Joey Barton played fantastically well in midfield and it seemed fitting that our moustachio-ed friend would start off our impossible scoreline. It was nearly about to be Aston Villa’s day with a early penalty attempt which was sent way over the bar by John Carew. Only minutes later Barton took his chance by powering swerving shot in to goal. 1-0! All credit to Villa, they managed a goal which didn’t count because of infringement. It was Nolan who soon added to our goal tally with an excellent bit of play between Enrique and Carroll.

Andy Carroll proved far too much fro Villa’s defence to handle. The hero of the day and probably to make the back pages tomorrow as a possible stand out talent for this season. His hat-trick of goals sent the opposition packing. Coupled with Nolan’s brace, it was Newcastle’s season finally getting off the ground and a 6-0 scoreline to announce that this Newcastle side is something else!

Speaking on the official site, Carroll said:

“I had my chance, and I should have put it away. We had a few other chances as well, and we could have been ahead.

“But overall, I thought we did well. We knew it was going to be difficult, and it was, but for the first 35 minutes we did well.

“We kept the ball well and didn’t let them do what they wanted to do. Then the first goal went in and they took control.”

It was great effort but unfortunately the finish wasn’t there. We know players in the squad like Carroll will deliver when it comes to Sunday and beyond. This Man Utd game is far from being the defining point of the season. It was always going to be a massive battle at Old Trafford to get the first goal but utlimately Berbatov managed the first goal. Not many teams have the honour of  beating Man Utd at home.

However, it does expose our fragility which would concern Hughton and not to mention Ashley. Perhaps a couple of new names on the roster wouldn’t be amiss particularly when we have a bit of an injury issue in areas across the team. Let’s see what Hughton’s next move shall be.

The only shot worth mentioning was Andy Carroll’s missed header in the 10th minute from a Barton corner. Carroll certainly has the potential to be a great striker but he’s very much work in progress in my opinion.

Onwards from here and this will not be the last of many massive challenges we face in the next few months.

Manchester United  3-0  Newcastle United

Next match: Aston Villa at Home on Sunday

Elsewhere, no news of the apparent  injury to Andy Carroll which was mentioned last week but he did have a run out to the spectacular open training session yesterday. Perhaps we could be lucky there.

Meanwhile, Chris Hughton is looking to bolster our team with yet more signings before the window shuts in September. Speaking yesterday, he said:

“It’s difficult, but it’s about getting the right players in at the right values.

“We know how difficult the Premier League will be and we know we need to increase the squad.

“We are in the process of hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, doing some business.”

Inevitably, it’s also said that the player must also understand that the Number 9 shirt comes with the responsibilities off the pitch as well as on. Carroll was regretably been linked to several unsavoury stories regarding punch-ups last season. Let’s hope that there will be no such stories this new season which will drag the Club’s good name through the backpages of the gutter press again.

Best of luck Andy with the coveted number 9. All eyes will be watching!

NOTE: Normal service on the blog will resume from August. Having my usual break. Hope everyone enjoys their summer.

The best reading comes with the goal tally with Carroll bagging 19, Nolan (18), Peter Lovenkrands (16) and Shola (11). That’s 45 goals in total from strikers! Let’s not forget Harewood who achieved 5 goals in his short 9 league appearances.

Player of the Season, Kevin Nolan netted an amazing 18 times and easily rivalled the best of our goal scorers.

The hope is that this run of goal striking form will now continue into the new season.

The game against Plymouth was won by two goals in the first half from Carroll and Routledge – both outstanding players for us this season. Although Plymouth had some near-chances, they didn’t do enough to threaten the scoreline. Two second half efforts by Leon Best and Barton couldn’t expand our score any further but when the whistle went it was a big relief to get the points and fans flooded onto the pitch to celebrate with the players. A fine night for the team!

The official site has posted images of the celebrations here

It’s been a long and challenging season and it’s fantastic to see the team come up with the goods. Next season will be difficult but for now Hughton and lads deserve all the credit and appreciation from fans for making this the season where the football did the talking for once.

Hughton’s plan is to take every game one at a time and certainly talk of promotion is not encouraged amougst the players.  He told the Sunday Sun:-

“What you can’t afford to do is think beyond Monday’s game before you actually get there

At the moment all our focus is on that.

What we can do is create more daylight between us and Forest, though there’s no doubt if we win the game we make it more difficult for Forest and do ourselves a big favour as well.”

Team news, Steven Taylor is resting his broken jaw and we may finally get to see Ameobi back in action alongside Carroll. Lovenkrands and Smith could possibly feature.

The stats are currently working for us tonight with Nottingham Forest having dropped 21 points playing away this year so far! We are also trying to maintain our unbeaten home record whch is said to be the only unbeaten record remaining in the country.

Certainly a win is needed tonight, not only to give us distance between third place Nottingham but to keep pace with West Brom for top spot!

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Back pages were dominated by yesterday’s story of the Taylor/Carroll scuffle which happened at the training grounds earlier in the week. The club is in full secrecy over the incident with only rumours written regarding text messages and WAGs. Steven Taylor looks to miss the rest of the season now after he was discharged from hospital. Carroll will have to face the music of the Newcastle United board and Hughton who have launched an internal investigation. Carroll will almost certainly be fined and asked to apologise. So far the police have not been involved.

Last night, the public face was all united. The match also marked the return of Joey Barton, another troubled player but he was probably relieved that it wasn’t him in the headlines for once. Overall the team played exceptionally well with the defence once again notching another clean sheet.

Also questions will be asked of Carroll, who is already facing charges of assault for a night club fracas. Andy Carroll has no doubt been a star player and has produced on pitch when it really matters like the weekend gone against Bristol City. If the alleged incident took place and Carroll was the instigator, then it would seriously dent his chances of wearing the coveted #9 shirt. I’m hoping Carroll is not going to become the Craig Bellamy of the team. And with another rough ‘un in Joey Barton waiting in the wings, it could damage team morale if these two explosive temperaments go unchecked. I hear Barton is on the mend so maybe Carroll could be perhaps referred to the same anger management consultant?!

UPDATE: News or rather rumours continue to surround this story. Apparently it would seem Andy Carroll has damaged his hand and shall not play. I don’t think it would be likely he would play anyway tonight regardless as he was alleged involved in the incident. It looks like  Best will form part of tonight’s attack against Doncaster.