Source: Northern_Echo
Newcastle United 3 Swansea City 0
Newcastle United 3 Swansea City 0[LNB] THEY might not like sportsdirect.com@St James' Park, but there is one appendage to their football club stadium's name that Newcastle United supporters will not mind seeing this morning.[LNB] Unbeaten @ St James' Park is hardly a bad tag to be able to use at the start of December, and the moniker highlights the main reason why the Magpies are currently two points clear at the top of the Championship.[LNB] Saturday's clinical 3-0 victory over a Swansea side that had previously gone 11 matches unbeaten made it seven wins and two draws from nine games on Tyneside this season.[LNB] That is the form of champions, and for all that Newcastle have failed to produce a real stand-out performance at home, their ability to brush aside opponents with the minimum of fuss is superior to that of any other side in the division.[LNB] We've got good momentum and that makes a big difference,[LNB] said Chris Hughton, who has entered the record books as the first Newcastle manager to win the opening four league games of his permanent reign. Winning becomes a habit.[LNB] We've got a really good sequence together at home, and we've shown different ways that we can win a game. We've had periods of the season where we'd have liked to have made things a bit more comfortable for ourselves, but they've ended up being quite scrappy wins.[LNB] But we've also had games where we've been really sharp and clinical. We've produced some really good finishes recently, and we've been helped by some really good delivery.[LNB] After events at the weekend, Hughton is right to highlight the quality of his side's finishing as a key factor behind their ascent to the top of the table.[LNB] In the first half of Saturday's game, Newcastle had three shots on target and scored three goals. Swansea had three shots on target, two of which hit Steven Taylor, and one of which was directed marginally too close to Steve Harper, who was able to pull off an excellent fingertip save.[LNB] It was a similar story at Preston last Monday, with Kevin Nolan drilling Newcastle's only meaningful opportunity into the bottom corner, while Neil Mellor fired Preston's only genuine chance into the side-netting.[LNB] The Championship is packed with sides which are reasonably well drilled and neat and tidy on the ball. Finishers, though, are few and far between.[LNB] Marlon Harewood and Peter Lovenkrands are hardly the next Shearer and Milburn, but their top-flight experience and composure in front of goal place them well ahead of most of their rivals.[LNB] Throw in Andy Carroll, Shola Ameobi and Nolan, who was in midfield at the weekend but remains Newcastle's leading scorer, and you have a strike force that is better than anything else in the division.[LNB] West Brom, Cardiff and QPR might have scored more goals as a collective, but if a chance was to fall to a striker towards the end of a tight game, you would be more confident of him scoring if he was wearing a Newcastle shirt.[LNB] We've got some real competition up front now because we've got some strikers who are bang in form, said Hughton. We're hoping Shola might be available for next weekend, but it certainly won't be a case of him walking straight back in any more.[LNB] We're not taking anything away from Shola in terms of the quality he's got, but because of the form of the team and the strikers, the decision to bring him back in is a harder one to make. That's the ideal situation to be in.[LNB] Thanks to the efforts of their attackers, Newcastle were in an ideal situation at half-time of Saturday's game, boasting a three-goal lead.[LNB] Harewood set the ball rolling in the eighth minute, heading home from the edge of the six-yard box after Fabricio Coloccini had flicked on Alan Smith's chipped cross.[LNB] Lovenkrands doubled Newcastle's lead 13 minutes later, making the most of the freedom of the penalty area to convert a delicious left-wing delivery from Jonas Gutierrez.[LNB] And Harewood completed a hat-trick of headers shortly before the half-hour mark, stealing ahead of his marker to glance home Lovenkrands' centre at the front post.[LNB] To all intents and purposes that was that, although the second half would not have been so comfortable had Harper, who was substituted at half-time because of a back injury, not made two fine saves towards the end of the opening period.[LNB] The first denied Cedric Van Der Gun after the midfielder's shot had deflected off Taylor, and the second, an acrobatic fingertip effort, thwarted Andrea Orlandi.[LNB] Swansea rallied after the interval, and for much of the second half, the Welsh side passed the ball around more precisely than their opponents.[LNB] Tellingly, though, they never looked like scoring, and Newcastle would have added a fourth had Alan Smith, who is still waiting for his first Magpies goal, not shot straight at goalkeeper Dorus De Vries when completely unmarked on the penalty spot in the 90th minute. And Smith must score', as Brighton fans might say. Like his FA Cup final predecessor, needless to say he didn't.[LNB] You'll see numerous games where a team have taken a lead, and from half-time onwards the result stays the same, said Hughton, in defence of his side's laboured second-half efforts.[LNB] I felt we didn't do well enough in the second half and, on another occasion, we might not get away with it.[LNB] But if the score is 0-0 at halftime, I don't think that secondhalf performance happens.[LNB] You've always got to look at it over the whole of the game, and to come away with three goals at home and not concede, you can't ask for any more.[LNB] Except, perhaps, to demand a repeat in the remaining 14 home games this season. For all the fury of the last few weeks, unbeaten @ St James' Park is a name that all Newcastle fans can live with.[LNB] Match facts Goals:[LNB] 1-0: Harewood (8, headed home after Coloccini flicked on Smith's cross)[LNB] 2-0: Lovenkrands (21, close-range header from Gutierrez's left-wing cross)[LNB] 3-0: Harewood (28, glanced home Lovenkrands' cross at front post)[LNB] Bookings: Tate (89, foul)[LNB] Referee: Mark Haywood (Leeds) - Allowed the game to flow and kept his cards in his pocket until the very end 6[LNB] Attendance: 42,616[LNB] Entertainment: [LNB] NEWCASTLE UNITED (4-4-2):[LNB] 7 Harper: Made two excellent first-half saves before a back injury forced him off[LNB] 7 Simpson: Solid and reliable in defence, and distributed the ball well going forward[LNB] 7 S Taylor: Made a crucial block at the end of the first half to deny the lively Dyer[LNB] 8 COLOCCINI: Tackled impressively and read the game well throughout[LNB] 6 Enrique: Rarely troubled by a Swansea attack in good form going into the game;[LNB] 6 Guthrie: Worked effectively on the right but failed to deliver a really telling pass[LNB] 7 Smith: Bossed midfield and, remarkably, failed to pick up a yellow card for once[LNB] 6 Nolan: A decent display, even if he never looked like adding to his goals tally[LNB] 7 Gutierrez: Always a threat down the left, and brilliant cross for Lovenkrands' goal;[LNB] 7 Lovenkrands: Took his goal well and a fine centre for Harewood's second[LNB] 7 Harewood: Two chances, two goals - you can't really ask for much more[LNB] Subs[LNB] Krul (for Harper 46): Made a good late save to keep out Cotterill's close-range shot 6 Ranger (for Harewood 68): Newcastle had taken their foot off the gas by the time he came on 5 Pancrate (for Guthrie 76)[LNB] SWANSEA CITY (4-5-1):[LNB] De Vries 4; Rangel 3, Williams 4, Tate 3, Bessone 5; DYER 7, Orlandi 6, Pratley 6 (Allen 74), Britton 6, Van Der Gun 5 (Cotterill 52, 6); Beattie 4 (Pintado 52, 4)[LNB] MAN OF THE MATCH[LNB] FABRICIO Coloccini - For the second match in a row, the Argentinian was exemplary at the heart of defence.[LNB]
