The nearly men

Newcastle Utd 0 - 2 Man City (aet)

Newcastle nearly got through to the quarter finals of the League Cup on Wednesday night with a spirited performance against a significantly better resourced Man City side.

The Silver Fox opted to make a handful of changes to the side which lost the derby on Sunday, with Big Lad, Vurnon Anita, MYM and Papiss Cisse all handed starting berths in a 4-4-2 formation. For the visitors, Manuel Pellegrini chose to utilise his squad of expensively assembled regular substitutes to see whether any were worthy of more regular game time.

While the visitors looked quite rusty, it was Newcastle who started the brighter and were on the offensive from the off. With Anita and wannabe Belgian Mr T establishing a stranglehold in midfield, we started to create chances, with Cisse spurning a couple of good opportunities in the first half.

Frustratingly, we weren't able to take the lead and the second half saw very little in terms of chances for either side. Curiously, with the game poised at 0-0, the Silver Fox withdrew Big Lad and brought on Dreamboat, possibly in a bid to give our midfield greater poise. However, the reality was that he withdrew the wrong striker, with Cisse continuing to carry the look of a man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and for whom the goal looks the size of a microwave.

Goalless at full time, and with our bench emptied thanks to the arrival (and departure) of Paul Dummett, with the defender replaced by HBA which forced a reshuffle that saw Anita moved to left back, we continued to press forward.

However, it was City, perhaps due to their fresher legs, who got the breakthrough when Alvaro Negredo connected with Edin Dzeko's pass to shoot past Krul, before Dzeko added a second a few minutes later, taking with it half of our chances to win a cup this season.

While undoubtedly an improvement on Sunday's performance, the defeat still sees the vultures circling over the Silver Fox's head, with Saturday's visit of Chelski a increasingly pressurised game.

Other reports: BBC, Guardian

Shitty at City

Man City 4 - 0 Newcastle Utd

A slick polished performance, uncharacteristic of much of what they have produced this season was, unfortunately, Man City's Easter gift to their fans, as we watched helpless as the defending champions rediscovered their mojo to devastating effect.

Forced to reshuffle our backline in light of our current full-back injury list, the Silver Fox opted to give Danny Simpson a first league start of 2013 and deploy Spidermag at left back, with Obertan Kenobi replacing him further up the park and Vurnon Anita coming in for Mr T in midfield.

Unfortunately, with Anita and Dreamboat in the deep-lying midfield positions, our back four lacked the protection which a more defensive-minded player might have afforded and as a consequence we too often allowed Man City to pass the ball through us, with Samir Nasri to the fore.

Despite facing something of a passing masterclass, we were the side who crafted the best early chance, with Papiss Cisse volleying a diagonal ball from Anita against the foot of the post. Disappointingly, having held on for much of the first half, our resolve collapsed just before the break as first Carlos Tevez and then David Silva found the net in a four-minute spell which turned a decent performance into a poor half.

Identifying the problem, the Silver Fox replaced Kenobi with Perchinho at half-time to give us more bite in midfield, and we emerged re-energised as first Dreamboat and then Moussa Sissoko both shot wide. However, with the home side in this kind of form, it was almost a case of when, not if, they would add to their tally and sure enough they didn't take long, with returning captain Vincent Kompany scoring after we failed to adequately clear a corner.

The coup-de-grace came ten minutes later when Yaya Toure's fierce shot was deflected past Rob Elliot by the sliding boot of Perchinho.

The result itself was particularly tough on our keeper, who made a number of fine saves in what was an otherwise flat performance.

With a number of results elsewhere proving unhelpful, we once again find ourselves with an eye on the relegation fight, when our focus needs to be on Thursday's Europa League quarter-final against Benfica.

Hopefully whatever cobwebs we had from the international break have now been well and truly blown away and we can rediscover the defensive parsimony which has served us so well to date in Europe. If not, Thursday could be a particularly unpleasant experience.

Other reports: BBC, Guardian

Making plans for Nigel

So, Nigel de Jong wants to meet up with HBA, the player he crippled last season, does he? Probably a wise move that the encounter's been scheduled to take place post-match, in case there's any further flare-up between the two during the game.

The Silver Fox said of the Frenchman that "he was absolutely clear to me that he has no problem about going back there, no problem about facing their particular player", which to me suggests that HBA is hungry for a bit of revenge in one form or another. Hopefully it'll be both constructive and within the rules of the game - while a desire to hurt his assailant would be understandable, we'll find it hard enough to get a result at the Etihad as it is, without being forced to play with ten men.

Of course, given the riches at Roberto Mancini's disposal and his general squad rotation policy, there's a chance that de Jong won't actually start the game for the league leaders, depriving HBA of the opportunity to get his own back.