Newcastle 0 – 2 MAN CITY – MY THOUGHTS
13 Jan
A hostile atmosphere, a feisty affair and a victory that says a great deal about the character that courses through City’s squad. The Blues have been majestic for much of this season in playing attacking football with relentless intensity but on Sunday, the players once again demonstrated that they possess spirit and hunger to complement grace and style.
Newcastle, as expected, were challenging opponents. In a game rife with controversy, they were full of aggression, controlled much of the midfield battle and posed a constant physical threat, but that they remained goalless and frustrated emphasises just what a resilient defensive performance this was from City. Our attackers may only have sparsely clicked, but thanks to a near-impenetrable barrier at the back, we ground out the three points and made it six wins and two draws from the last eight matches on the road, far from the miserable away record many would have you believe.
For much of the game, City were sloppy and disjointed. It was arguably one of our least fluent performances of the season and yet we secured the victory and kept a clean sheet. To that end, the defence deserves praise aplenty. Joe Hart made one splendid stop late on from Loic Remy which was the highlight of his assured display, whilst Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis and Aleks Kolarov could all justify claims for the man of the match award. When we needed leaders in the face of a Newcastle onslaught, they obliged. They blocked, cleared, intercepted and tackled our way to the win.
However, their grittiness will hardly receive a mention post-match. Instead, attention will be focused on the referee, Mike Jones, and his decision to overturn Cheick Tiote’s thumping strike in the first half. It was a sensational shot, whistling into the corner as Joe Hart stood and watched, but as Newcastle and their smug, abusive manager celebrated, the referee conferred with the linesman and they judged Yoan Gouffran, standing a few yards offside, to have interfered with play.
In this situation, ‘interfered’ is the key word. It is understandable that those of a Newcastle persuasion are so angry at the decision as we have seen incidents like this in the past where the goal has stood and barely a word has been mentioned. Did Gouffran touch the ball? No. Was he in Joe Hart’s direct line of vision and thus impacting on his ability to stop the ball? No. He was in Hart’s peripheral vision, yes, but he didn’t prevent the goalkeeper from stopping Tiote’s shot. And yet, in no way coloured by bias, I still believe Gouffran interfered.
Had the Newcastle man stood still, the ball would have cannoned into him a yard from goal and offside would have been given. So, to avoid the ball hitting him, he made a late movement out the way. And it’s that movement which, to me, suggests he was active. It he had remained where he was, the ball would have struck him. How, therefore, can he not be interfering with play? Of course, the debate will rage and there won’t be a clear consensus, but it seems incomprehensible that Gouffran was passive, seeing as he moved at the last moment, a yard away from Hart, to avoid the ball.
The result of Mike Jones’s decision was that, much like City’s midfield, he lost control for the rest of the game. Yellow cards were issued with carefree abandon, the crowd raised the volume a notch or three, and he was lost in a sea of feisty tackles and angry players. Gone was the consistency we desire from a referee. In its place came a frenetic, wild approach and a referee who seemed afraid to punish Newcastle’s players.
That was in evidence when Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa scythed down Samir Nasri in the second half. The Frenchman was carried off on a stretcher in agony (although tests today revealed he’ll only be sidelined for eight weeks as opposed to initial, more serious fears) but the defender received only a booking for what was a deliberate and cowardly tackle. It deserved a red card, no question. In fact, there were arguably three separate offences within the tackle, each worthy of a yellow card, but as with Yohan Cabaye’s string of fouls when already booked, for whatever reason, possibly not wanting to further incense the already rabid crowd and players, the referee bottled sending him off. It was madness and indicative of his loss of control.
Fortunately, lead by our warriors at the back we were able to withstand the home side’s endeavours and as tense as it was, we battled to our sixth consecutive victory in the Premier League. Promising signs, indeed, as we hunt down the leaders.
I agree. I also think Negredo’s goal should have been disallowed because Krul was interfering with play.
After years of crowing about Ferguson and his intimidation of officials / blatant cheating, how ironic that you should be celebrating victories with Joe Hart in your team. He really is up there with Rooney and Ferdinand on the gobshite scale. You’re becoming everything you claim to hate.
The hate of anything non-NUFC rained down on everyone yesterday; players and officials alike. It seems you are just another one. Its like no other team has ever suffered an incorrect referee decision. We have had them all the time. The offside goal that saw the mackems beat us. the offside goal by villa which also saw a defeat by a single goal. NUFC do not have a monopoly on having referees give bad decisions but yours, your manager’s and players’ reaction to that which eventually resulted in a cynical and deliberate injuring of a fellow professional was quite despicable. You should all hang your heads in shame today. I always had a soft spot for Newcastle but no more after yesterday when the lot of you behaved like a baying mob just because you didn’t get your own way and sunk to the level of a bunch of thugs.
Did you reply to the wrong comment because nothing you have said in your reply is relevant to my text. Joe Hart will run 40 yards to get in the referees face a la Roy Keane. Please discuss……
Jonny99 I don’t have to make excuses for an impeccable performance by Joe Hart which saw City beat NUFC yet again. The people making excuses should be NUFC for the disgraceful bullyong behaviour of Manager, Players towards the officials. On Talksport they said if Mbiwa had done that anywhere else than on the football field he’d have been arrested for assault. But I think he and the rest of the NUFC players were following instructions from Pardew who couldn’t control himself never mind keep his team’s minds on the job . Result: another 2-0 defeat by City and a player crocked for (fortunately only) 8 weeks. What a classless club NUFC have become under Pardew.
How very dare you with your short memory! De Jong – Ben Arfa – far worse broken leg!!! Amazing what money does!
Wow, was you part of the 50,000 plus fans, 11 players and one manager screaming, shouting and crying for anything and everything you could.
The whole stadium stunk of desperation.
Every decision right or wrong was met by a wave of screaming injustice. It felt like the Sports Direct Stadium was about to have a nervous break-down, but at least your manager didn’t assault an offical………….this time
Congratulations, you’re now,officially, the new scousers of the Premier League.
Obviously u r a City fan, and u will justify your win, in anyway shape or foarm. The good thing is, your openion is not shared by the law makers, thats why he lost his job. So carry on blwing your own trumpit, truth is man citu looked ready for the taking dispite early lead. And if there was no match fixing in this world, things would have turned quite differently. Still remember the ben arfa saga and how man city manage to break the best player of newcastle and no red card… this win I would b ashamed of my friend.
Donroberto – are you drunk? Whilst it was certainly not City’s best performance of the season, we had numerous chances to score and reduced Newcastle to mostly long range shots. As for the referee, he had been dropped because he lost control of the game and refused to send off the Newcastle thugs.
Some of the man city fan are too proud, and are finding all sorts of lame excuses to justify them, been bullied by cash restricted, Ashley’ s newcastle. knowing their team, probably purchased for 500mil or even more, sorry but that was not a preformance of that stature. I think man city luck played much better than all their team. Should b man of the mach 4 me. :^) having said that, to win the premier league, u need luck and influencing refs, and I think both chelsea and man city have that now. But think newcastle fans should be proud to know they preformed. Fact they where robbed, is the way of the world. Oh and simack, a clean tackle does not end a players playing time, for almost 2 seasons.
Yeah right DonRoberto. So a completely fair block tackle which can tear the ACL and put a player out for the season is not a clean tackle?
I watched this game as a neutral. I expect an article written by a Man City fan to be a little biased but to suggest that Goufran was interfering with play in any way shape or form is beyond ridiculous. This article and its author looses all credibility by even hinting that the goal was correctly ruled out. I for one think Newcastle deserve a lot of credit. Not many teams will boss Man City like that this season.
I agree he wasn’t interfering with play under the guidelines given for 2014. (he would have been last season though). The ref made a mistake like refs do all the time for all clubs but the over-reaction by players and manager was disgraceful. Thankfully the bullying tactics of the Newcastle Manager and players failed to produce a goal and City came away with a deserved 2-0 victory.
goufran became active when he ducked , if he had stood still then he would not have become active . the ball would have hit him then so he would have been offside !!
I agree goufran became active as soon as he ducked out of the way . Don’t remember all this fuss when negredo had a goal disallowed for offside against Newcastle at the Etihad , although that would have been our fifth !!
He was deemed offside because the referee thought the ball had hit him Mike, a straight offside rather than interfering with play.
It was not long time ago when Ben Afra got injured by DeJong who rightfully got the ball and made a perfect tackle [you can view the replays] that Allan Pardew and other clowns started bitching on Nigel being banned, etc. I did not hear all that bitching today from NUFC fans and Pardew and instead he is telling how of a good boy Mbiwa is. NewCastle should have been reduced to 9 men with both Mbiwa [straight red] and Cabaye with second yellow. Unfortunately, referee was bullied due to his questionable judgement on ruling out Tiote’s goal.
NUFC did not field a team to play football but Rugby and they got what they deserved.
Geordies are the new scousers – always the victims.
The NUFC fans conveniently forget the perfectly good goal scored by Negredo against them at the Etihad this season.
It may also be worth mentioning that Mbiwa, Santon and,Cabaye should all have been sent-off yesterday.
And none of man citys player should have been sent off??
Such as? Zabeleta for not touching the player when a foul was given? Nasri for diving?
I always look forward to the Newcastle games. You can always count on a flurry of angry Geordies to descend like vultures on one man’s writings.
Personally, by the rules as they are, I think it was a goal. However, I can see why it was disallowed, for the reasons that VFAB has stated above. By the old (and better) rules, it is purely and simply offside.
Didn’t think we played all that well to be honest. Defence, especially Dimechelis, was very solid. However, there was no link between defence and midfield. Yaya was anonymous.
However sometimes, to win, one has to win ugly and that is how champions are made.
As a City fan I wouldn’t have complained if the goal had stood. At the same timeI would contend that Mike Jones had every right to disallow it. Following (3) of the current offside law – “Gaining an advantage by being in an offside position”- I don’t think it would be unreasonable to presume that having not one but 3 players standing in an offside position could be construed as ‘gaining an advantage’ . Had the ball come back off the crossbar they would certainly have enjoyed an advantage. Furthermore, Hart’s decision making must surely have been affected by the presence of Gouffran, whether or not he was in line of sight. Remember the offside rule comes into play ‘when the ball is kicked’, not when it passes the last defender or enters the net. There’s a good deal made of the fact that the City players didn’t immediately protest and that most players from either side were on their way back upfield but I’m pretty sure Jones hadn’t awarded the goal at that point and was looking for confirmation from his linesman.
Jones was undoubtedly dropped because off his subsequent conduct, not for disallowing the goal but by letting the conduct of the match get away from him. A second yellow for the serially fouling Cabaye would have calmed things down and the refusal to give a red to the NUFC defender for his vicious double challenge on Nasri was a blatant cop-out.
Quite the worst thing of the whole sorry affair, however was the unbelievably crude, disgusting, churlish rant by Pardew against Pellegrini. I am convinced that his subsequent half-time team talk would only have wound up the Newcastle players even more. What an apology for a human being the man is.
I guess the fan in you seeing all this. Reality is ref has left all of us debating the true outcome of a good match that had all the ingredients to be a very memorable game, had he not deprived the fighting underdogs, to a brilliant leveller. Instead this game will be remembered for its referring cock ups. Shame
I actually thing the way jonny99 writes he has recently switched from supporting Manure to Mancity – it is the only way I rationalise his thoughts as the majority of Man City fans are an absolute pleasure! Still we all have a few idiots supporting our teams and we do too! good luck for rest of season City!
Apologies Johny99 my comment was meant for the absent minded Silverfox
Having lived in Dukinfield I can remember when City fans were grounded and reasonable – it really does appear to be that they are morphing into Manure! With arrogance like that displayed on this board I do hope Chelsea, Arsenal, or the team I really don’t like Liverpool go onto win the league. Too many short memories on this board need bringing back to earth with a massive bump and Good Luck Barca!
Such a typical post which is always aimed at teams who become successful. Jealous much?
Magpieranger, I have good memories of Newcastle fans. Starting with the ones who, at Wembley, after a cup final consoled this miserable 14-year old kid (me, 1955). And the ones who were generous enough to applaud us when we won the Championship at SJP in ’68. I hope all this hoo-ha over a disputed goal and a crap referee won’t sour those memories. I do find it hard to forgive Pardew though – maybe because I’m (even) older than Manuel Pellegrini.
In all honesty I don’t feel that those of us old enough to remember the many lean years – probably 50/60 in my case – have changed all that much. Although we do give thanks on a daily basis for Sheikh Mansoor and I’m sure any other club’s fans finding themselves in the same fortunate circumstances would do likewise. Put it this way, I wouldn’t swap Mansoor and Mubarak for Ashley and JFK!
Actually, as a City, I completely understand the frustration and anger Newcastle fans must feel,, it was a brilliant strike and even if Joe Hart could have dived unimpeded I doubt he would have saved it. That said Newcastle did not lose the game because of a disallowed goal, they lost the game because they lost their discipline and Alan Pardew needs to accept responsibility for that.
if the goal had happened let’s say in the 85th minute I could completely understand his still feeling aggrieved however there was still 60 minutes left to play and plenty of time fort Newcastle to not only get back in the game but when the game and while they play hard they did not play smart and again it was because they lost their disciplineand that is not the fault of a bad referee but Alan Pardew being unable to lead by example and keep his discipline as well as the discipline of his players.
Alan Pardew has an impressive resume of getting his teams to punch well above their weight and a manager of his ability should have been able to use a bad refereeing decision as an opportunity to galvanize his teambut unfortunately he did not seize the opportunity as he let his anger blind him and he did not channel it properly as he seemed much more concerned with arguing with the fourth official and Manuel Pellegrini instead of giving proper instructions to his players. it’s
a shame really because had Newcastle played
with their heads and not just their hearts.
I’d say it is easier said than done. To get a goal against a regular premier league team and gets disallowed is hard ennough to take. But to get a disallowed goal against a contender, is much harder to take. Goals dont come easy against good sides.
Wow my apologies to all for not proof reading. That last sentence should read “had Newcastle played with their heads as well as their hearts they probably would have gotten something out of the match.”
There are other numerous mistakes but the last sentence is the most important.
let me be clear to Newcastle fans posting here that I am NOT having a go at Alan Pardew. I simply think a manager of his ability could have handled the situation better than he did. There is no shame in losing your temper and displaying anger but it’s important not let that anger make you lose perspective. But then again as a city fan I am probably not the authority on how to handle anger. maybe the whole holistic approach at City via Soriano has rubbed of on me.
Disgraceful challenge by mbiwa almost as bad as the scummy newcastle fans then booing nasri off on a stretcher as for there disallowed goal think the wrong decision was made he wasn’t in harts way it was 3 city players who were in the way
Just a quick comment short of time.
Got a feeling we will have to get use to the ‘Bully Boy’ Tactics as more and more teams realise they cannot stop CITY any other way !
Relieved we won this battle, hope we can win the war.