Yohan Cabaye first strike helps Newcastle stay in 4th place

Unbelievable, a stunning start of the season for Newcastle after so many years of doom and gloom. Although we are not playing good last Saturday against the bottom of the table club, but we still manage to get an important three points at home.

The Latics match was also the first live game that my son ever saw. He has been asking me to come with me couple of times before, but last night I finally took him out to watch the Toon game. Although it’s makes him to sleep way very late but he seems to really enjoy it and happy with the result.

Meanwhile at St. James’ Park, three of the Indonesian Toon Army members are finally can shown our flag inside the fortress, good one lads!

Back to the game, Alan Pardew insists to keep his winning team against the bottom table Latics, I couldn’t blame him but it would be good if we put couple of fresh legas from the start, to give a taste of experience for the more tough cahllenge next month against the three teams above us.

I can see a glimpse of tireness in some of our players, and noticed that many of our attack was come from our right side. Obertan has a torrid game also, and many has critized his final ball last night.

But, history tells that it’s always difficult to play against them home and away. From our last two meetings with them at St. James’ Park in 2008/2009 and 2010/2011 seasons, all ends with 2-2 draw.

Yesterday match was another quiet game for Leon Best, especially with surprisingly the visitors took control of the game in the start of 20 minutes of the first half. They marched with 5 goal attempts and 4 shoots on goal compared to none from us.

They make our strikers to come down too deep in our midfield to pick the ball, with Hugo Rodallega constantly to be their main threats in our defense. Rodallega had a first minute shot blocked by Fabricio Coloccini and followed by another rising shot couple minutes later which was superbly tipped away by Tim Krul.

In the second half, things are not getting better before Alan Pardew quickly decide to bringing in Sylvain Marveaux and Ben Arfa to replace Leon Best and Obertan. We are starting to gain more control of the game and in ball possession.

A special note for Ben 10 performance last night, he seems to have little fear to fight for the ball after returning from his long broken leg injury. Although I can still see his magic movement, Ben Arfa still a little less below his peak performance.

Within the last 20 minutes, Pardew finally introduced Shola Ameobi who scores against Spurs last week. His appearance change the game again, and the visitors start to tightened up their defense looking for their first away point.

The deadlock finally broken in the 81st minute, starting with Ryan Taylor’s cross who was controlled by Marveaux before he served the ball for Cabaye to curl an unstoppable shot into Al Habsi top corner. With this glorious performance, I believe that Cabaye will be among those stars in the Euro 2012.

Newcastle United (4-4-2):
Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Ryan Taylor; Gabriel Obertan (Sylvain Marveaux 76), Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez; Leon Best (Hatem Ben Arfa 46), Demba Ba (Shola Ameobi 68)

Subs not used: Steve Harper, Davide Santon, James Perch, Alan Smith

Wigan Athletic (4-1-4-1):
Ali Al Habsi; Emmerson Boyce, Antolin Alcaraz, Gary Caldwell (c), Maynor Figueroa; Ben Watson (James McArthur 82); Albert Crusat (Conor Sammon 81), Mohamed Diame, David Jones, Victor Moses; Hugo Rodallega

Subs not used: Mike Pollitt, Adrian Lopez, Hendry Thomas, Shaun Maloney, Jordi Gomez

Referee: Neil Swarbrick

Attendance: 48,321