No New Year cheer for United! West Brom 1-0 Newcastle
Berahino gives Baggies the win Newcastle failed to record a firs win of 2014 at the the first attempt after losing to West Bromwich Albion yesterday afternoon.
Saido Berahino scored the decisive penalty a few minutes before full-time after Matej Vydra was brought down by Tim Krul, but the reality is that the performance just wasn't good enough.
Neither side created much in front of goal although West Brom did have the better of the limited chances on offer in what was in all reality a tame affair. The result is undoubtedly a blow for United, but perhaps the more concerning news is the red card awarded to Mathieu Debuchy which will incur a three game ban, and the news that Fabricio Coloccini will be out for four to six weeks with a knee injury.
I can't comment too much on the match as I've only seen the limited highlights on offer and I had the joys of a 13 hour shift at work yesterday so missed it all in real time, but from what I'm gathering the performance just wasn't there.
I said in the article which covered the match that no game is easy and that you must perform in every game if you want to do well in the Premier League. United still have an heir of inconsistency about them and it would appear that our purple patch is over.
We've now got two home games coming up starting with the visit of Cardiff in the FA Cup on Saturday followed by a league game against Manchester City before away trips at West Ham and Norwich bring January to a close. How many points would you fancy from those?
If anything these last two games have confirmed to me what I kind of always thought - that we are a top-half team and nothing else. With a bit of wind behind us we could finish a bit higher like we've done before, and when faced with issues we could finish lower like we've done before. From this though we just have to move on.
Howay the lads!
West Brom: Ben Foster; Billy Jones, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Liam Ridgewell, Youssouf Mulumbu, Claudio Yacob, Morgan Amalfitano, Stephane Sessegnon, Chris Brunt, Nicolas Anelka
Subs: Boaz Myhill, Matej Vydra, Saido Berahino, Zoltan Gera, James Morrison, Shane Long, Diego Lugano
Newcastle: Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Davide Santon; Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Moussa Sissoko; Loic Remy, Shola Ameobi, Yoan Gouffran
Subs: Rob Elliot, Massadio Haidara, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Steven Taylor, Vurnon Anita, Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse
Attendance: 26,430
