Newcastle United v Scunthorpe United
St James' Park
Coca-Cola Championship - Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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FULL-TIME

Newcastle 3 Scunthorpe United 0

"Let's all have a disco" and "Nigel give us a wave" chant the United fans as the whistle goes - they're not too disheartened at that. It was always going to be a tall order, even the most optimistic United fan would have had to admit that before the match, and in all honesty, I don't think 3-0 is that bad. United could have scored too in the last ten minutes, I think that's the most dissapointing thing - the fact that they didn't. In an appreciative gesture, Nigel goes on to the pitch and gives the Scunny fans a clap.

SECOND-HALF

91 Minutes: McDermott works his way to the edge of the area and stings a shot at goal with his laces. He gets the power behind it, but it's straight at Harper.

90 Minutes: Three minutes more are added. McDermott charges forwards - he's done okay tonight. The chance which results is Jonathan Forte's, but it goes wide.

88 Minutes: In what may well be Scunthorpe's last chance of the game to get a goal, Grant McCann swings the ball in from the right with a free-kick. It's heading for the back post, so Rob Jones moves to greet it; but despite getting something on it, his connection isn't clean enough to send it home.

85 Minutes: The game is just winding down now. I wouldn't bet against Newcastle getting a fourth. Speak if the devil ... no actuallty, Jonas, who was granted the freedom of the city as he drifted in with the ball from the left, sees his effort beaten away by Murphy's gloves. Good save. Murphy stops a shot from Nile Ranger soon afterwards too.

81 Minutes: SUB: Lovenkrands is taken off and Nile Ranger brought on. Lovenkrands gets a massive round of applause, but in my view he's done little! Scored one and missed two other really good chances!

80 Minutes: A sneaky run from Martyn Woolford soon works itself into United's best chance of the night. He eventually ends up with the ball on his strong foot on the left-side of the area, but Harper is equal to his low drive.

78 Minutes: McCann goes down (not under a tackle, when he stretches a little too much) and has to receive treatment, much to the distaste of the Newcastle fans who therefore have to watch their side put the ball out of play. McCann stays down for about a minute; but is able to continue.

75 Minutes: SUB: Newcastle's Enrique is replaced by Leon Best.

74 Minutes: After the ball is caught up in a tackle and bounces loose, Donal McDermott decides to have a crack. And why not? It goes wide (not by miles), but it's a shot that counts towards the stats!

71 Minutes: SUB: Woolford on for Josh Wright.

70 Minutes: For the fifth time tonight, the Geordies have the ball in the net. This time it's through Jonas, but again, it's ruled offside.

69 Minutes: Despite the fact that he was under pressure from something resembling rugby tackle from Andy Wright, Jose Enrique just danced his way into the area and sent a shot close - very close. Just to clarify, it hit the side netting and bounced behind.

66 Minutes: Jose Enrique picks out Andy Carroll in the area from the left-hand side. It doesn't quite reach him though, as Rob Jones pours every last ounce of effort he has into the leaping jump he makes to win the ball before Carroll does.

62 Minutes: A last-ditch tackle by Marcus Williams blocks a shot from Jonas. Newcastle were close to extending their lead there, against what is now a downbeat United side. In the Newcastle half, McCann drags a right-footed half-volley wide.

56 Minutes: SUBS: Hayes and O'Connor are replaced by Togwell and McDermott. "Going down, going down, going down" taunt the Newcastle fans.

55 Minutes: GOAL! A long ball sprayed across the field finds and sends Andy Carroll clear of the Scunthorpe defence on the left. Andrew Wright is the closest man to him, but he hasn't got the legs to keep up. Carroll gets into the area, and from a very awkward angle, produces a quality finish. Newcastle won that ball back after a United attack involving McCann, Josh Wright and Forte broke down. That goal shows just how importaint making something of your chances is at this level. It could be 2-1 ... instead it's 3-0.

Newcastle United 3 Scunthorpe United 0

50 Minutes: Some good touches by Jonathan Forte in the area allow him to drag the ball wide before angling it into the chest of Paul Hayes at the near post. Hayes takes it down, and manages to spin partially around Harper; before the referee drags play back, saying the ball went out of play.

47 Minutes: Rob Jones really gets stuck in with a tackle on Wayne Routledge which leaves him needing treatment; although it wasn't a foul. Subsequently, Routledge got up and shoved Jones. Luckily for him though, the referee wasn't looking when that happened.

45 Minutes: My half-time voyage took me back to the press room underneath this stand. In there, about ten buzzing ball boys ran past me, but the thing that made that sequence of events particullarly memorable was the fact that one club employee had a comment to make to them which made me chuckle, "remember lads" he said through a thick accent, "we're winning, so take your time to give them the ball back!" On the footy side of things, United have got us back underway.

HALF-TIME

Newcastle United 2 Scunthorpe United 0

As the half has gone on, Scunthorpe have picked up. They're not playing particularly well though, and they're not on course to get anything. In fact, it's now a damage limitation exercise really. But as Nigel Adkins said in his pre-match press conference, nobody really expects/expected Scunthorpe to get anything tonight.

ATT: 39,301

FIRST-HALF

45 Minutes: Nolan puts in a long cross which drifts all the way to Gutierrez on the far side. He pops it back into the box across the floor, but Peter Lovenkrands somehow manages to miss another sitter. Again, he had only the goalie to beat; and really, he should have had three by now.

43 MInutes: United are continuing to put some good passages together now. Maybe the gulf in class isn't quite as severe as I first thought. That said, Newcastle look dangerous whenever they go forwards (as they are doing now). Thankfully, this attack ends with Murphy cradling the ball.

39 Minutes: A free-kick is won by The Iron fairly deep in Newcastle territory. O'Connor spins it in; although dissapointingly, nobody even attempts to get on the end of it and it drifts from play.

35 Minutes: It might be because Newcastle have taken their foot off the gas; or it might be because United are getting marginally more confident, but either way, Scunthorpe have seen more of the ball in the last five. Forte's running is showing some signs of annoying the home defence, and I think that that's something United really do need to play to tonight if they want to score.

28 Minutes: After Murphy collects a header from Andy Carroll, he quickly sends the ball upfield. It comes to Forte, who gets into the area, but rolls the shot that he eventually gets away a fair distance wide.

26 Minutes: Another contender for the 'Joe Murphy Save of the Season Award'. This entry comes when Peter Lovenkrands hits a point-blank drive his way after the ball is rolled across the mouth of the goal for him; yet Murphy somehow manages to get down to it and stop it from penetrating the goal.

21 Minutes: GOAL! Peter Lovenkrands has all the time in the world to pick his spot and score from one-on-one after a defence-splitting ball takes every Iron defender out of the equation. Murphy was left stranded, and could only watch as Lovenkrands coaxed him out of his goal and clipped the ball past him.

Newcastle United 2 Scunthorpe United 0

14 Minutes: Peter Lovenkrands fails to capitalise following shoddy defending from Scunthorpe which culminates in Murphy spilling the ball to him. Lovenkrands should score, but hits the crossbar from a matter of yards out. If you're wondering where the Nolan goal I mentioned a second ago went by the way, it was in-fact chalked off for offside; and I'd already typed it out by the time the referee actually made his mind up about it! So yeah, it's still 1-0 to Newcastle - sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

9 Minutes: GOAL! A corner is swung in from the right by Danny Guthrie, and Andy Carrol rises gracefully in the box, beating everyone to the ball with his head, before finding the top-corner of the goal. Sublime.

Newcastle United 1 Scunthorpe United 0

6 Minutes: Jonas tries to send a volley at goal. He only gets half  boot behind it though, and after Andrew Wright gets a touch Murphy swipes it from the air. Seconds later, Murphy is forced into a strong save when Wayne Routledge finds space in the area.

3 Minutes: I know I touched on the amount of United fans here a few moments ago, but I've just looked around the ground properly for the first time since kick-off, and the amount of Newcastle fans here is simply amazing. I don't think any other team in the country could be playing in the second tier, and still have this many people watching them on a Wednesday night. It's true what they say too - they're really good at singing!

1 Minute: Kick-off is taken by Newcastle, they win a corner soon after. It's spun in and shepherded behind nervously. Jones, on his return, got the last touch. The home teams subsequent corner, taken from the other side, is headed away by Josh Wright at the near post.

BUILD-UP

19:45: They're out now, the teams that is. Scunny are in blue; Newcastle are in, well, what else - black and white stripes.

19:44: I'm really happy to let you know that absolutely loads of Scunny fans have made the journey north for this game. There's almost two-thousand of them gathered, in fine voice, high away to my left hand-side. I'm reliably informed that in order to get to their seats this evening, the Iron fans have had to climb no less than fourteen flights of stairs. Tiring, eh!

19:34: The two sets of players are just finishing their warm-ups, as you'd expect this close to kick-off. In parallel the man on the PA has now started reading out the teams, to an almost deafening decibel level - "SPIDERMAN, NUMBER EIGHTEEN, JONAS GUTIERREZ!" he booms. Anyway, back to the point that I was originally going to make - the United (and Newcatsle, for that matter) players are all wearing white Sport Relief shirts, which is nice to see.

19:28: Welcome to Newcastle, and to the Sports Direct @ St. James' Park - I think that's the correct title nowadays ... Anyway, it's a fantastic ground, and will duly play host to some of the 2012 Olympic Games and 2015 Rugby World Cup. United have a tricky test ahead of them tonight, against what is in my view, the best team in the Football League.

NEWC: Harper, Coloccini, Enrique, Nolan (c), Hall, Guthrie, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Simpson, Gutierrez, Carroll. SUBS: Krul, Taylor, Best, Pancrate, Butt, Kadar, Ranger.

SCUN: Murphy, Jones (c), Raynes, A. Wright, Williams, McCann, Hayes, O'Connor, J. Wright, Forte, Thompson. SUBS: Lillis, Milne, Togwell, Sparrow, Woolford, McDermott, Canavan.

PREAMBLE