Away day at home

On last Saturday I made the voyage up to Newcastle. It was to see Newcastle play West Ham and I was filled with thinking of all the outcomes and permutations of the match. On the way up, I saw further signs of the tumultuous winds that had beset the UK. Anderson air-raid style shelters for the sheep were dotted around the fields, but one had been uprooted and blown on top of another. Several fields along, fallen haystacks lay in a rumbustious heap, instead of the ordinary neat stacks one usually sees of them because of the wind; either that or it was an untidy farmer. The benefits of saving floodplains for their purpose instead of overlaying them with housing development was plain to see as shimmering water of a deep blue hue (almost such as I've seen in Mongolia) covered the grass and glistened beneath the midday sun.
I had a good seat, not too far from the pitch, and the chair even had armrests. It was marked by a sign remembering Gordon J. Batty (any relation to a former Newacstle player?) and ahead of me were two seats ostensibly belonging to the Royal Norwegian Consulate. It was such a well-to-do section that at one point I was asked to sit down. It was an exciting game though not always for the right reasons. The West Ham fans were really enthusiastic and loud all the way up in the upper tier, second only to Newcastle's away fans in their passion from football followers I've seen around. They had good reason to cheer in the first half as for the first half hour Newcastle's team were as bad as West Ham were purposeful, the latter running up a 2-0 scoreline, prompting the Hammers fans to taunt Roeder "Sacked in the morning, you're getting sacked in the morning." The one consolation was two West Ham players colliding with each other which kicked off a fracas between them, then one of those players, still berating his colleague, unwittingly ran into another West Ham player. After about 4o minutes players, Newcastle began to rise in the ascendancy, crowned with an incredible goal by James Milner just before half-time. It was controversial because Scott Parker was offside but not deemed to be interfering with play, even though Alan Curbishley said afterwards, Parker dummied the ball fooling the goalkeeper. I would say these things iron themselves out over the course of a season or sometimes from game to game. There is talk of temporarily demoting Uriah Rennie because of it. Now Rennie could fill a football field with his ego, but people should not talk about referees consistently applying the law if the punishment is not consistently applied to referees who do not do so. When it's for Newcastle people kick up a fuss; when it's against Newcastle nobody seems to care.
While Newcastle were much more progressive and coherent in the second half (simple things such as not taking free kicks before your own players are ready) in going forward, the defence became in equal measure kamikaze; it was extremely disquieting that our defence not only passed the ball to the opposition, but did so in our own penalty area! Only a combination of losuy West Ham finishing and good goalkeeping prevented the cession of more goals to the Hammer's cause. Throughout Roy Carroll was booed for his time wasting, but he did not desist, being reminded to time waste every time he picked up the ball. He was almost made to pay for it though. For one Magpie free kick, I focused on Luis Boa Morte for some reason in his penalty area and sure enough as the ball was whipped he handled it within his arm. Penalty! Surprising Obafemi Martins chose not to take it, so Solano resumed his penalty duties and duly scored. 2-2! That was how it ended.
Scott Parker ran his heart out as usual, Milner was always impressive. For much of the game, Kieron Dyer was not at the races (Blaydon or otherwise). Despite being a pipsqueak when marking Carlton Cole (Cole looked like a giant), Steven Carr grew steadily in authority in this, his return match from lenghty injury. I became apprehensive when Shay Given was injured to be replaced by Steve Harper. My only previous live experience of Harper between the sticks was at White Hart Lane where, among other things, he kicked his goal clearance into touch every single time, thereby instantly conceding possession to the opposition. The effect of being at home seemed to inspire him to less negative tactics and he made a brave block right at the death. Oba Martins plugged away honourably, but looked tired and so wasn't as electric as his pace is known to be. He has really slotted into the North-East culture though. Whereas most foreign imports wear gloves as a bare minimum, Martin dispenses with these and wears a short-sleeve shirt. This being January in Newcastle with occasional showers. What a guy!