Newcastle Utd 1 Portsmouth 4
CONSIDERING how manager Sam Allardyce made defence a priority when he first took charge at Newcastle United, it is a case of back to the drawing board after five months in charge at St James' Park.
Cacapa has been hailed as the answer to many of the Magpies' shortfalls at the back but the Brazilian - also below-par at Reading last weekend - highlighted there is still much work to be done.
It is now seven games since Newcastle kept a clean sheet and the way Cacapa et al folded within 11 minutes of this match starting has left Allardyce perplexed.
There have been far too many errors in recent weeks and there was no shortage here; or at least that was the case before Cacapa made way.
The former Lyon captain was hooked within 16 minutes of the first whistle. By that time he had already been embarrassed by Portsmouth's attacking play.
Newcastle were powerless to prevent full-back Noe Pamarot crashing in a 25-yard screamer inside eight minutes.
But Cacapa - and Steven Taylor for the third - should have had more about them to thwart Benjani Mwaruwari and John Utaka scoring in the three minutes immediately after Pamarot's goal.
There was fortune about the way Michael Owen's shot was saved yet still found its way into the Portsmouth net after hitting Sol Campbell's head.
And perhaps the person must culpable for this defeat was Allardyce himself. Five changes from the team that lost at Reading could have been viewed his ruthless.
Instead it only reflects badly on him, with the biggest cheer of the fixture again saved for the emergence of Obafemi Martins.
This time, however, the Nigerian was unable to deliver and Newcastle's first home defeat of the season was made worse by Taylor's failure to deal with Niko Kranjcar's free-kick.
2:53pm Sunday 4th November 2007
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