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Season 2010-11
Manchester United (a) Premier League


In association
 with NUFC.com
 


Date:
Monday 16th August 2010, 8pm
Live on Sky Sports

Venue:
 Old Trafford

Conditions:
warm

Admission: £42 (£40/£41 in 2008) 

Programme:
£tbc
 

  

 Manchester United

Newcastle United

3 - 0

 

Teams

Goals

33 mins As Newcastle attempted to clear their lines, Kevin Nolan's hasty short pass found Jonas Gutierrez in a central position outside the box. He was duly caught in possession by O' Shea, whose ball back to Valencia was pushed forward to the unmarked Scholes. He in turn swiftly found Dimitar Berbatov - played onside by James Perch - and the Bulgarian evaded Enrique before drilling the ball past Steve Harper from seven yards.  0-1

41 mins
Nani made progress down the Red Devils left before checking back and rolling the ball between Perch and Wayne Routledge to Patrice Evra, who had stolen into the Newcastle area. Approaching Joey Barton, Evra pinged a low pass across the box which took a deflection off the raised boot of Wayne Rooney. That was enough to divert the ball into the path of Darren Fletcher, who had time to roll Fabricio Coloccini and fire past Harper from close range. 0-2


Half time: United 0 United 2

85 mins Jose Enrique tarnished an otherwise strong performance by surrendering possession and Scholes once again had plenty of time to clip the ball across the Newcastle box. Ryan Giggs was lurking beyond the last defender towards the far post and dispatched a first-time volley which bounced up off the turf before finding the opposite corner of the net. 0-3

Full time: United 0 United 3

We Said

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton said:

"We’ve got to look at some areas where we can take credit from this game - I thought big Andy Carroll up front was a real handful - but we didn’t keep possession well enough to threaten them as much as we wanted to.

"What we can do, is come here, contain them and have your opportunities. I thought for the first 35 minutes we were able to do that. Unfortunately for us we gave the ball away. The good thing from my point of view is that heads didn’t drop and I thought we fought right to the end and kept going.

"Fortunately for us it’s not every week that we come to Old Trafford. We’ll have games where we’ll have a bigger share of the ball and a bigger share of possession.
If we had come away from a really heavy defeat, that would have been a much more difficult task.

"If there is a lesson to be learned – a very harsh lesson in this division – it's that the quality of the teams we're playing against is higher and they'll punish you if you give the ball away.

"'I left Spurs in 1989 and Giggs made his debut in 1991 so I just missed out on playing against him. The major thing with both of them is they have always played in a team challenging for honours which helps."

They Said


That red-nosed bloke from Govan said:

"That boy Carroll can leap some. He has got incredible aerial power so you're always worried about that kind of thing.

"Paul (Scholes) proved again that he's just a master of his trade. His vision, passing range and willingness to play is marvellous. And he's still got the appetite to play. They've retained that, him and Giggs. They are something special. I hope they're not a dying breed because the game needs players like that. But there are plenty of good players in our country.

"Sometimes we beat ourselves up about it but there are a lot of good ones. The key is that Paul looks after himself. Last season was his first one without injury for a very long time. That's the key for Paul. If he stays fit, he can play on.

"I think Chelsea are the team to beat. We're focusing on that. I was asked if the six goals at Chelsea put us under pressure. At this time of the season the answer's no, but we're pleased we won 3-0. You never know, goals could come into it at the end of the season. Last season Chelsea won a landslide as far as goals were concerned, and we're conscious of that. We have got goals in our team, there's no doubt about that."

Stats


Kevin Nolan led Newcastle out for the first time following his confirmation as club captain, as the Puma home kit got its first competitive airing - albeit with white socks.

10 of the 13 players used by Newcastle had previously represented the club in the Premier League, but Wayne Routledge, James Perch and Mike Williamson were all new boys in that sense, taking the total number of players we've used in that competition to 152

For Messrs Perch and Williamson it was their first-ever taste of top-flight football, while Routledge last featured in a Premier League fixture back in August 2008 (for Aston Villa).

James Perch also made his competitive NUFC debut, but fellow close season arrivals Sol Campbell and Dan Gosling were both unavailable, due to fitness and injury respectively. Danny Guthrie (knee) and Peter Lovenkrands (groin) were late additions to an injury list than already included Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Tamas Kadar, Sol Campbell, Dan Gosling and Leon Best.

Nine of the 18 players selected for our fateful final fixture at Villa (our 616th PL game) were on duty here at Old Trafford for our 617th - Messrs Harper, Nolan, Coloccini, Gutierrez, Enrique, Ameobi, Ryan Taylor, Smith and Krul, while the missing nine were Messrs Edgar, Duff, Butt, Viduka, Owen, Martins, Lovenkrands, Steven Taylor and Guthrie.

We succumbed to our 206th Premier League defeat (and 142nd on the road, 11 of which have come here) and our goals conceded total reached 780 (466 on the road and 37 at Old Trafford).

Sir Alex Ferguson failed to include Michael Owen in his entire 18 man squad, despite the former Magpie having featured in the Community Shield the previous weekend.

Our last victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford (as opposed to winning at Old Trafford in FA Cup Semi Finals) was in February 1972, since when we've lost 22 and drawn the other 7.

Magpies @ Old Trafford - Premier Years:
(figure in brackets is HT score)

1993/94
drew 1-1 (losing 0-1) Cole
1994/95 lost 0-2 (losing 0-1)
1995/96 lost 0-2 (losing 0-1)
1996/97 drew 0-0 (0-0)
1997/98 drew 1-1 (1-1) Andersson
1998/99 drew 0-0 (0-0)
1999/00 lost 1-5 (1-1) og (Berg)
2000/01 lost 0-2 (losing 0-1)
2001/02 lost 1-3 (losing 0-1) Shearer
2002/03 lost 3-5 (losing 1-3) Bernard, Shearer, Bellamy
2003/04 drew 0-0 (0-0)
2004/05 lost 1-2 (winning 1-0) Ambrose
2005/06 lost 0-2 (losing 0-2)
2006/07 lost 0-2 (losing 0-1)
2007/08 lost 0-6 (0-0)
2008/09 drew 1-1 (1-1) Martins

Full record against Manchester United:

 
  P W D L F A
SJP 71 29 16 26 135 110
OT 72 9 19 44 76 162
League 143 38 35 70 211 272
SJP(FA) 1 0 0 1 2 3
OT/W/MS 3 0 0 3 1 7
SJP(LC) 1 1 0 0 2 0
OT 1 0 0 1 2 7
Cup 6 1 0 5 7 17
OT/W(CS) 2 0 0 2 2 8
Tot 149 39 35 75 218 289

We've conceded more goals (289) in league and cup (Charity Shield not included) against Manchester United than any other team.


Opening Days - Premier League:

United's first away fixture of the season in the Premier League has resulted seven defeats, five draws and four victories as follows (final league position in brackets):

1993/94 Coventry City lost 1-2 (3rd)
1994/95 Leicester City won 3-1 (6th)
1995/96 Bolton won 3-1 (2nd)
1996/97 Everton lost 0-2 (2nd)
1997/98 West Ham won 1-0 (13th)
1998/99 Chelsea drew 1-1 (13th)
1999/00 Spurs lost 1-3 (11th)
2000/01 Man United lost 0-2 (11th)
2001/02 Chelsea drew 1-1 (4th)
2002/03 Man City lost 0-1 (3rd)
2003/04 Leeds United drew 2-2 (5th)
2004/05
smoggies drew 2-2 (14th)

2005/06 Arsenal lost 0-2 (7th)
2006/07 Aston Villa lost 0-2 (13th)
2007/08
Bolton won 3-1 (12th)

2008/09 Man United drew 1-1 (18th)
2010/11 Man United lost 0-3 (???)

  

Waffle


 

Before we were so rudely interrupted....449 days, in which there were some hasty departures from SJP and ultimately another turn in the chair for the last man standing, Chris Hughton. 

And for the punters, cheap admission prices, a century of goals, 30 league wins out of 46 games, returns to some far flung outposts and ultimately a few sore heads. 

Now all as much part of history as Adidas strips or a single party forming the government....

Back in with the big boys then - no longer suffering the ignimony of wee small hours TV "analysis" from Steve bloody Claridge. And where better to start than at the Premier League's theme park, where the numbers of bemused daytrippers are matched only by the hordes of tat sellers (whose latest line is "friendship" scarves featuring the colours of the teams playing. Will they really be doing them for the Man City and Liverpool games?)

Given our history at this ground and the ordinariness of our lineup, a reasonable pre-match assessment of what was to come would have been decidedly downbeat. Put simply, better Newcastle teams than this one have come a cropper here. 

Balanced against that though were memories of our last visit here just short of two years ago, when the first sight of Spiderman and the ability of the smallest man on the pitch managed to head in a cross left the black and whites in good spirits and a point better off. 

Unfortunately though, the new occupant of the Newcastle number nine shirt was unable to direct his early chance on goal and nothing as gilt-edged was to present itself over the rest of the evening.

We're tempted to say that's lesson number one from the Premier League, but unlike many of the clowns in the press box, we can recall Carroll's three previous top-flight goals and work rate, including his defensive work. It's gratifying to see that latter aspect of his game survives.  

The first thirty minutes were a case of Newcastle dealing competently with what the home side had to offer, without ever really looking as if they were counter-attacking with any conviction. Debutant Perch looked to be somewhat overawed by the occasion and increasingly came under pressure as the home side funnelled their efforts down the left and towards him.

However he reappeared for the second half (Chris Hughton resisting the temptation to draft in Ryan Taylor) and like fellow Premier League virgin Mike Williamson will hopefully emerge stronger for the experience. Would a fit Campbell have steadied the defence tonight? probably. 

With Carroll out on his own as expected, the ploy of playing Kevin Nolan as his support almost inevitably failed to come off - a lack of pace from the Magpie captain being far more evident in this contest than against the defenders of Doncaster Rovers or Barnsley.

And with Smith sitting in front of the back four, Barton failed to provide anything of note - save for some careless passing and further evidence that he's not match fit. One would think that under those circumstances, drawing attention to oneself with comedy facial hair and ill-judged press comments would have been the last thing on his mind, but apparently not.

In the event though, our pedestrian midfield trio were to be eclipsed by two even older stagers in the shape of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs - the latter who had been warming up as early as the 15th minute, but made a only belated appearance late on to grab a crowd-pleasing goal.

Two behind at the break and the game was over - with the biggest threat to the home side proving to be the steep banking off the pitch that claimed one Man U player late on at the Stretford End. Quite why it's like this is unclear; Stamford Bridge has the same problem (especially at the back of the goals), but here there's not the same issue of restricted space.

The appearance of Ameobi caused a flutter of excitement, it coinciding with Newcastle's best period of the second half. It was noticeable though just how quickly that the attentions of many of the away fans turned away from events on the pitch to baiting home punters in the next section - interest in the game waning as the clock ticked on.

Hughton's final throw of the dice proved to be the arrival of Xisco in a left-sided midfield role - although the chance to throw Vuckic on for a cameo appearance seemed a more obvious move. One theory is that the Lovenkrands injury is more serious than expected and the Spaniard (confirmed by Hughton in the summer as not being part of his plans) could feature against Villa.

Alternatively, Xisco's out-of-position appearance and the naming Ranger, Vuckic and Tavernier on the bench could perhaps be interpreted as an attempt to express the phrase "bare bones" in front of a watching Ashley, with the end of the transfer window fast approaching. Time will tell.

So, a predictably pointless start, but at least it's over with. 

Hughton may sit at his training ground desk under a portrait of Sir Bobby Robson, but he never guided us to victory here either. And looking for positives, the fact we didn't implode in the manner of the January 2008 game was pleasing (that one was 0-0 at half time and 0-6 45 minutes later with Alan Smith dismissed). It can be argued that part of that "achievement" tonight was due to the profligacy of Berbatov and listlessness of Rooney, but we're grateful for small mercies.... 

Taking a point from this game two seasons ago (and one from Stamford Bridge) ultimately did us little good, thanks to careless and clueless displays at other "lesser" teams like Hull and Bolton. One thing that hasn't changed in our one-season absence is the imperative of taking points from those games, as well as retaining form and focus at SJP.

As well as the performance and the result next Sunday against a Milner-less Aston Villa though, the crowd's contribution will be of great interest. Cracking the 50K mark would be a significant achievement, but just as telling will be the support and patience afforded to the team. The expectation levels from those who turned up last season may have altered, but will any of those who ducked out for a season still find not leading at half time unacceptable and boo accordingly?   

Never mind Hughton's tactical powers being stretched at arenas like Old Trafford, setting his team up for home games promises to be a genuine test of his nerve. An early goal would be nice, but in itself leave him the dilemma of whether to stick or twist. Welcome back.

Biffa


Page last updated 22 March, 2017