On a night where Newcastle team was playing without regular strike partnership of Andy Carroll and Shola Ameobi, suddenly Leon found his way back with a sensational hat-trick as Newcastle United hammered West Ham 5-0.
It was his first Premier League start for us, and scored twice in the first half, his first coming in from a sweet Toon counter attack in 18 minutes.
Our left flank looking dangerously on attack with both Gutierrez and Jose Enrique getting forward at every opportunity, giving a real test to the struggling Tal Ben Haim while dealing with Gutierrez’s pace and trickery. Newcastle superiority on the field pay off on 39 minutes to doubled the lead.
Joey Barton’s quick free-kick found Lovenkrands down the left-hand side of the West Ham box before flashed the ball across the six yard box. It was a sweet ball for Leon Best at the back post, He took little touch to the ball before fired it home past Green. And in five minutes on the stroke of half-time, Kevin Nolan killed the game off for Newcastle, 3-0.
After the break, Best got his third on the hour mark before Peter Lovenkrands was there to finish Barton’s low cross on the goal-side of the defender to make it 5-0 for Toon.
Frankly, just like the Villa’s match, I was personally was in a surprise to see the final scoring board as the Hammers are flying high on their last four games before last night.
Mike Williamson replacing the hamstring strain suffered Stephen Taylor for Newcastle in the first half and for me that makes us having our strongest central defence in Coloccini-Williamson. Nile Ranger replaced Leon Best on 64 minutes, and Shane Ferguson came on for Gutierrez a minute later.
Newcastle played with ten men after Tiote felt a slight niggle with 10 minutes to go, but that didn’t cause any danger for the comfortable Newcastle United side who has bagged 5 goals.
And now, with a week off following by the FA Cup matches this weekend, we have enough time to give our first team players chance to get recovered from their last night injuries, and let our young guns have some experience into the Stevenage challenge.
The upcoming Premierleague match against mackems was another important test for AP, and if he can manage a good result from it, I will start to give him my appreciation, and may long it continued.
Until then, thanks for coming to this site and Howay the Lads!
Only registered users can comment.
