My Newcastle United Player Ratings vs Man City (A)

Player Ratings

Tim Krul (6) - Never looked like stopping either penalty and won't be happy about conceding three. Did make the odd neat save though.

Danny Simpson (6) - A difficult day for him although he did not do much wrong either.

Steven Taylor (7) - Defended bravely and made some excellent challenges in the first half. It became hard for him once we conceded those two quick goals though.

Fabricio Coloccini (6.5) - Like his partner, defended well at times but had a difficult day marking the likes of Balotelli and Aguero.

Ryan Taylor (4) - He's worst performance of the season. Gave away the penalty, caught out for the second goal and allowed Richards far too much space down his flank.

Sammy Ameobi (7) - For someone starting his first game, he was decent today. Made some good runs and won us some corners although his decision making and passing was lacking a bit. That comes with someone so young but an encouraging performance from him none the less.

Danny Guthrie (6) - Struggled to win us possession and although he fought hard, we missed Tiote massively in our midfield. Seemed to lack fitness towards the end for some reason.

Yohan Cabaye (6) - Another who worked hard but failed to provide us with dominance in central midfield. Will hopefully be better next week.

Jonas Gutierrez (5.5) - Hardly got to the chance to attack and struggled to handle the City players down his flank.

Hatem Ben Arfa (7) - Looked good on the ball and showed more glimpses of his undoubted talent. Was unlucky not to score after a superb run when he hit the post and also showed his vision with a ball that found Ba in space from which he should have scored in the first half. Gave away the 2nd penalty with a clumsy challenge but the game was lost by then in my opinion.

Demba Ba (6) - Had a difficult afternoon but he still had chances to had to his goals tally. Missed a great chance in the first half and could have done better with one or two other chances but he fought right until the end and that showed when he was involved in our goal late on.

Substitutions
Peter Lovenkrands (5) - Was fairly anonymous after coming on.

Dan Gosling (7) - Scored his first goal for the club with a late tap in.

James Perch (7) - Never thought I'd say this but Perch did well in the build up to our goal, as it was a deflection off his pass which saw Ba with a chance which was then parried by the keeper and put in by Gosling.

Newcastle United Man of the Match - Steven Taylor