Valencia review

By: j | August 9th, 2008

It should be very obvious to the Toon Army that this pre-season has established that the time for Danny Guthrie and James Milner is now and they no can no-longer sit on the bench for anyone. These two have made an extraordinary impact already and it will only improve as the season progresses. New man Jonás Gutiérrez continues to shine, aggressive without the ball, tackles hard and creates numerous scoring opportunities.

Valenica took the lead with the matches opening goal at the thirty-eighth minute on a close range effort by Joaquin, who was left unmarked in on of the Magpies are defensive plunders of the match. However in their support, they continued to press offensively with James Milner exhibiting a high work-rate with good quality and creative touches. Newcastle draws the match level from a Danny Guthrie corner headed to back of the net by Damien Duff at the seventy-seventh minute. Once level, Newcastle continued to press, with numerous opportunities and as a Steven Taylor header rang off the post in added-time, James Milner pounced on it and sent it to the back of the net to give Newcastle a 2-1 victory.

An extremely solid outing and a continuation of the young talent on the team building in importance as they head to a date at Old Trafford next Sunday.

NUFC: Shay Given, Habib Beye, Charles N’Zogbia, Claudio Cacapa, Steven Taylor, Nicky Butt, Danny Guthrie, James Milner, Jonás Gutiérrez, Damien Duff, Oba Martins
Subs: Jose Enrique, Alan Smith, Geremi, David Edgar, Fraser Forster, Kazenga LuaLua, Sebastien Bassong

VCF: Timo Hilderbrand, Raul Albiol, David Albelda, Ruben Baraja, Fernando Morientes, Vicente, Ivan Helguera, Joaquin, David Silva, Miguel, Emiliano Moretti
Subs: David Navarro, David Villa, Miguel Angulo, Pablo Dominguez, Manuel Fernandes, Vicente Panadero, Juan Manuel Garcia, Javier Arizmendi, Alexis Ruano, Edu, Nikola Zigic