Refreshed after the luxury of a rare mid-week off, Alan Pardew's Newcastle United side traveled to The Hawthorns to face the 10th-placed Baggies and were unlucky not to come away with all three points. It was the first time that Alan Pardew had fielded all five of his French January signings together in the same line-up. Moussa Sissoko, Mathieu Debuchy, Yoan Gouffran, Mapou Yanga-M'biwa and Massadio Haidara all started and as a result Newcastle played with a revitalised esprit de corps. This paid off to spectacular early effect when Yoan Gouffran notched his second goal for the club to fire the black and whites ahead in a half that Newcastle completely dominated. West Brom responded in the second half and almost constant home pressure was converted into a deserved equaliser by full-back Billy Jones' first ever goal for the club.
It was a very bright start for Newcastle who were looking to right a few wrongs from last week and it was one-way traffic from the off. A last-gasp challenge from Gareth McAuley was the only thing in the way of Moussa Sissoko latching onto an excellent Papiss Cisse flicked through ball after five minutes. A couple of minutes later, a sharp Yohan Cabaye through ball into the box was hit goalwards by Cisse and the deftest of headers from Gouffran took it into the net for a deserved away lead. Cabaye went close himself twice soon after, blazing a piledriver from 30 yards just over the bar and warming Foster's hands with a rasping volley at the near post as Newcastle strutted their stuff. Cisse missed a glorious chance to make it 2-0 from a misplaced Olsson back pass, a chipped finish nestling on the roof of the net to the relief of the majority of the 25,000 home crowd. West Brom failed to register a serious chance in the first 45 minutes coming closest with an Olsson header from a Chris Brunt corner and having a penalty appeal turned down for Perch's tackle on Jones which referee deemed out of the box. Perch was later shown to have won the ball cleanly.
A half-time change from Steve Clarke saw Shane Long replace the ineffective Argentine Claudio Yacob as West Brom redoubled their efforts to claw something from the game with a three-man frontline. It was all the home team from then on in with Long's endless running and Lukaku's power and the direct approach really testing the resolve of Pardew's men. Marc-Antoine Fortune went closest soon after the interval with a ferocious long drive and unsurprisingly, the muscular Lukaku was involved in the equalising goal soon after. The big on-loan Chelsea striker held off Steven Taylor long enough for the ball to roll to pre-game 66/1-to-score long shot right back Billy Jones to fire home past Elliot after some excellent approach play. Alan Pardew shuffled his pack and brought on first Shola Ameobi in the 69th minute and Hatem Ben Arfa in the 77th minute yet both struggled to impact the game as Newcastle were restricted to snatched half chances of their own.
A flurry of late corners from West Brom took it to the wire yet a score draw was a fair result that both managers seemed more than happy with.
"I think the draw is a fair result..Newcastle were better than us, quicker out of the traps than us…and it is difficult chasing a game in the Barclays Premier League…Second half we went with the three forwards up front and it paid off getting the equaliser."
"I'm obviously very pleased, it's a tough place to come and we could have had two before half-time…yet second half they went a lot more direct, put us under a lot of pressure, a lot of corners yet we were excellent, our defending and everything…
Newcastle's next opponents, Liverpool, came a cropper against WBA on the opening day of the season on the wrong end of a 3-0 reverse. A similar home win at St James' Park in the 5.30pm kick-off on Saturday will virtually guarantee The Magpies' Premier League survival.
West Bromwich Albion: (4-4-2) Foster; Jones, McAuley, Olsson, Popov; Dorrans, Yacob (Sub:Long 45), Morrison, Brunt; Fortune ((Sub: Rosenburg 90), Lukaku (Sub:Thomas, 90)
Newcastle: (4-2-3-1) Elliot; Debuchy, S.Taylor, Yanga-Mbiwa, Haidara (Sub Ben Arfa, 77); Perch, Cabaye (c) (Sub: Gosling, 90); Gouffran (Sub Ameobi 69), Sissoko, Gutierrez; Cisse.
Via: Atletico de Madrid-Barca: Alba gives much value to this League
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