Newcastle United 2 - 1 Aston Villa: Double Demba Strikes As Advertised

It was a match that started out innocently enough... at least for the first 10 minutes. Aston Villa looked the more settled side off the bat, but there was very little in it early. It was just after 12 minutes that the game would begin to shift drastically as Leon Best went down under a very clean tackle from a Villa defender and was forced out, giving way to Papiss Demba Cisse. The match leveled out and Newcastle settled in, gradually starting to boss the play a bit up until perhaps the most costly goal that we have scored in quite a long time.

Demba Ba would score on 30 minutes, but the cost to the Magpies would be Ryan Taylor, who would be carted off following the goal and taken to hospital for x-rays. We're all hoping that it comes out best case scenario with Raylor... it would be quite costly if we did not have him available. Weekend hero Gabriel Obertan would come on in his place (and acquit himself well again, if we're honest). Things were looking great for the Toon as halftime approached, but nearly 5 minutes inside the 6 minutes of injury time, Robbie Keane pulled an equalizer back from a Charles N'Zogbia cross, punishing Newcastle for a loss of defensive shape right at the end of the half.

Whatever Alan Pardew fed the lads at halftime, I'll be having some. They came out focused and really took any momentum straight out of Villa. Keeping the pressure on the Villa defense, the Villans were reduced to a less-successful version of their main tactic of playing long balls to run onto with Darren Bent (who wouldn't have a run at our back line, eh?) and it was only a matter of time before the event that all of Tyneside was waiting for. Papiss Cisse took a cross from Jonas Gutierrez , trapped it down just inside the box and just absolutely PLOWED it into the left upper 90.

On the day, Newcastle United gained 3 points, lost 2 players and look to have gained 1 hero. Level on points with Chelsea in 4th place on 5th February. Howay, lads!