Another Euro hangover. Newcastle 0 West Ham 1 Former Newcastle favourite, Kevin Nolan, returned to Tyneside and inflicted an unwelcome defeat on his old team, as players and fans appeared to be suffering from the effects of a trip to Belgium three days earlier. The Magpies turned in a fairly clueless display against the Hammers and ex-boss Sam Allardyce, who kept up his 100% record on returning to Gallowgate, having already won here with Blackburn two years ago. Nolan's winner came in the 37th minute of a pretty poor Premier League encounter at a full St. James' when Joey O'Brien's shot was turned home by our old captain from close range, with Mike Williamson just playing his former colleague onside. Nolan wasn't in the mood for dancing and refrained from doing his usual chicken dance celebration (once done by Robbie Elliott who was in attendance - see below) but it was typical opportunism from the midfielder. Alan Pardew's side failed to create much all game and after another ineffective display, Papiss Cisse was replaced by Shola Ameobi at half-time. Our best attempt came at the start of the second half when Demba Ba's header appeared to have crossed the line but Jussi Jaaskelainen was ruled to have prevented the whole ball from crossing the goalline. The lack of invention and pressure that followed was alarming, with Williamson almost bundling the ball home and Hatem Ben Arfa going close direct from a corner. But some awful delivery into the box rarely troubled the visitors and the introduction of Gabriel Obertan failed to provide the key to unlocking the Iron's defence. Tim Krul denied Andy Carroll with a fine one-handed save and then came close to getting on the end of a Ben Arfa cross in added time as the 'keeper came up for a late corner but when Yohan Cabaye fired over that proved to be our final effort on goal. West Ham extended their lead over us in the Premier League and the defeat sees us firmly stuck in mid-table again, having recently got within striking distance of the top six. Jonas Gutierrez added to our list of injured players after a crunching collision early on with Yossi Benayoun who also ended up being substituted. Gutierrez was reportedly taken to hospital to have a precautionary X-ray, although he did play on for more than ten minutes after the coming-together. Full match report to follow. Team: Krul, Simspon (Obertan 79), S.Taylor, Williamson, Santon, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Gutierrez (Anita 23), Ferguson, Ba, Cisse (Sh.Ameobi 46). Subs n/u: Elliot, Amalfitano, Bigirimana, Marveaux. Booked: Ben Arfa West Ham: Jaaskelainen, O'Brien, Reid, Tomkins, McCartney (Demel 66), Benayoun (O'Neil 52), Diame, Noble, Jarvis (Maiga 34), Nolan, Carroll. Subs n/u: Spiegel, Cole, Collins, Hall. Booked: Noble, O'Brien Goal: Nolan 37 Crowd: 51,855 Hot off the press from NUFC.com
We usually get around 50k average attendance in most premier league seasons. We randomly get gates from 49-52k.
