Darlington 2 Newcastle 7

[divas]

Two-goal Ameobi leads way in Darlo rout

NEWCASTLE United's players shrugged off the turmoil at the club to smash seven goals past Darlington this afternoon.

Chris Hughton's side ran out 7-2 winners to the delight of almost 3,500 travelling fans at the Northern Echo Arena.

Shola Ameobi led the way with two goals, while Steven Taylor, Kevin Nolan, Damien Duff, Andy Carroll, Jonas Gutierrez also found the net.

Gutierrez's goal was his first for the club, but the winger's celebration was low-key, with no repeat of the madcap routine at his previous club Real Mallorca which saw him dubbed Spider-man for donning a superhero mask after netting.

Managing director Derek Llambias, meanwhile, made a low-key appearance in the directors' box, while Kenneth Shepherd – son of former Newcastle chairman Freddy – was also seen at the ground.

And they heard Alan Shearer's name constantly sung by those in black and white, who filled one side of the stadium.

Dean Windass forced a second minute save from Tim Krul in the United goal with a free kick, but they were behind a minute later after Duff latched on to a long ball forward and tucked it past Tom Woodhead.

Newcastle's lead, however, last just four minutes, with Colin Todd's side levelling from the penalty spot through Windass after Mark Convery was tripped by Tamas Kadar.

Nolan almost retook the lead for Hughton's side in the 12th minute, the midfielder just failing to get on the end of a teasing cross from forward Kazenga LuaLua, who lined up on the right side of a five-man midfield.

The former Bolton Wanderers captain, however, made it 2-1 in the 17th minute, finishing from close range after Joey Barton beat two men and pulled the ball back.

After a Darlington chance went, the away end – which was still filling up well in the first half – started chanting would-be manager Shearer's name, making their feelings clear on the people's choice for the club's next boss.

The next chant concerned owner Mike Ashley, and drew a shake of the head from Llambias, seated in front of the Press box at the Northern Echo Arena.

Newcastle made it 3-1 in the 28th minute thanks to Ameobi, who controlled a high cross from LuaLua and beat a man before slotting the ball home for his second goal of the season, the striker having found the net at Shamrock Rovers.

Eight minutes later Ameobi lashed in a fourth, sparking an exuberant celebration from one United fan on the cinder track which ended up with him being led away by police.

The travelling contingent then came up with 'Same old Shola, always scoring' and 'England's No 1' in tribute to a player who, like many of his team-mates, reported back for pre-season not knowing if he had a future at St James's Park.

As the half-time break approached, it looked a question of how many goals Newcastle would go on to score, with captain Alan Smith going close in the 44th minute.

Hughton made seven changes for the second half, and Gutierrez – who only returned to training on Monday – took just 80 seconds to make an impression, finally opening his United account with a left-foot shot from a tight angle to make it 5-1.

Steven Taylor added a sixth from a Danny Guthrie corner in the 58th minute, and Ryan Donaldson and Xisco came on before the restart, replacing Smith and Nolan.

Substitute Butt was then forced off holding his wrist, and with Newcastle down to 10 men Darlington pulled a goal back through veteran Windass, who arrived at the Northern Echo Arena in the summer after leaving hometown club Hull City.

Unlike in Dublin, when Nile Ranger came back on for injured substitute LuaLua, having already been replaced, United were forced to play the rest of the game a man down.

However, it didn't stop them adding a seventh goal, with Carroll – who had missed the Rovers game through injury, beating Woodhead at his near post after Jose Enrique broke down the left and crossed for the big striker.

DARLINGTON: Woodhead, Arnison, Lamplough, Plummer, Williams, G Smith, Convery, Lumsdon, Gray, Windass, J Smith. Subs: Starosta, Knight, Miller, Bennett, Riley, Groves, Liversedge, James, Doninger.

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Krul (Forster, 46); R Taylor, Beye (Coloccini, 46), S Taylor, Kadar (Enrique, 46); LuaLua (Guthrie, 46), Barton (Butt, 46), Nolan (Xisco, 59), Smith (Donaldson, 59), Duff (Gutierrez, 46); Ameobi (Carroll, 46).

Goals: Duff 3, Windass 7 pen, 65, Nolan 17, Ameobi 28, 36, Gutierrez 47, S Taylor 58, Carroll 75

Bookings:

Sent off:

Attendance: 6698 (3,455 Newcastle)

[quakersam]

One positive can be taken from that, the Darlo attendance was way up on the other night.
Against Sunderland, we had just 1934 of the 5871 there.
Today, against Newcastle we had 3243 of the 6698 there, an increase of 1309

[Shieldsy]

Wasn't all Darlo fans though was it, there were loads of Newcastle fans in the Darlo end for some reason.

[d5rlo]

Macclesfield got a crowd of 728 to see a full-strength Middlesbrough side today so our attendence was very good.

[wylam_rangers]

Macclesfield got a crowd of 728 to see a full-strength Middlesbrough side today so our attendence was very good.

So the smoggies have got a good away following then??

[Quakerz]

I bet Macclesfield never got thumped 7-2 either.

[DARL]

Wasn't all Darlo fans though was it, there were loads of Newcastle fans in the Darlo end for some reason.

there are alot of newcastle fans living in darlnigton. they would have bought their tickets from the darlington box office, and ended up in the south stand - i was one of them

[DL5]

I bet Macclesfield never got thumped 7-2 either.

It was 0-3

[BishopQuaker]

At least we scored though.

[Bovver Boots]

Wasn't all Darlo fans though was it, there were loads of Newcastle fans in the Darlo end for some reason.

there are alot of newcastle fans living in darlnigton. they would have bought their tickets from the darlington box office, and ended up in the south stand - i was one of them

Plastic geordie, I hate you lot.

[Lawman3]

Where is Darlnigton?

[RUMPLESTILTSKIN]

In an anagram?

[Jimmy]

I bet Macclesfield never got thumped 7-2 either.

I bet Macclesfield didn't have a whole squad playing just their 3rd match together.