Newcastle crush Villa
08/22/2010 06:55:24 PM
he was not found wanting.
Richard Dunne failed to clear Mike Williamson's header back across goal from a Barton corner and the ball dropped perfectly for the striker to thump a left-foot drive home.
Villa left the field reflecting on a half during which they had enjoyed plenty of possession, but done too little with it, and on a defensive display which verged on the criminally negligent.
Newcastle returned in confident mood, but all the while aware that the visitors still represented a threat, although there was little evidence of that as the game approached the hour mark, prompting Emile Heskey's arrival in place of Albrighton.
Indeed, the Magpies would have been further ahead with 62 minutes gone had Friedel not made a vital save from Wayne Routledge after Carroll and Nolan had combined superbly on halfway to play him in.
The respite was only temporary, however, and when Williamson helped the ball over the top into the penalty area five minutes later, Carroll lashed his second home from close range.
The whistle could not come soon enough for the visitors, but it did so only after Nolan had toe-poked home a fifth and Carroll had completed his hat-trick from substitute Xisco's pass on a remarkable afternoon on Tyneside.