Douglas (@MsiDouglas) January 17, 2015
84 mins Ameobi wins a free-kick about 40 yards out. Colback and Cabella stand over it. Colback it is who delivers it to the back post but Southampton clear it for a corner. That is taken short to Cabella who is lurking, free of a marker, on the edge of the box. Reed notices this and closes him down swiftly but Cabella still gets his shot off. Under pressure from the defender, he pulls it wide of Forster’s right-hand post.
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82 mins It is Elia’s turn to leave the field of play. He is replaced by Targett.
80 mins Dummett says goodbye. Williamson says hello. Bringing on a defender with 10 minutes to go when you are losing 2-1 pleases the home crowd not one jot and there is a smattering of (understandable) boos around the stadium when Williamson takes to the pitch.
78 mins Another terrific cross from Clyne (after he was set free by Cork) finds Pellè in the box. The ball is slightly behind him but he nevertheless manages to get his head to it. The header beats Krul but fails to beat the bar.
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76 mins I am sure I just heard someone in the crowd shout: “cut your hair, it’s an embarrassment.” Did anyone else hear that?
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74 mins Newcastle win a corner on the right from a Gardos clearance. Colback takes it and Forster punches it out for another corner. The second is taken short and then sent it. This time Cork sends it out. They then win a third one. Colback finds Dummett with it. Dummett has lost Long, his marker, and is in the six yard box. It looks harder to miss than score but miss he does.
72 mins Pérez and Cabella combine nicely just inside the Southampton half. It looks like the move could be dangerous but they decide to share the ball with Ameobi and that is where it all comes to an end.
70 mins Ameobi is right in the thick of things right away, winning his side a corner on the left. It is fired to the front post but a thumping header from Davis sees to that.
68 mins Indeed they do. They replace Anita and Gouffran – who had just been down on the turf claiming an injury.
66 mins Carver has just called Ameobi and Rivière back to the bench. They are about to come on.
64 mins In the aftermath of the goal, Davis got a yellow card for a pull on Anita’s jersey.
A long ball was lumped up the field. Shane Long, just on, jumped and won the header, knocking it on to Elia after Coloccini failed to deal with it. Making his way into the box, Elia held off Janmaat before firing it past Krul with the help of a slight deflection.
2 - Eljero Elia has scored his first brace in league football since September 2013 (for Werder Bremen vs 1. FC Nürnberg). Resurrection.
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) January 17, 2015
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Newcastle 1-2 Southampton (Elia)
... Elia has scored his second of the game.
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62 mins Haïdara, wide on left, does Clyne for possibly the first time today. His cross is great and it finds the head of Gouffran who should do better. He will regret that because ...
60 mins A double substitution for the Saints. On comes Cork and Long and off goes Ward-Prowse and Tadic.
58 mins Forster launches one long from his own half. Pellè, on the edge of the Newcastle area, wins the first ball and Ward-Prowse anticipates this well. He tries to get through on goal but the danger is snuffed out by Dummett. Meanwhile, down the right, a superb ball form Clyne misses the head of Pellè by mere inches. Had he connected it would surely have been advantage Southampton.
56 mins How cool was Saved by the Bell? Answer: very.
@ianmccourt Perez looks more like the loved child of Zach Braff and A.C. Slater pic.twitter.com/55bpDRf50b
— RJV (@jiffington) January 17, 2015
54 mins Sort it out Ashley.
The atmosphere at St James' is desperately leaden, it must be said. Understandable; season drifting, club in limbo, shitty kick-off time.
— George Caulkin (@CaulkinTheTimes) January 17, 2015
Meanwhile, under pressure from Fonte and Clyne, Cabella hits an effort high and wide from the edge of the box. Poor, underwhelming stuff this. From both sides.
52 mins Elia runs down the left and looks to put one in the box. He does that but no one is there to take advantage of it except Coloccini. His clearing header finds Sissoko and he runs down the left only to run into the same lack-of-support problem that faced Elia.
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50 mins On an lookalikes side note, I am convinced Thibaut Courtois looks a bit like Blossom. Remember Blossom?
48 mins Southampton mount an early attempt on the Newcastle goal but the home side deal with it easily enough and then get their passing on for a moment or two. Crowd have gone back to being quiet.
46 mins What do you reckon folks?
@ianmccourt Ayoze Perez = Zach Braff http://t.co/0X3OGq8Ncs http://t.co/W6PrxaZzEb separated at birth
— dan friedman (@danfriedmanme) January 17, 2015
45 mins Back we come. Newcastle get us going, playing left to right this time around. (Click on the link by the way. Bray Vista won’t let you down.) No substitute news to tell you about just yet.
Half-time: Newcastle 1-1 Southampton
That’s that for now. Back in a few minutes.
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45 mins There will be one minute added to this half. Newcastle get a late corner. They take it short and Southampton force them back. What a waste, considering their height advantage.
44 mins Cabella picks up the ball in the middle of the park and launches one over the top of the Southampton defence. His perfect pass finds Pérez but his first time effort misses by this much.
42 mins That’s a helluva long time:
2847 - @YGouffran hadn't scored in the Premier League for 2847 minutes (more than 47 hours). Eternity.
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) January 17, 2015
40 mins Some Newcastle fans wanted a penalty from that tackle by the way. Never. Month. Sundays. Etc.
38 mins Haïdara rampages his way up the left. He combines with Sissoko who combines with Pérez who combines with Sissoko. The final combination sees Sissoko stride into the box but an absolutely brilliant tackle from the ever-impressive Clyne puts an end to the attack.
36 mins Sissoko tries one from 30 yards. We’ll never see that ball again.
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34 mins Elia’s cross near the corner flag is cleared for a throw. If he had looked up, he would have seen that Pellè as free in the box and that Ward-Prowse – I think – was in a good position to get the ball to the striker. The resulting throw sees Elia being muscled off the ball and Newcastle regaining possession via a goal-kick.
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32 mins St James’ Park has finally awoken. Before that you could hear the farts of the overweight man in row P.
Oh this is a lucky one. A very lucky one. Pérez and Cabella combine in the Southampton half with the former lacing a ball into the opposition box, trying to find the run of Gouffran. Here is where the luck comes in. Gardos slid in, ahead of the on-rushing Forster, to clear the ball but his attempted clearance bounces off Gouffran – who looked to be marked out of it by Clyne – and in the ball goes to the net. They all count.
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GOAL!!! Newcastle 1-1 Southampton (Gouffran)
Game. Back. On.
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26 mins Ward-Prowse, playing like in the hole, takes the ball down with one touch and splits the Newcastle defence with his second. The intended target of his pass is the run of Pellè but Krul, alert to the danger, scampers from his line and clears the ball.
24 mins Cylne is taken down wide on the right. Ward-Prowse stands over the ball before curling it to the back post. It is curling away from Krul so he cannot come get it. It is, however, curling in the direction of Fonte. He rises above Coloccini but his header rises above the bar. That was a free header. He should’ve done better.
22 mins Southampton attack down the right. The ball is with Clyne and he looks to find Pellè at the back post. He fails. Miserably.
20 mins Back to the goal for a moment. Janmaat could’ve and should’ve got tighter to Elia but that was very poor keeping from Krul. Getting beaten that easily at your near post. Tut! Tut!
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18 mins Just before that goal, I was about to tell you about a Newcastle corner. It was swung over and swung out. It landed at the feet of Gouffran and he hit a dipping effort from quite a way out but Forster was well placed to take it. Your man on Sky said “he almost caught it too well”. Not sure how that is possible.
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A long ball was launched up. Pellè used his chest to play it to Ward-Prowse. He strode forward and passed into the path of Elia. He had been pushed wide on the right-hand side of the box by Janmaat’s marking but still managed to wrap his foot around the ball and push it past Krul at his near post.
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GOAL!!! Newcastle 0-1 Southampton (Elia)
The Saints go marching on.
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12 mins Pérez, in the box, receives the ball with his back to goal. He turns and some wonderful, ballerina-like foot work sees him work some space for a shot. It is a tight angle though and Forster deals with it easily enough.
10 mins The crowd are rather quiet but they open their mouths when Forster scuffs a clearance. His effort only goes as far as the edge of the box but Gardos saves the day – and his keeper’s blushes – by smacking the ball to safety.
8 mins This is a good start from Newcastle. They are pressing hard when Southampton have the ball and doing well to disrupt the away side’s rhythm. They are also having plenty of luck down the right-hand side again and again with Janmaat looking good.
6 mins Janmaat tries to start a Newcastle attack down the right but Southampton snuff it out. The home side then try the other side but with the same result, so they try the right once more. This time they have more success and get into the box but Janmaat’s effort on goal is blocked by Gardos and cleared.
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4 mins Thanks to Twitter we have been able to decode what Carver was saying to Sky before the match:
@ianmccourt What Carver meant to say was getting a new manager, centre back and centre forward is the most important thing.
— David Thompson (@oinkbaamoo) January 17, 2015
2 mins Southampton immediately get the ball down on the ground and get their passing routine going. The pitch, by the way, at St James’ Park looks absolutely perfect. The Saints may dominate the early possession but it is Newcastle who have the first attack. It ends with Anita’s shot going out for a throw.
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1 min Off we go. The away side get us going, playing left to right. It looks very, very, very cold in the north east.
Here we are then. Newcastle are resplendent in their black and white home number and Southampton are positively Sun like in their Brazilian yellow as the two teams emerge from the tunnel. Once on the pitch, hands get shook, smiles are exchanged and legs get stretched. It is almost time to go.
Yeah, I don’t get it either.
“It’d be nice to win but getting three points is the most important thing,” says John Carver to the boys on Sky.
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“Hey Ian,” cheers J.R. in Illinois. “I’m assuming you know that this is your second MBM of the day but did you realise that the referees in the two games are brothers? Surely this has to be the first time this has happened in the history of history, wouldn’t you think? (At least in England. I suppose it would be possible in Spain with the Texeira brothers.)”
Is this true? Or is J.R. in Illinois telling fibs?
Some of this today would be nice:
Roll up! Roll up! Here comes today’s team news. There is but one change for Newcastle with Williamson making way for Haidara. (Cissé and Tioté are, of course, unavailable due to being on international duty) As for Southampton, Elia, Pellè and Steven Davis all make their way into the starting lineup. (Yoshida is out for the same reason as Cissé and Tioté.) Those teams in full are as follows:
Newcastle: Krul; Janmaat, Coloccini, Dummett, Haïdara, Sissoko, Anita, Colback, Cabella, Pérez, Gouffran. Subs: Woodman, Santon, Williamson, Abeid, Ameobi, Armstrong, Rivière.
Southampton: Forster; Clyne, Fonte, Gardos, Bertrand, Reed, S. Davis, Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Elia, Pellè. Subs: Davis, Long, Cork, Isgrove, McCarthy, Targett, Hesketh.
Referee: R Madley
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Good evening folks
It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Southampton. Their manager, their saint, the man the could not do without Nicola Cortese, Mauricio Pochettino, did one to Spurs while their players, their saints, the men they could not do without, like Rickie Lambert, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Calum Chambers, Gastón Ramírez and, eh, Billy Sharp didn’t let the door get too close to their back sides when they did one too. It was a meltdown, they said, of Ned Flanders proportions. Well they didn’t reference Ned Flanders but by diddily diddily diddily, doodily, Southampton were going to be shodaiddily iddily iddily diddily diddily this season. It was there in print. A certain journalist – for privacy sake, lets call him “Ian McC” ... No that’s too obvious ... uuh. Let’s say “I McCourt” – did a predicted table for the season. Had them at the wrong end come the season’s end. Embarrassing innit?
It wasn’t supposed to be like this but most of us will be glad it is. What a joy Southampton are to behold, both on and off the field. There were no panicked big buys that brought stars with egos the size of UY Scuti (even if the club had the money to do so) that smashed the dressing room dynamic to smithereens. Things were thought out and players were brought in to fit the system already in place. Their brand of football continues to be a joy to watch. It’s adventurous, it’s organised, it’s excellent. And it’s amazing just how hard each, individual player works for the team. Take last week’s deserved win over Manchester United at Old Trafford. Deep into the second half and deep into injury time, Graziano Pellè was still trying to score and still tracking back, closing down United when they had the ball.
Given the travails of the summer, it would have been very easy for Southampton to go into this season with their head down, like a guitarist in a college shoe-gazing band that is too obsessed with being like Mogwai to form their own sound. However Ronald Koeman has instilled a belief and a truckload of confidence in his squad. That can be seen in how they have bounced back from a run of five defeats with wins over Everton, Crystal Palace, Arsenal and United (not to mention the draw with Chelsea) as well as the fact that they have dropped just two points from leading positions so far in the league this season, the best in the division. That is no statistical anomaly, that is good man management on the Dutchman’s part. So what is not to like about all that? And while Pellè may have hogged a lot of headlines throughout the season, there are others who have been just as integral to Southampton’s success. Morgan Schneiderlin, Dusan Tadic, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mané, Victor Wanyama, to name but a few.
As for Newcastle, well things are not quite so rosy. Despite the fact that Alan Pardew took his pictures off the wall and Sellotaped his stuff into boxes (having asked the handlers to take good care of the one with that award), Mike Ashley has yet to get the finger out and appoint another manager. The club are marooned in no man’s land. It has even gotten to the point where they players are coming out and complaining. “It will be good when the club makes a statement to say: ‘This is the new coach,’” said Daryl Janmaat. And he was not a lone wolf. “It’s never a good thing when you don’t know what’s happening,” said Jack Colback. Stability is what players prize most and without it, results suffer. John Carver, the current caretaker, has lost two of his three matches, one of which saw them crash out of the FA Cup to Leicester. (In fairness to Carver, that instability goes back to before he took charge so there was obviously grumblings going on behind the scenes before his time in charge began.) Should stability prevail and the right manager be appointed, Newcastle can prevail. There is some serious talent in that squad and there were certainly hints of how good they can be in the first half against Chelsea last week.
Newcastle have been good at home this season, picking up 18 points from 10 games and only losing twice. This won’t be an easy one for Southampton. Stay tuned for some team news. It’ll be here right quick. Promise.
