Nicky Butt was so disappointed at Newcastle’s debacle against Portsmouth on Saturday.
But Nicky thinks it could be good for Newcastle that the next game is the derby against Sunderland on Saturday at the Stadium of Light.
Nicky rightly points out that current form usually goes out of the window in a local derby. That has to be good for Newcastle. 😀
Nicky Butt – man of the match on Saturday and pleased the Sunderland derby is next game
Nicky Butt told the Newcastle Journal this morning:
“It’s a derby and all qualities to a point go out of the window,â€
“In the first 20 minutes you’ve got to give it your all, get stuck in and fight. The way you’ve played over the last few weeks goes out of the window, it’s just a one-off game, so the bigger the game the better.â€
Newcastle conceded three goals in the opening 11 minutes, two through bad errors by Brazilian Claudio Caçapa. But having seen the home side get a goal back through Sol Campbell’s 16th-minute own goal, a second Newcastle goal would have got the crowd right back into the game and as Harry Redknapp rightly pointed out – the roof would have come off at St. James’.
Nicky Butt was disappointed Newcastle did not put more pressure on the opposition.
“It was a disastrous 12 minutes,†“The first goal (from Noe Pamarot) was a wonder goal, that can happen to any team, but the two after that were really slack.â€
“It doesn’t count for anything now but we got back into the game and I thought we were quite good. There was a little ray of light with the goal but half-time killed us really. We couldn’t get going in the second half and all in all it was a disastrous day.â€
“We basically just wanted to get to half time then try and change it. You can’t explain it really, it’s just shock. We got back into it and did reasonably well but in the second half we couldn’t capitalize on the goal we got.â€
“ It’s a while since I’ve been involved in a game like that. There was one at Man United when we were getting beaten 3-0 at half-time by Tottenham and came back and won (5-3). When we got the goal before half-time I thought if we got a bit of pride into it and got one more goal, maybe something could happen.â€
Butt was praised by Sam Allardyce last week for his willingness to criticize team mates, who were not getting the job done, but Nicky was a lot more sensitive on this occasion, and rightly so:
“When you go in 3-1 down it’s a team thing and you’ve got to look at yourself first,†“If you feel like you’ve got something to say, you say something but I didn’t.”
“The manager told us it was just a bad 12 minutes, play for yourselves and get a bit of pride back, which we tried to do. He was okay. He was totally different at full-time.â€
We just hope that this terrible performance is a flash in the pan and we return to our more sane defending on Saturday against Sunderland. A defeat then is unthinkable for most Newcastle fans, and the team should be playing as though their lives depended on a win.
That’s the attitude we need on Saturday, because a win would do wonders for the club, and stem the growing gloom on Tyneside.
Comments and opinions always welcome.
15 comments so far
Tom_Toon
Nov 5, 2007 at 12:23 PM
Comment #1Ye and you didnt help, gifted the team the first goal with a poor clearance.
wsq
Nov 5, 2007 at 12:47 PM
Comment #2yea! someone could have pressured him.. no one closed down pamarot!!
wsq
Nov 5, 2007 at 1:24 PM
Comment #31st goal, if cacapa just jockeyed rather than comiting to a tackle we wouldn’t have conceded the corner that led to the goal.
2nd goal, if faye didn’t misplace his pass we wouldn’t have conceded the goal and make cacapa look like a fool
3rd goal, cacapa’s comiting again!
4th goal joey barton’s foul!
Jóhann
Nov 5, 2007 at 1:46 PM
Comment #4stop playing the blame game thanks 😉 Often more then one who is at fault
indian toon
Nov 5, 2007 at 1:56 PM
Comment #5k.. lets get this shit over and look forward for the mackemland…
George
Nov 5, 2007 at 2:05 PM
Comment #6Bad result, no doubt or arguing from anyone. Who`s to blame, well we have cacapa, butt, faye and barton to date. Lets throw taylor into the ring aswell, was it not a daft header from taylor that caused cacapa to be out of position. Was it not taylor going walkabout that had cacapa trying to get over to his right to cover a missing taylor. Was it not a bad pass from taylor that caused no fewer than five portsmouth attempts at goal. Was it not the fact that Portsmouth turned up for the game.
Our problem at the weekend was too many changes at once, and ill thought out players positions that were also to blame. Cacapa and Beye were top performers the previous games, so why the sudden problems. SA is trying to accomadate his signings and others are being played out of position. We accepted that last year with all the injuries, but this season there are no excuses. Alan Smith should have started up front with Martins, as there is something seriously wrong with owen. Milner and N`Zobia should have been on their correct wings not the opposite and certainly not the middle. Emre should have been on from the start as he is a play maker. Barton just can not find his feet in the team and should not be playing yet. We should be bllaming SA for this not so much the players. So come on Sam admit it you got it wrong.
Bill F
Nov 5, 2007 at 2:47 PM
Comment #7despite all of his shortcomings this season imo the first name on the teamsheet against the Mackems should be Taylor and (dare I say) bung Shola in. Butt is an obvious starter.
Can’t help thinking that the team on Saturday came out thinking a win was theirs just by turning up. Even if we lost against the likes of Man U or Arsenal I bet we wouldnt get thrashed as we did in the Pompey game. Mentally they just weren’t at the races (or perhaps they were)
Obafan
Nov 5, 2007 at 3:13 PM
Comment #8wsq – 4the goal the fault of Barton; okay he gave away a free kick, but a good defender (not Taylor though) would have cleared the ball instead of kicking the ball in his own net.
My view on the goals:
1. bad clearance okay, but Pamarot may try to hit the same 50 times again, he won’t score again (bad luck for us and he was lucky ATM)
2. Faye gave a very bad pass, perhaps he thought he signed for Pompey instead of the Toon and Cacapa got the wrong side of Benjani (who IMO is a first class striker, he is in my Fantasy Premier League team since the beginning and he has given me lots of points so far). Harper didn’t even try to get the ball (not the first time)
3. Taylor didn’t pressure the long ball and Cacapa again took the wrong side of Utaka (also a fantastic player)
4. Stupid fault by Barton, but Taylor defended very bad (IMO this defending was the worst of the game because he wasn’t even pressured; he was standing there with Roz next to him and he managed to kick the ball in his own net, how stupid can you be). Again Harper didn’t look great there, because the deflection (of the classy Taylor – ironic -) was stopable.
I’m holding my breath for the Sunderland derby game. I really do 🙁
wsq
Nov 5, 2007 at 3:53 PM
Comment #9haha moronic fools
Leo
Nov 5, 2007 at 4:17 PM
Comment #10yeah lets just forget about what happened in the pompey match and look forward to the mackams
JJ
Nov 5, 2007 at 4:34 PM
Comment #11Newcastles best years were played when we played our best eleven, its no good having a players fight for positions in a squad rotation policy because they know they get to play sooner or later.
Owen just doesnt seem to ben in any form so play Martins. Cant understand Milner and NZogbia swapping wings either, but when Duuf in back I would like to see Barton and NZogbia in the middle o the park.
Rozenhal has looked good whenever he has played so for me Roz and Faye at the back. We need to keep a consistant side for craps sake so Sam stop fidgeting, you shoulf know the best team by now!!!!
I like Owen but he is too big for Newcastle, especially with the English media and he needs a quality big man to play with (without Viduka we dont have one). Rather get 10Mil or so for him in Jan and buy a world class centre creative midfielder.
Having said all this, I have to belive if we play our best squad and play well mackems will have no chance. So comeon boys. Pick it up a notch or six.
ObaFan2
Nov 5, 2007 at 5:37 PM
Comment #12BSA drops the players who play badly…………. OK drop BSA ? lol Put my Granny in for a week 🙂
I’m confused tbh Zog n Milner wrong wings, wasn’t working but he didn’t change it back?
Taylor RB ?
AND top scorer on the bench?
OK competition is good, look how Roz has taken it and come back well but it doesn’t work aswell with strikers who thrive on confidence……..poor Oba’s had the stuffing knocked outta him by BSA IMO.
Honeymoon period long gone get ur act together BSA.
Andy H
Nov 5, 2007 at 5:52 PM
Comment #13Nicky Butt – man of the match – that was the biggest joke of the day. Other than Cacapa his shitnness stood out most. He was captain and should have got the rest of the players going and encouraged the midfielders to pass the ball about. All he did was boot the ball back to Porstmouth. He should have been setting the example of keeping the ball and playing simple instead of trying world cup balls. He is also way too slow to play against teams with such movement in midfield. I’d drop him for sunderland as he has been consistently shit in the away matches.
CapeSam
Nov 5, 2007 at 5:57 PM
Comment #14I thought we played well in the first half portsmouth just got lucky with those goals.After that we really dominated.We just lacked creativity going forward. Owen and Smith should have tried to come deep to get the ball.
sparetheman
Nov 5, 2007 at 6:13 PM
Comment #15Yeah, I don’t understand why Butt keeps getting all these man of the match awards. Whenever no one plays well or stands out it seems he’s the default man of the match or something. Never rated him – would rather we got a new defensive midfielder in January, and try out Faye or Rozenhal there in the meantime.