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Barton Seals Points For Newcastle Against Fulham
By Dave NU Blogger | December 15, 2007
It wasn’t the most entertaining of matches but Newcastle again stole the game with a late winner to leave travelling fans happy. Scrappy and sometimes down-right ugly, the match laboured on through 90 minutes until a late penalty saw Joey Barton slot the ball neatly in the bottom right corner.
The first half was barely worth talking about. Both sides looked ill at ease with very few chances. Newcastle started spritely but the half quickly fizzled out as both teams went in to their own comfort zones. Fulham were already quite nervous after a losing four of their previous matches as well as being dumped into the relegation zone before kick off began. With Newcastle, we had an alotogether different story having sealed a win against Brimingham and had two sturdy performances however our away record is poor and Fulham could smell blood. It was a timid affair with a chance by Beye from a corner set piece only of note.
Still Newcastle poured their hearts into the game if not their talent. The defence showed good resilence with Capaca returning for duty in place of an injured Taylor. His overall performance was very solid and thankfully shuck off any remaining hints of “Bramble-itis” from his previous appearances. Both Rozenhal and Beye did their duty to good effect today also but Capaca outshone them.
By the second half, things did heat up with Fulham making head way but Dempsey and Healey lacked the quality to convert any given chances. At the other end, opportunities from both Nicky Butt and Viduka, who missed a sitter when he was bought on in place of Martins, could not break the deadlock.
Referee, Howard Webb had a poor time looking after the match in general but the late dramatic penalty decision was spot on. Viduka deliciously flicked the ball within 15 yards of the box to an waiting Alan Smith. Then Smith was then needlessly tripped by Owozusi and Webb ran in pointing to the spot. Barton stepped up and made this match our first away win since the very beginning of the season. Not only that it was also our first clean sheet since, well, feels like the beginning of time really.
Well done to the lads for making my Saturday night. They fought hard to the last minute and deserved to take the game from a lacklustre Fulham. This is turning out to be a good run for us and I hoping that confidence is rising so that the team can take a few risks and show a little spine to notch up the tempo of the match. For Allardyce, a win is a win and with West Ham, Villa and Blackburn all slipping today, we stand a seriously good chance at least getting into the top eight come the New Year. Next week, we take on Paul Jewell’s Derby side.
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