Magpies Cruise Past Scunny: Newcastle 3-0 Scunthorpe (Fan Report)

Newcastle continued their quest for promotion with another routine victory over a Scunthorpe side that looked seriously out of place on the SJP pitch. The Iron players stood and watched as Peter Lovenkrands struck his 14th goal of the season and Andy Carroll helped himself to a brace as the Geordies eased their way to victory.

Chris Hughton’s men dominated proceedings from the first whistle and must have thought they had came to a shooting practice session instead of a game, the Magpies had 16 attempts on target during the game.

The scoring started early, with Andy Carroll bagging his 13th of the season when he converted Danny Guthrie’s corner with a trademark bullet header that nearly broke the net. This was just ten minutes into the game and Scunny ‘keeper Joe Murphy must have had that sinking feeling. Just minutes later the ball was past him again when Kevin Nolan scored but his header was ruled out for offside.

The ‘keepers nightmare wasn’t showing any signs of getting any better when Murphy dropped a cross from Jose Enrique but was let off the hook as Lovenkrands smacked the ball off the crossbar. Murphy did redeem himself from the rebound though, as he denied Carroll well.

With 22 minutes on the clock, the match was effectively put past Scunthorpe when the returning Wayne Routledge slid a defence-splitting pass through the Iron defence and Lovenkrands was there to finish nicely.

Numerous other chances for the league leaders came and went, with Coloccini having a goalbound effort cleared before crossing the line and Murphy blocked a Lovenkrands shot well. However Newcastle had to wait until 10 minutes after the break to get their third, when Guthrie and Carroll combined again to good effect. The former Liverpool midfielder sent a great ball over the defence and Carroll latched onto it and clipped a perfect chip over the advancing Murphy to put the game well beyond the Iron with 35 minutes still remaining.

There was time for Gutierrez to score what would have been his third goal of the season but his effort was again ruled out for offside, denying the Geordies the chance to see his Spiderman mask again. Carroll was denied a hat-trick when Chris Hughton gave Leon Best the chance to score on St. Patrick’s Day but the Irish international never had a chance to test the keeper.

The win moves Newcastle four points clear of West Brom in second place and 12 clear of third-placed Nottingham Forest. Now there are only ten games to go before the Magpies return to where they belong.

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