Manchester City pile the pressure onto Sam Allardyce by inflicting another defeat on the Magpies at St James' Park.
When Newcastle United tempted Bolton manager Sam Allardyce to join them in the summer, fans hoped that the arrival of his modern techniques and old fashion footballing nous would lead to success. After a first half of the season blighted by injuries, losses and growing fan disillusionment, however, rather than enjoying the Christmas period from the comfort of his favourite easy chair, Allardyce found himself on the hot seat; a position made even more uncomfortable by Elano and Gelson, whose goals condemned his side to another home defeat.
Newcastle fall behind again
One of the major disappointments for The Magpies this season has been their poor home form and one of the features of this has been their inability to take a lead in games at St James’ Park.
This trend, which had already resulted in points being dropped to Portsmouth, Liverpool, Arsenal and, most embarrassingly, Derby once again raised its ugly head against Manchester City, although, this time, it wasn’t down to a lack of early chances for the home side.
Up until the game it had been Manchester City’s home form that had carried them towards the top of the table and their away results which had prevented them going even higher. On the face of it a Newcastle loss to such a side would appear to be a disaster but the praise for The Blues’ win should go as much to their defence as to the attacking players who scored their goals.
As well as manager Sven-Goran Eriksson had marshalled his back four, and Dietmar Hamann to patrol just in front of them, early on they were severally indebted to their young goalkeeper Joe Hart.
The architect of many of Newcastle’s best chances was French wide player Charles N’Zogbia. It was his corner from which Hart made a sharp double save from Habib Beye before later stopping N’Zogbia’s own strike after he had drifted away from several City players.
After Newcastle had failed to capitalise on their chances to take the lead it seemed likely that City would punish them and just before halftime they did when Elano curled an accurate shot into the corner of the net.
Owen’s introduction not enough
Allardyce wasted little time in trying to rectify the situation by bringing Michael Owen on at the start of the second half and his introduction almost marked a turning point in the game when N’Zogbia played him in on goal only for Hart to once again make an impressive stop.
With even Owen unable to find an equalizer Newcastle laboured in their pursuit of a gaol and the decisive moment of the match came in the 76th minute when a quick attack from City was finished by Gelson’s powerful drive past Shay Given.
The result leaves Newcastle in eleventh place in the Premiership table and with key matches against Manchester United, Bolton, Arsenal and Middlesbrough on the horizon, and major summer signing Joey Barton’s continuing legal difficulties, Allardyce is facing a potentially crucial period in his leadership of the team.
