com sticking the boot in
FA Cup:
Sweet FA once again
Newcastle 1 Cardiff City 2
Stevenage, Brighton, Brighton and now Cardiff....it's now four embarrassing FA Cup exits in as many seasons for Alan Pardew, who has presided over just one victory in that competition as Newcastle Manager.
Saturday his side toss away a lead given to them by Papiss Cisse, conceding twice to City substitutes and handing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a winning start to life working for madman Vincent Tan.
With Mathieu Debuchy suspended, Fabricio Coloccini, Yohan Cabaye and Tim Krul all officially injured, Pardew was forced into four changes from the starting eleven beaten at West Brom on New Years Day - also opting to bench Loic Remy, Shola Ameobi and Mike Williamson.
A scoreless first half saw visiting captain Mark Hudson beat Rob Elliot in the home goal after nine minutes, only for his header to be ruled out for an infringement.
Aside from a weak effort by Vurnon Anita, it took United 25 minutes to fashion a decent chance, Yoan Gouffran leading a counter-attack that ended with Hatem Ben Arfa rattling the Leazes End goal frame from distance.
The same player then tested the woodwork at the opposite end of the ground barely five minutes after the restart, before Moussa Sissoko sprang City's offside trap just after the hour mark and bore down on goal.
With two defenders pursuing him, Sissoko's shot was blocked by City custodian David Marshall - only for Cisse to follow up and register a first goal from open play since the League Cup win against Leeds United in September.
The goal was also notable for being almost the only time in the whole game that the number nine stayed onside.
A smoke bomb was discharged from the Strawberry Corner and a white cloud drifted across the field, but that failed to obscure the horror of what was to follow.
Before play restarted, Pardew replaced Gouffran with Gabriel Obertan - who had reportedly walked out of the ground before kickoff in the Arsenal home game when informed that he wasn't in the matchday party.
Booed on his entrance, Obertan contributed little to the cause and in effect left his side a man down for the second game. Again there were to be consequences.
City meanwhile had shuffled their pack, former mackem Frazier Campbell replacing Andreas Cornelius and giving notice of his side's attacking intentions when shooting against A post with 20 minutes remaining.
It was the introduction of ex-Brighton player Craig Noone (injured when Albion knocked Newcastle out two seasons ago) that had an immediate effect though, the midfielder slamming the ball past Elliot with a minute of arriving.
Unappealing as the prospect of a midweek replay in Wales was, further pain was soon to be inflicted by the visitors, Campbell left alone to head Peter Whittingham's corner in at the back post, Elliot again less than impressive.
With six minutes to play and both Loic Remy and Shola Ameobi stripped for action on the touchline, Obertan popped up on the United right and slung a low centre across the Cardiff box, only for Cisse to miss his kick.
That proved to be the best his side could manage despite fine minutes of added time, the moronic Steven Taylor reprising his goalkeeper shadowing antics ahead of a United free kick to willfully run the clock down, before becoming embroiled in some verbals with Campbell.
And so yet another opportunity to at least flirt with some overdue success is missed, this club seemingly intent on removing the slightest hint of ambition from its fans.
The substitutions aside though, it's hard not to concur with the manager's view that the lineup he chose should have been good enough to complete the task at hand. Not for the first time though, they manifestly failed to demonstrate the required levels of commitment.
While last season's loss to Brighton was played out with an obviously weakened team, the first defeat there, the loss at Stevenage and today's exit were all achieved by sides packed with supposed internationals.
In the end we found out nothing that we didn't know before, that beyond the first XI here lies very little. The manager's waffle doesn't endear him to many, but his squad have once again left him firmly in the clarts, with what looks odds-on like a fourth successive defeat in prospect when Manchester City come here next week.
He was unfortunately, right after we scored too which made it even worse tbh. Bang out of order, as poor as he undoubtedly is, booing the bloke achieves precisely fuck all and makes us look like fucking arseholes imo. Probably more for what he alledgedly did last weekend. Bloke shouldn't be anywhere near the first team.