Sam Allardyce leads Blackburn over Newcastle

In his first match against his old-club Newcastle, Sam Allardyce led his Blackburn side to a 3-0 victory over the Magpies. The scoreline was deceiving as while Newcastle certainly didn’t play very well, they equally were not run off the pitch either. However whether they didn’t deserve to lose by three goals or not is a fruitless debate as they now find themselves only two points above the drop zone and without a win in four matches.

After a dreary first half that certainly will not make any highlight clips for the “beautiful game”, in which Newcastle squandered a number of fine opportunities, Wigan responded with three unanswered goals. On the hour Brett Emerton sent a cross to Benni McCarthy but with David Edgar defending, the South African international went the ground. In a controversial decision referee Rob Styles pointed to the spot, to which Benni McCarthy took the penalty himself and sent the ball into the net. With Newcastle downtrodden, the Rovers struck quick and a long ball from Paul Robinson was passed on by Morten Gamst Pedersen to Jason Roberts, with the resulting strike into the net. While the two goal deficit was problem enough to deal with once again, Joey Barton was in the eye of the storm as he and José Enrique had to be separated by Sébastien Bassong. Although Joe Kinnear would later try to deflect the incident, saying that it only shows their passion for the challenge ahead, it does nothing for the clubs performance and certainly didn’t rile the club up today. Following the second goal, Newcastle offered up little threat and after his second yellow-card in ten minutes Nicky Butt was sent off with seven minutes remaining. Playing a man down, Newcastle succumbed allowing Jason Roberts to score his second of the day bringing the match to its final 3-0 scoreline as he redirected Morten Gamst Pedersen’s cross at the eighty-seventh minute.

After the match Joe Kinnear said of the penalty:

“The penalty made all the difference. It was harsh. I think that is the third time this season that referee Rob Styles has given a penalty against us.”