Bore draw for fans but Toon make a point
A BORE of a goalless draw in front of your home fans is probably not the ideal way of celebrating your 100th Premier League game in charge.
But at least it means Alan Pardew will probably be around for his 101st.
The under- pressure Newcastle boss is the League’s second longestserving manager and he has endured a nightmare run-up to his opening home fixture of the season.
A defeat by a club managed by one of his predecessors would have cranked the pressure still higher.
But his side, with no summer signings and shorn of key men through injury and Arsenal’s bid to buy Yohan Cabaye, regained some pride after their drubbing by Manchester City last Monday.
It wasn’t pretty, but at least the Magpies now have a point on the board.
They might have had all three but for a stoppage time miss by substituteYoan Gouffran, who skewed the ball wide after Sammy Ameobi’s speculative shot came back off a post.
Pardew again left out Cabaye, judging that the French midfielder would not have his mind on the job because of the transfer speculation.
Sam Allardyce, whose own tenure at St James’ Park lasted only 24 games, just loves putting one over on owner Mike Ashley and has won here with both Blackburn andWest Ham since he was sacked.
Big Sam had left Joe Cole on the bench and picked a team clearly suited to a physical battle.
It was epitomised by Mohamed Diame, who owned the central midfield area, winning every ball and making Newcastle’s own midfield strong man Moussa Sissoko look more like a seven stone weakling.
It was a shocker of a first half, with Newcastle’s main tactic being to allow Hatem Ben Arfa to shoot from distance whenever he got the ball.
Some would have classed it as taking responsibility, others might have called it selfish. Either way, nothing got even remotely close to Jussi Jaaskelainen’s goal.
Tim Krul, so overworked in the Etihad Stadium last Monday, never had a shot to deal with, either.
West Ham had a little more definition about their play but it was still pretty turgid stuff. Modibo Maiga headed wide from Guy Demel’s cross and
Big Sam loves putting one over Mike Ashley
Stewart Downing should have done better when he got in unmarked at the back post, but could only head Matt Jarvis’s centre back across goal.
Mapou- Yanga-Mbiwa went closest when his header from Sylvain Marveaux’s corner flashed over the crossbar.
Krul was required to deal with Downing’s near- post effort just after the break but it was a routine save and it turned out to be the only one either keeper made all afternoon. On the hour mark Newcastle got off lightly when their normally deadly old boy Kevin Nolan got away from his marker but directed a free header from Downing’s delivery high and wide.
Pardew introduced Sammy Ameobi and Gouffran as he searched for the key to unlock a defence dominated by the twin rocks of James Collins and Winston Reid, but there wasn’t even a sniff of a breakthrough. The upside was that, even with Cole introduced into the mix, the Hammers looked just as incapable of getting a shot on target, never mind finding the net.
There were decent performances from his two centre- backs and second choice midfielders Vurnon Anita and Marveaux did well to compete with the Hammers’ power players.
Cole did come closest seven minutes from time when he swung a right foot at a loose ball and made Krul hurl himself across goal to make sure the ball was flying wide.
Like Newcastle, the Londoners might have claimed all three points at the death. A minute from time Maiga turned in Ravel Morrison’s cross- shot but had strayed offside.
Then came the Gouffran miss as Jaaskelainen stood rooted as Ameobi’s effort struck the upright and was then knocked wide by the Frenchman. In truth, the match did not deserve a winner.