Simply The Best
Leon Best gave the Magpies all three points
It was a poor match at St James park today but Newcastle United managed to get the job done with the newly-managed QPR came to the North East. Newcastle shocked their fans as Alan Pardew chose to start with Hatem Ben Arfa on the bench after his superlative display against Blackburn. Danny Guthrie returned to the team in Chieck Tiote’s absence with Dan Gosling only managing to make the bench. QPR had Shaun Wright-Phillips playing but their starting XI didn’t look of Premier League quality with Barton, Faurlin and Taraabt all missing for various reasons.
In the opening 15 minutes QPR came out of the blocks at a hurtling speed and had several attempts on goal, Wright-Phillips had a nice effort that clipped the top of the bar. Newcastle were sloppy and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. Then as Newcastle began to get back into the contest Shaun Derry lunged at Yohan Cabaye who stayed on the floor and had to be stretchered off. Ray Wilkins was commenting how Cabaye was ‘playacting’ and ‘needed to get up’. This tackle could have been a red on another day, Robbie Savage tweeted he thought it should have been a red. This brought Hatem Ben Arfa onto the field of play.
This change seemed to give Newcastle impetus as they began to retain possession and cut QPR’s defence open. Then a ball came into Shola Ameobi who played it to Leon Best inside the area who turned Luke Young brilliantly and fired home past Paddy Kenny. This would turn out to be the only shot on target for home side. This has showed the rest of the league that we can survive without our top scorer Demba Ba. QPR seemed to lose composure after the goal as the first half fizzled out. The away side were really struggling to produce anything to get past the solid back four of Newcastle.
After half time, the game was poor and QPR looked like a team that are bottom of the form table. The only real chance in the second half for QPR came as Helguson headed down a cross into the path of Jay Bothroyd who fired over the top of Tim Krul’s goal. Newcastle also had a good chance as Ben Arfa weaved his way through the opposition’s defense and played a lovely ball to Leon Best who’s shot was cleared before it fell into Ameobi’s path. Another chance came as Paddy Kenny rushed out of his goal to concede a throw in, which Newcastle took quickly and Jonas Gutierrez tried to curl into the empty goal but the defenders covered the goal well. The game finished with Newcastle the only team who looked like scoring again. It was one of those games which we could have been playing into next week and QPR still wouldn’t have found the net.
Davide Santon and Danny Guthrie were the best players on the park today as they both attacked and defended really well. Santon went on some marvelous runs down the touchline and caused Luke Young a lot of trouble. Guthrie played superbly coming in for Cheick Tiote and looked comfortable on the ball, he also dug in for the team. He needs to sign a new contract! Leon Best and Ben Arfa also played well for the hosts.
For QPR, it is clear they need to buy players this week. Their current squad is not good enough for this division. Joey Barton and Shaun Wright-Phillips are key for them if they are to survive. If they bring in the likes of Alex, Stephen Ireland and Henrique who they have been linked with, they will be able to survive.
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