Newcastle still searching for winning formula

11 April 2009 19:29
So much hope and expectation has been placed on the home games with Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Fulham to rescue them but what right do Newcastle have to claim those matches are 'winnable'? There is a greater desire and work rate but they needed more than this point to really galvanise their season. As it is, a draw moved them back above Middlesbrough on goal difference but they are still two points from safety with six matches left. Although Newcastle can argue that Stoke should not have been given the corner that led to Faye's goal and before and after that breakthrough, the visitors' attacking threat was non-existent. Stoke no longer hold any surprises for the Premier League but that has never been the key to their impressive home record but then it is one thing to expect a bombardment and it is entirely another to actually deal with it. In the build-up, Shearer had spoken of the need to be "big, brave and strong" so it might have been easy to guess his reaction when he received a phone-call from Obafemi Martins on Saturdayday morning explaining he would not be available because of a groin problem. That was not the sort of unpredictability Shearer meant when he was explaining how Martins could still be Newcastle's saviour. However, for long passages of the opening period, his team were just that yet even before Faye's opener, there had been a warning of what would be required. Stoke's former Manchester United defender Ryan Shawcross was left on his own only to head wide from Glenn Whelan's corner with just a couple of minutes gone. Such are the problems in Newcastle's squad an injury to their only left-back Jose Enrique meant that they were forced into a major re-shuffle. The defender Sebastien Bassong returned but as part of what was for long periods a five-man back-line that included Damien Duff. The lack of creativity in midfield was crippling although they did have a couple of early efforts themselves, with Michael Owen glancing wide from Duff's whipped free-kick and Kevin Nolan headed wide from Nicky Butt's lofted ball into the area. Just before the half hour, Matthew Etherington was cautioned for sliding into Ryan Taylor and the Newcastle full-back was then almost struck by an object thrown from the home section, an incident sure to be included in referee Chris Foy's match report. Shortly after that, the home team took the lead from a corner that was awarded by Foy when the ball went out of play off the Stoke striker Ricardo Fuller. It was not the sort of luck Newcastle need at the moment but they still had to defend the set-piece and they failed to do so. Liam Lawrence clipped the ball in from Stoke's left and, unmarked and six yards from goal, Faye, whose simple run had lost Sebastien Bassong, squeezed a header between the goalkeeper Steve Harper and Danny Guthrie on the post. Stoke had grounds for a penalty appeal when Etherington's drive was blocked by Kevin Nolan's arm on the edge of the area but it was the Newcastle players Bassong and Taylor that had to be pulled away from referee Foy as the half-time whistle sounded. After the interval, the trouble continued with Lawrence's clipped free-kick stabbed at goal again by Faye only to be cleared off the line by Taylor before Fuller headed over from close range. Shola Ameobi headed wide from a Duff cross and as Owen looked poised to head in from Duff's cross, he was beaten to it by Shawcross and dumped on the floor and a header from the substitute Andy Carroll also flew wide. Newcastle were playing the sort of desperate football associated with those that know that defeat is no longer an option. In the final quarter of an hour they finally started to threaten and after Taylor's long throw, Duff lobbed the ball back in and Carroll dispatched a fine header into the corner of Thomas Sorensen's net to spark scenes reminiscent of a late winner. Still they were fortunate that an effort from Stoke's Danny Pugh flew wide in the closing stages. Shearer always claimed this would be difficult and with each passing week it is not getting any easier.

Source: Telegraph