Demba Ba fired Newcastle into third place in the Premier League as the Senegal striker bagged a hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Stoke at the Britannia Stadium on Monday.
Alan Pardew’s side have been the surprise package of the season and this may well have been their most impressive performance to date as Ba condemned Stoke to only their second defeat in their last 14 home league matches.
Ba scored twice in the first half and, although Jonathan Walters reduced the deficit with a second half penalty, the former West Ham forward completed his second hat-trick of the season from the spot to ensure the Magpies maintained their unbeaten start to the campaign.
Photo: AFP
Newcastle are now just one point behind second placed Manchester United and three ahead of fourth placed Chelsea.
While it may be slightly premature to talk of Newcastle as serious contenders for a top-four finish, a few more results like this will put them firmly in the race for the Champions League.
Pardew, who deserves great credit for revitalizing a club seemingly in turmoil after the departures of Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton, suffered a pre-match setback when key midfielder Cheik Tiote was ruled out with a knee injury.
Newcastle hadn’t won a league match at Stoke since 1985, but, even without Tiote, they traveled to the Potteries in confident mood after such an impressive start.
Their upbeat mood was clear to see in a vibrant spell that brought the opening goal in the 12th minute.
It must have been an especially bitter pill for Stoke to swallow as the goal bore all the hallmarks of their own route one style and came from a player who was close to joining them in the close-season before a failed medical scuppered the deal.
Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul launched a huge punt downfield and Leon Best flicked on to Gabriel Obertan, who found himself in space behind left-back Marc Wilson.
Obertan’s cross was perfect for Ba and he rose to head home his sixth league goal in five matches.
Stoke were almost gifted an equalizer when Krul, under no pressure, dropped Andy Wilkinson’s high cross and was relieved to see the ball roll behind and not across his goalline.
Tony Pulis’s team had conceded just one goal at home this season, but the hosts lost defenders Wilson and Ryan Shawcross to -injury before halftime and Newcastle increased their lead in the 40th minute.
Matthew Upson could only help Fabricio Coloccini’s lofted pass on to Best on the right of the penalty area and his miscued shot fell -perfectly for Ba to stab home.
There was little chance of Stoke performing as tamely in the second half and sure enough, they came out with a more aggressive approach after the break.
Robert Huth threatened when he headed over from a Matt Etherington corner, but Newcastle held firm until the 75th minute.
Ba briefly went from hero to villain when referee Mike Dean ruled his shove on Peter Crouch was worthy of a penalty.
Walters smashed in the spot-kick, but Ba was back in Newcastle’s good books six minutes later when Dean awarded a penalty for Huth’s nudge on Best and the Senegal star sent Asmir Begovic the wrong way to seal the win.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier