Page 198 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)
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to him, he'd had a decent game. We started the half much more positively and for the first time we were taking the game to them but ten minutes in it looked certain that we were going to concede but Pants, who'd still looked like he had a dose of the collywobbles, pulled off a superb close- range save from Lascelles to keep us ahead. The sun was shining and two minutes later when Catts didn't receive a yellow card after the ref called him over, I truly felt that this was going to be our afternoon. We continued to have the better of it but at times we were still too cumbersome in building attacks. Then in the sixty-fourth minute many a fear was soothed when we got our second. We won our first corner of the game and when it came over from the right, M'Vila, I think, fired in a low shot that Billy Jones turned over the line from close range. Jones had been playing well all game and had made some powerful runs down the flank. Newcastle weren't finished and continued to display some classy breaks.
Twenty minutes to go and things were feeling good. Then Johnson went on one of his classic runs towards their box before whacking in a great shot that rebounded off the bar. With eight minutes on the clock, though with a few minutes of stoppage-time certainly to be added, Lens went off and was replaced by Seb. There's something about seeing Seb coming on that gives me considerable reassurance as he's a fighter with not a little skill to back it up. We were guilty of showboating a bit, attempting back-heels when a simple pass would have done, but all was forgiven when we scored the
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