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Manchester City v Newcastle United – 14 years of hurt

9 years ago
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Manchester City v Newcastle United  

Manchester City 0 Newcastle United 2   Wednesday 29 October 7.45pm

League Cup Fourth Round

Typical Newcastle United, an edgy win over Leicester had been followed up with a spectacular turn around at White Hart Lane – a return of hope and dare I say it, something approaching a fee-good factor.

However, it only took seconds to destroy that glimmer of hope and rise in expectation.

An hour before kick-off the team was announced, Newcastle were going in to face the Premier League champions and League Cup holders, with a thrown together mixture of kids and fringe players.

Armstrong expected to lead the attack by himself, Abeid thrown in after he didn’t even make the bench at Tottenham, Ryan Taylor expected to play his first game in over two years against this lot, Dummett an emergency centre-back, Aarons thrown in without any warm-up games after a lengthy spell out injured, Obertan given a game despite being dragged off at half-time on Sunday at Spurs.

It looked like a real kick in the teeth for the travelling fans, especially when on the bench watching were first teamers Krul and Sissoko, while surely it was worth giving Cabella and Perez a shot at this one after their second-half success at Spurs?

Six minutes after kick-off and the game was turned on its head.

Ryan Taylor challenged high up the field, Rolando Aarons was straight onto it and beat keeper Caballero from a difficult angle. Even better for United was the fact that Silva was shortly substituted and City were suddenly a goal and their best player down.

Not quite going to the expected script for either team.

City did hit back but without full conviction, Nasri is no Silva and maybe the home side could and would have got back into the game with just one of the two early setbacks, but just as Spurs on Sunday they weren’t able to quite do it.

There were chances as Manchester City tightened the screw but Rob Elliot was in good form keeping everything out, though it took the woodwork to prevent Coloccini turning it into his own net. At the other end of the pitch though Newcastle still showed ambition – Dummett having an effort cleared off the line while Adam Armstrong almost made it two on the stroke of half-time.

The second half and more of the same, Newcastle having to defend but playing on the break as well, Sammy Ameobi having replaced Rolando Aarons at the break.

A pivotal moment; Gabriel Obertan goes clear and just gets into the penalty area when Kolarov cleans him out – about as obvious a penalty and sending off as you will see…unless you are a referee.

At this point you just know that you are now going to lose, this clear penalty will be completely ignored after the game as the media concentrate on plucky City’s fightback.

However, this ended up not being the reality. Instead City became increasingly ragged and ten minutes after he came on the pitch, substitute Sissoko waltzed through the City defence to put United two up with a cute finish. Happy days.

That last fifteen minutes was played out with little fuss, at least in relative terms. A couple of scares but when Ryan Taylor chested a clear chance off the line it was obvious this was to be our night.

A big well done to everybody on the pitch tonight but I still refuse to believe that this was anything but a side sent out by Alan Pardew that he knew for sure was going to get turned over.

Three wins in a row and the first win on Manchester City soil for fourteen years, I’m almost getting to like Manchester a little bit…

Team: Elliot, Janmaat (Sissoko 65), Coloccini, Dummett, Haidara, Colback, Obertan, Abeid, Ryan Taylor, Aarons (Ameobi 46), Armstrong (Riviere 65)

Unused Subs: Krul, Cabella, Perez, Gouffran

Ref: Stuart Attwelll

Crowd: 40,752 (3,000 Newcastle)

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