Newcastle hit by a 5 minute storm from Stoke

Newcastle United lost their fourth game on-the trot on Wednesday night. It was a much improved showing from Newcastle, who were missing key players such as Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye. Newcastle took the lead after a first half lacking in any real quality. Demba Ba won the ball and drove in on goal and hit a dipping shot from 25 yards the keeper Asmir Begovic could only palm into the path of Papiss Cisse who finished via the post. Futher chances followed, with Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba both testing Begovic.

However in the 81st minute, Jon Walters flicked a free header past Tim Krul and got Stoke’s tail’s up. A long pass up to Kenwyne Jones saw him tower above mike Williamson to head perfectly into the path of Cameron Jerome, who finished emphatically and sealed all three points for Stoke.

Newcastle’s performance was better than the previous three, they worked tremendously hard, but they lacked a creative spark from midfield.

After the game Alan Pardew had this to say,

“After 75 minutes we were bossing the game, 1-0 up looking like we were going to get a second, I thought we had a definite penalty that wasn’t given, and two sucker punches have cost us.

I feel so sorry for the players because it’s been a tough little spell for us with the blows we’ve had on the injury front and we’ve put in a really great performance here and ended up with nothing, it’s hard to look your players in the eye and say you’ve carried the gameplan through and got nothing.

Obviously goals do change the situation but I felt the least we deserved was a draw so the second goal was a real bad one.

“It’s the run of results that’s the problem and we’ve got to stop that, we couldn’t have done anymore to stop it tonight and unfortunately we’ve just come up short, the players were magnificent tonight, I couldn’t say that Sunday but I can tonight.”

I wouldn’t agree that we bossed this game, I thought a draw would have been the fair result, but fair play to Stoke, who displayed hard work and a never say die attitude for which they are very well known.

Hopefully on Monday night St James’s park will be rocking and we can claim all three points and get back on the right track.