Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Magpies Heads Into New Year

Hi all, hope you have all been well I have to apologise for the long time between posts but I have been away and couldn’t continue by story but I am back now. After a poor month previously I will try and get my season back on track in January.

I have 6 games to play this month starting with a trip to face Everton before returning to play Bolton at St James. I will then play Swansea and before to consecutive games against Wigan with the latter game being in the league. I would finally finish the month with a game against Aston Villa.

v Everton (a) Barclays Premiership

The first game of the month was a tricky encounter to face Everton at Goodison Park. It was quite a poor first half with both teams cancelling each other out and giving the ball to the opposition frequently.

The first half ended and the game was unsurprisingly 0-0 at half time. I felt that we needed that extra bit of pace so I took off Rosicky and brought on Wayne Routledge for what was his first appearance this season.

The second half was much like the first with both sides giving the ball away and the ball never really left the centre circle. In the 80^th minute disaster struck as former Sunderland player Frazer Campbell what was to be the winner for the Toffees.

His pace was too much for Steven Taylor to handle and that left Campbell with a simple chance to score past Consigli. I was disappointed with the result and I was more annoyed that we seemed to be going back to the bad form from last month. I needed a quick win in my next match against Bolton Wanderers.

v Bolton (h) Barclays Premiership

After the disappointing loss against Everton in the previous game I was not up against Bolton Wanderers at St James and I was expecting three points by the end of the 90 minutes. Newcastle were certainly the better team in the first half but they just could turn the chances that they created into the goals that they needed and at half time the gamed stayed 0-0.

The second half was a bit more eventful as the home side eventually made the pressure count and they got the first goal of the game through Darren Bent in the 53^rd minute of the match. Just 15 minutes later the score was 2-0 and the unlikely source of Fabricio Coloccini crashed a header home from 7 yards out with a bullet header after he had lost his marker.

I was pleased at the final whistle that we got back to winning ways and I was hoping this would restart our push for the league title. Next up was a game to face Swansea City.

v Swansea (a) Barclays Premiership

I was looking to get back-to-back wins against a Swansea team short of confidence as they were in the relegation places and they don’t look like they are going to get out. After 10iuntes of the game we had a brilliant chance of taking a 1-0 lead. Eric Woodman pointed to the spot when Bent seemed to be tripped up. Eduardo stepped up but his penalty was saved and Swansea were off the hook.

Even thought they seemed short of confidence they didn’t show it and held my Newcastle team until just after half time when in the 61^st minute Eduardo was forgiven for his penalty miss and gave the visiting fans something to sing about when he scored a brilliantly curled shot into the top corner of Swansea’s goal.

Just two minutes later we had doubled our lead and Eduardo got his second goal of the game. He got his head onto the end of a Dan Gosling cross to head the ball into the back of the net.

In the space of just 12 minutes of the game we had gone from struggling 0-0 to be 3-0 up and Eduardo was able to take home the match ball when he got his second opportunity to score from the spot. He this time sent the keeper the wrong way and slotted the ball home to secure three points of the team in black and white.

v Wigan (a) FA Cup 4^th Round

After the good win in the previous game against Swansea we were now set to concentrate on the FA Cup game against Wigan. Again we seemed to struggle to score in the first half and the mixture of good keeping and poor finishing was the contributing factors to this.

The score was then still goalless at half time and the deadlock was eventually broken in the 48^th minute and Darren Bent was on the scoresheet. He got his goal after Marco Verratti’s shot was too hot for Chris Kirkland to handle and the ball fell perfectly for Bent and he had the simple task off putting the ball into the net.

Eleven minutes later the score had the perfect opportunity to get its second goal and fortunately the chance fell to Ekdal from the penalty shot. He duly accepted this chance and he smashed the ball straight down the middle to send Newcastle into the 5^th round.

It was another good win and we were again starting to pick up points and hopefully this will give us another push for the title this season. Next up we were again playing Wigan but this time we were competing in the Premiership.

v Wigan (h) Barclays Premiership

After getting into the next round of the FA Cup it was back to the Premiership and a chance for Wigan to revenge on the previous game when I beat then in the 4^th round of the cup. He got off to a good start and we were 1-0 up in the 19^th minute when Jonas scored.

We were dominating the game and we were 2-0 up by half time when Eduardo continued his good run of scoring form by getting his 4^th goal his month when he connected on the end of a Verratti pass. It was 2-0 at half time and I felt that this game was already won so I decided to take off both Bent and Eduardo and bring on Vuckic and Carroll.

It was Vuckic that set up the third Newcastle goal when he took the ball past two Wigan defenders he was brought down in the penalty area. Lee Probert pointed to the spot and we had been given our fourth penalty this month.

Marco Verratti stepped up and look confident and slid the ball comfortably into the bottom corner with Kirkland going the wrong way. It was another win and we were doing well at the moment. Next up was Aston Villa.

v Villa (a) Barclays Premiership

The last game of the month took us to Villa Park to face an Aston Villa side that were currently 2^nd just above my Newcastle team on goal difference. The home side were the better of the team in the first half and they were 1-0 up after 23 minutes thanks to Ashley Young.

His goal came from a free-kick that we won himself, he stepped up to smash the shot low into the bottom corner of Consigli goal. They were 1-0 up at half time and I told my player that they needed to improve if they were going to get anything out of the game.

I got an immediate response and we were soon level in the second half when Darren Bent got his head onto an Ekdal cross to put the ball into the back of the net to make the game level at 1-1. The game seemed to quieten down after that goal and the game finished 1-1 and I was pleased with the result at the final whistle.

Results

A good return to the form that took us to the top of the table with 4 wins out of 6 I was pleased with the return considering the form that we showed in the previous month. Hopefully this will kick start my season again

Table

I was currently sitting in 3^rd place on the same amount of points as Villa in 2^nd and Spurs in 4^th. I was also 4 points behind Arsenal who were leading the league and 5 points ahead of Manchester City but they had a game in hand against West Ham so I expect them to get three points but I hope that they don’t.