Newcastle United 5, Cardiff City 1

Feb 6 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

It was a classic centre forward’s goal and the youngster almost had his hat-trick before the break, teed up by the typically tricky Jonas Gutierrez, a shot from the edge of the area bounced just wide of the bottom corner.

As is normally the case when one team has been so dominant early on, Newcastle were content to sit back and invite Cardiff on to them before trying to hit them on the break with the newly acquired pace off Routledge and Best.

It almost worked perfectly only for Routledge to have a shot blocked after playing in Best off the shoulder of the last defender, who returned the favour by cutting the ball back to him.

The points were never quite safe at that stage and Steve Harper had to adjust his feet well to tip over a deflected shot from former Magpie – and Black Cat – Michael Chopra early in the second half. The returning son – who has still not scored at St James’ Park – also chipped the ball straight into the arms of his former teammate when one on one.

It was not exactly a costly miss, but Newcastle still punished it, Routledge’s ability to run with the ball at speed again putting Cardiff’s defenders on the back foot before he slid a perfect pass in to find the run of substitute Peter Lovenkrands. The Dane’s finish was clinical to make it five goals in his last six games.

Still the chances kept on coming, Kevin Nolan hitting the post at the end of a stunning move down the left flank, although an offside flag would have chalked it off anyway.

All that was needed to round things off was a first Newcastle hat-trick for Carroll and he almost got it from a Nolan knockdown – but his shot was blocked on the line by Gyepes.

Instead it was Lovenkrands who added the icing to Newcastle’s breakout cake, running at full-back Mark Kennedy and curling a low shot in off the inside of post. Aaron Wildig’s late consolation barely mattered.