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First half wasn't great in terms of tempo and chances created for both sides. Our early lead came through good work down the right from Neville and Gray who worked that flank very well all game. Evans had the simplest of finishes. Newcastle levelled with Emre showing immense quality on the ball playing consecutive one-two's, then a nounchalant drag-back in the box and a toe poke past the altogether impressive Ron-Robert Zieler.
Second half was the better footballing affair though yet again, chances were at a premium. No real clear cut chances for us whilst Newcastle looked dangerous on the counter attack especially with Lua Lua's brother. We kept good possession and looked comfortable but it's not surprising we weren't much of an attacking threat because we were missing to main-stays of the team in Welbeck and Eagles. The game petered out until at the death when Eckersley was quite unfortunate to be sent off as last man against Lua Lua, then Ngo Baheng was sent off for Newcastle as he (for some reason or other) run up to and pushed S.Evans. A fair result in the end.
Federico Macheda fought hard, didn't have enough time or space to show off his technical ability as he was playing as a lone forward so he'd regularly have 2-3 men around him. The midfield lacked pace so there weren't many options for him as an outlet, this led to him losing possession a fair few times but to be fair, he gave it his all and showed maturity as the game went on.
Rodrigo was superb. Having to deal with a couple of attackers with the great pace, he regularly thwarted Newcastle attacks and dispossessed their forwards...making it look all so simple. His passing was almost immaculate though he didn't offer much going forward. Good, solid performance.
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