Newcastle United F.C. 2-1 WBA

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if last week left west bromwich albion supporters dissapointed, then this must have been something more like complete and utter psychological devastation. i, myself, was left in a state of total disbelief, raging at an empty, chaotic universe devoid of god and meaning. unlike the loss to manchester city one week earlier, this was just cruel on the baggies.

as a supporter, there is generally one or two fixtures throughout the course of a season where the level of frustration is beyond what is reasonably endurable. two years ago, there was an away match to blackpool that was particularly frustrating to witness. last year, it was the home game against everton that was hard to swallow. but to have this happen two weeks running...

i'm at a loss...


due to the recent and relative fortunes of each club, west brom and newcastle have had some epic encounters during this last four seasons. both clubs (along with middlesbrough) were relegated at the end of 2008-09. while this was expected of the baggies, it took the toon by surprise; and where the albion and boro' were both expected to come straight back up again, united were tipped by some pundits for big troubles and eventual relegation to LEAGUE 1.

however, it was middesbrough who ran into problems in the second-tier, and the magpies won the division, setting new records along the way. west brom came up in the other automatic spot along with blackpool, who won promotion by virtue of the playoffs.

the two sides drew 1-1 at the hawthorns on opening day of the 2009-10 CHAMPIONSHIP season. this was a significant match for newcastle, as their current number one goalie, tim krul, made his senior debut for the club, coming on at half-time for an injured steve harper. the two sides then doubled up on the previous goal tally with a 2-2 stalemate at (as it was then) st. james' park, before the baggies knocked united out of the FA CUP at home by a score of 4-2 in the 4th round. it was in this last encounter that roberto di matteo, finding himself short on strikers, discovered the virtues of a 4-5-1 playing formation.


the next time they met, the albion won 3-1 at the hawthorns, and on the final day of the season somen tchoyi scored a famous hat-trick in the last ten minutes of the game to earn yet another draw with a final score of 3-3. this was the result which propelled the baggies to a creditable 11th place finish just ahead of the magpies in 12th.

last year, west brom went to st. james' park (now burdened with the ridiculous official name of 'SportsDirect.com@StJamesPark Stadium') and came away with a surprise 3-2 win over an in form newcastle side. united returned the favour by coming to the hawthorns and beating the baggies 3-1.

as the two sides kicked off their fifth consecutive season of facing each other in league competition, the baggies have gotten off to a flying start while the toon have struggled a little with the added pressure of waging a EUROPA LEAGUE campaign. this has seen their domestic league form drop off from the pace that produced last year's excellent, surprise 5th place finish.

not since taking over as the head man at west brom have steve clarke's tactics been so transparent. having learned a valuable lesson against the league champions the week before, the baggies were content to let the home side have the bulk of possession and look to break on the counter.

while the toon did have more of the possession, their chances were limited. the first real scoring opportunity came in the 12th minute when a ball played in by shola ameobi found demba ba free at the far post. the newcastle striker, however, couldn't find the target and headed wide.


the magpies then had a couple of chances that developed from a low, hard drive hit from 30 yards out by defender, davide santon. the shot was on target and required a smart save from ben foster to turn it round his left hand post. while the ensuing corner produced a free header for shola ameobi, the ball came straight into the arms of the albion goalie who easily gathered coming off his line.

in the 25th minute, the baggies showed how dangerous they can be on the break. with newcastle having won another corner, gareth mccauley cleared and james morrison astutely set graham dorrans on a run and into a 3-on-2 counter attack along with peter odemwingie and romelu lukaku. the scottish international played the ball in perfectly for lukaku to take what was easily the best chance of the match to that point. however, tim krul was equal to the challenge and came out sharply to make a stunning save from the young belgian international.

demba ba put newcastle ahead with a trademark bit of strength and skill in the 35th mintue. taking advantage of a miscued header by gareth mccauley on a ball played into the albion box, the senagalese striker made no mistake in muscling his way forward, turning and smashing past ben foster on the volley for the opening goal of the game.

at the other end - and in the 39th minute - lukaku had a similar opportunity to his earlier effort as youssouf mulumbu's through ball put the albion striker in behind the united defense, but was again foiled by krul's excellent anticipation and positioning in the newcastle goal.

with newcastle still leading at half-time, the game took a change of course in the second period. the toon, having played a EUROPA LEAGUE fixture at home to brugge on thursday began to look tired and the albion took control of the match and finally equalized in the 55th minute.

from a quickly played baggies free-kick, lukaku knocked the ball back for zoltan gera who made a short run to the outside at the top of the united area before looping in a perfect cross for lukaku in behind the newcastle back-line to head in at the far post, leaving krul no chance of a save.


as the match progressed, the baggies looked the more likely to push on and find a winner, but were beaten in the end by a somewhat flukey goal deep into injury time.

with time running out and newcastle given the opportunity for a final attack, the baggies made the fatal mistake of allowing hatem ben arfa to bring the ball across the half-way line, cut inside and make a 40-yard diagonal run deep into the west brom half. while a challenge eventually came in from james morrison, the ball ran for sammy ameobi to have a shot from just beyond the edge of the box. with foster moving into a covering position to see the shot wide, the ball took a deflection off papiss cissé, changed direction and with the albion goalie wrong footed and stranded, bounced into an open net.

as with the game against manchester city, west brom side played better in the second-half and deserved at least a point from each game. there was a lesson to be learned from the manchester city encounter; but not here. this was just plain old cosmic spite.