England Football Blog

How hard will FA punish Barton?

Published on November 4, 2008 - by admin - No Comments

Before taking action against Newcastle’s Joe Barton, FA awaits referee Bennet’s report from the match.

During the win over Aston Villa, Barton seemed to hit Gabriel Agbonlahor’s face but didn’t get any punishment.

“It will be a question of whether the referee saw it and dealt with it at the time,” said an FA spokesman.

“If he didn’t, the procedure would be to get the footage of the incident and ask the referee for his views.”

It was a two part incident. The first part came after that the midfielder (who’s now playing again after the ban and prison sentence) had been penalised for a foul but referee Bennet didn’t act to the push on Agbonlahor.

Barton was also booked for a late second half challenge on Aston Villa defender Luke Young.

But Newcastle have claimed that poor Barton is being very unfairly treated.

Coach Chris Hughton said: “Any incident regarding Joey is going to be blown up twice as much as it’s going to be with any other player.

“I wasn’t aware of any incident with Joey at all.”

In July, The jailbird Barton was released after serving two months of a six-month sentence for assault and affray in Liverpool.

The “Mr Nice Guy” Newcastle player was banned for six games by the FA after he assaulted his former team-mate Ousmane Dabo at the training ground!

At a personal hearing Barton was fined £25,000 and will be suspended for another 6 games when he steps out of line again in the future.

He is backed by Hughton (who had to take the post-match press conference because manager Joe Kinnear had lost his voice).

“There wasn’t anything said in the changing room afterwards, certainly not to my knowledge,” added Hughton.

“All we can ask of Joey is to put in the performances he has done for us since he has been back. He is a very short way into his period back with us. All of those things, he is aware of.”

Villa boss Martin O’Neill also played down the incident, although Agbonlahor had mentioned it.

He said: “That’s for other people to make the decision. The referee and linesman, whatever they saw - or didn’t see, as the case may be, that’s up to them.”

Newcastle 2-0 Fulham

Published on March 22, 2008 - by admin - No Comments

Goals from Mark Viduka and Michael Owen gave Newcastle their first win in 14 league games and boss Kevin Keegan’s first in 10 matches since his return.Viduka struck in the sixth minute when he collected a pass from Geremi and fired low past goalkeeper Kasey Keller.

Owen should have doubled their lead with a close-range header before nodding in from Geremi’s free-kick.

Jimmy Bullard had Fulham’s best chances but his long-range efforts were comfortably dealt with by Steve Harper.

Victory will be a massive relief to Newcastle, who move six points clear of the relegation zone after their first win in the Premier League since a 1-0 win at Fulham on 15 December.

But the signs seem ominous for the west London outfit, who are now four points adrift of safety with seven games left.

The visiting team were gifted enough possession during the first half but time and time again failed to come up with the killer ball.

Their downfall was self-inflicted at the other end of the field where Roy Hodgson’s men produced a display that could politely be described as inept and in the sixth minute Viduka took advantage of that.

The Australian, who had not played for nine weeks prior to last week’s draw at Birmingham, controlled Geremi’s pass from the right, turned then drilled his shot into Keller’s bottom right.

Owen, the hero at St Andrew’s should have made it 2-0 but he could only head Geremi’s clipped ball into the hands of Keller after finding himself inexplicably free eight yards out.

The England striker also had a 20-yard shot tipped over by the American shot-stopper, who then had to be alert to divert Obefemi Martins’ low effort round the post.

Harper had his hands kept warm on a wintery Easter Saturday by the spirited Bullard, who fired in a couple of shots from distance that the Newcastle keeper had to crouch down low to save.

Keegan’s men, who looked edgy in the first half despite taking an early lead, were far more confident after the break although shots on goal were few and far between.

They always looked potent though and Joey Barton, who along with Nicky Butt was one of the stars of the show, came closest to doubling his side’s lead when he whacked a 20-yarder that missed Fulham’s right-hand upright by a foot.

The result was still in doubt until the 83rd minute when Owen leapt above the Fulham defence to score his second in two games.

And with that, some of those growing concerns on Tyneside seemed to drift away.

Newcastle Utd. vs. Manchester Utd.

Published on February 24, 2008 - by admin - No Comments

Newcastle 1-5 ManchesterBarclays Premier League
St James’ Park, 23 February 2008

Goals:

NEWCASTLE UNITED 1
Faye (79)

MANCHESTER UNITED 5
Rooney (25, 80), Ronaldo (45, 56), Saha (90)

Check out the highlights: