Kevin Nolan’s glorious return as skipper was assured the moment that Winston Reid picked up an injury playing for New Zealand. Without ‘Nobby’ the side lead by Mark Noble and joined in the engine-room by fellow academy graduates James Tomkins and Jack Collison had dug out some simply amazing results; mostly with ten men.
With Nolan’s impending return Sam had a tough call…whether or not to disrupt the midfield marshalled so well by Noble by recalling Nolan; or stick with the winning formula he’d stumbled upon. Perhaps to his relief the decision was taken away from him thanks to the aforementioned Reid’s injury. It resulted in Tomkins slotting back into the back four which freed up a space in midfield for Nolan’s return; the result was yet another away win as we attempt to make our way back to the Promised Land at the first time of asking.
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Nolan’s finish against Cardiff was pure quality; he’s not going to be the all-conquering colossal that skippered Newcastle’s triumphant Championship assault, but he will still pop up with vital goals to swing games in our favour: Brighton away, Derby at home and now Cardiff away classic examples of this.
Nolan’s experience will be vital as we venture into the final furlong of this marathon. He’s done it all before with Newcastle; as the pressure cranks up in the last ten games just having someone within our ranks who can produce a moment of quality to swing tight games in our favour could make all the difference.
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The hardest part of this season will be getting over the line; in the Championship virtually every team is fighting for something: avoiding relegation, chasing down a play-off spot or going for automatics; the games are going to be tight and that little bit of extra quality we have in the likes of Nolan could well prove definitive as the season reaches its climax.
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