Newcastle 6 Villa 0
Sunday 22nd August 2010, 4:00PM BST.
Caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald suffered the first defeat of his Villa reign as his team got humiliated by newly-promoted Newcastle.
Magpies forward Andy Carroll grabbed a hat-trick as Villa were torn to shreds on a disastrous day on Tyneside, but things could have been different had John Carew not blazed a penalty over the bar after nine minutes when the score remained goalless.
Just three minutes later, Newcastle were ahead when Joey Barton smashed in from 20 yards and the home side quickly doubled their advantage when Kevin Nolan netted from close range at the second attempt.
Carroll made it three before half-time after drilling home from close range and notched his second with a left-foot volley past goalkeeper Brad Friedel into the right corner.
Things went from bad to worse late on for Villa when Nolan got on the end of substitute Shola Ameobi’s knock-down to scramble home his second, before Carroll got his hat-trick with a cool finish past Friedel after being sent through by Nolan.
It capped a miserable afternoon for the travelling supporters, some of whom headed for the exits with 20 minutes still to go.
For MacDonald, the result undid most of the good work of the last week after the opening-day win over West Ham and away draw in the Europa League at Rapid Vienna.
It also remains to be seen how the result will impact on his chances of being named as Martin O’Neill’s replacement.
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Get martin back now.
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I think this performance shows why Villa will not be a top 4 team, it was embarrassing to watch. I think our Sunday league team could have done better.
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Karma coming back at you for laughing at our scoreline against Chelsea. At least we lost 6 nil to the Premiership Champions and not the Championship champions.
Eat humble pie lads and lasses.
Boing Boing
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not for those that criticised oneill fairly but for those who wanted him out and moaned every week when he had done such a fantastic job at aston villa i am sorry to say but that 6 0 defeat was for you,i dont blame mac and fair play to him coming out and blaming himself after,there is life after martin oneill but its going to take a top manager to replace someone who took us to 3 6th place finishes and regular european football and 2 trips to wembley,ps milner is a massive let down to aston villa and martin oneill.
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The team that lost six nil to Newcastle was mostly assembled by O’Neill. So why on earth would we want him back? Yes three 6th place finishes but the goal was Champions League, thats why Lerner was not willing to give him more money after spending £120 million.
Also O’Neill was not sacked, he walked.
If we continue to select players who are not performing ie Downing, Young, Warnock just to name a few then it will be a struggle. The big name players think they will be in the team whatever their performance, and please don’t mention squad depth to me.
O’Neill is a good manager but not good enough to take club into Champions League which is Lerner’s target, I believe.
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