United star in own version of EastEnders
NOT since the return of Dirty
Den to Walford has the East End
witnessed a comeback quite like
the one Newcastle United produced
at the weekend.
It was only three months ago
the managerless Magpies conceded
six second half goals at Old
Trafford. A run of three straight
defeats had already consigned
Sam Allardyce to Tyneside history,
and there was little caretaker
boss Nigel Pearson could
do to avoid a humiliating capitulation
as Newcastle's problems
remained clear for all to see.
If any Premier League team
has become synonymous with
kamikaze defending down the
years then it's Newcastle United.
There may not have been a
Marcelino or a Titus Bramble in
sight against the Red Devils in
January, but that didn't stop
Ronaldo running amok against a
Newcastle side that had had
every last drop of confidence
drained out of it.
As soon as Ronaldo opened the
floodgates early in the second
half it was effectively game over
for the Magpies. Just look at the
stats.
Prior to Keegan's appointment,
Newcastle had picked up just six
points from games they had
trailed in - one win and three
draws. But since his arrival they
have already picked up five after
falling behind, culminating in
Saturday's point earned at Upton
Park.
Pre-Keegan Newcastle would
surely have succumbed to another
embarrassing thrashing. And
on another day, the United boss
admits that that would have been
the case.
But Newcastle are made of
sterner stuff these days and they
showed tremendous character to
come from two goals down to
leave London with an unlikely
point.
"We were a bit lucky to come in
at half-time 2-2," admitted Keegan.
"That's what I told the players.
I didn't get angry with them,
I just sat with them and said You
know what I'm going to say anything
because you're all thinking
it. You've not been very good but
somehow it's 2-2 and you don't deserve
to be and you've got to get
the next goal because the next
goal is going to be very important'.
"The answer was we couldn't
get it but in the second half we
showed a bit of character. This is
a team that when it goes 1-0 down
and 2-0 down earlier in the season
it ends up getting beat by five or
six."
West Ham were booed off by
their own fans in their previous
home game and that's perhaps
understandable, given that they
only scraped a 2-1 win against
Derby. But with former Hammers
favourite Paolo Di Canio
watching from the stands, home
supporters were in buoyant
mood as they chanted the Italian's
name throughout the game.
And with their side two goals
to the good inside the first 23 minutes
it looked like being West
Ham's day.
Julien Faubert and Dean Ashton
both had unsuccessful attempts
at goal early on, before
eastender Mark Noble finally had
the beating of Steve Harper with
a fine half volley from 12 yards
with not a Newcastle player in
sight.
And, with the visitors struggling
to keep possession for much
more than a couple of passes, the
Hammers capitalised on more
generous defending when Ashton
held off youngster David
Edgar before tucking the ball
into the bottom corner.
Keegan has already been on
the wrong end of a 5-1 (Manchester
United) and a 4-1 (Aston Villa)
thumping since his return to Tyneside.
And he must have been fearing
the worst when Ashton's clinical
finish found the back of the net.
He said: "We didn't start very
well at all and I can give you loads
of excuses but what's the point?
"We weren't at the races. We
talked about starting well and
maybe getting a goal here because
we knew what happened
with them last week. Even
though they won the game the
crowd weren't very happy.
"To be fair to them they had a
good start and we had a bad start
so it made it look like there was
a gulf between us in terms of
ability, in terms of determination
and everything for a while."
But that gulf was soon reduced
when Obafemi Martins gave
Newcastle some hope when he
nicked the ball past England
goalkeeper Robert Green after
running on to Joey Barton's ball
over the top in the 42nd minute.
The comeback was complete
just moments later when Geremi
helped on Martins' shot with a reaction
header.
Newcastle did have Harper to
thank for a brilliant save to deny
Ashton late on and the Tynesiders
were also relieved that
the abysmal Uriah Rennie failed
to penalise Michael Owen for a
handball in his own box moments
later.
Keegan's men could have
clinched all three points in injury
time when Green got down well
to save from Martins.
"It wasn't our best performance
by any means but we did
hang in there," said Keegan, who
also played down speculation
linking the club with Croatian
Luka Modric at the weekend.
"We have got a lot of ability in the
side more than we showed today."
9:43am Monday 28th April 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
