English Premier League Monday: West Bromwich Albion Could Go Fourth With Win Over Blackpool

The match was over before it even got started, or so it seemed in the 11th minute. That’s when Pablo Ibañez was shown a straight red card and Blackpool were given a penalty for not denying a clear goal scoring opportunity for not committing a foul. It was an absurd decision by Michael Oliver, and Charlie Adam converted the penalty kick to put the Seasiders up 1-0. West Brom were in serious trouble, but it would get worse.

Another red card would be shown, and this time, Michael Oliver would get the decision right. Gonzalo Jara put in an absurd two footed, studs up, flailing challenge on Luke Varney, giving Oliver no choice but to send him off. In the 29th minute, West Brom were already down a goal and down to nine men.

It’s been a tough afternoon for West Brom, but Youssuf Mulumbu has scored a deserved late goal in the 85th minute near the end of a fantastic individual performance. Despite West Brom’s lack of bodies on the field, Mulumbu has worked hard all match to create scoring opportunities for his team, doing the job of two men.

The opportunity was started on a ball over the top that was well cleared away by Matthew Gilks, despite the presence of West Brom players in his face. Jerome Thomas sent the cleared ball forward again and it eventually reached Mulumbu. He put together a fantastic individual effort, beating his defender with creative dribbling and curling a fantastic shot past Gilks at his far post to bring the deficit back to one goal and the scoreline to 2-1, Blackpool.

After controlling the game for an extended period of time following West Brom’s two sendings off, Blackpool have finally taken advantage of their strength in numbers with a 62nd minute goal to go 2-0 up on West Brom.

Blackpool had a long spell of possession that was capped off by a pacey ball across the face of goal by midfielder Eliot Grandin. Forward Luke Varney was on the same page as Grandin and made a surging run towards the goal mouth, easily tapping his cross into the back of the net, past Scott Carson for Blackpool’s second goal of the night.

Referee Michael Oliver has put himself into the spotlight early in the match, showing a straight red card to West Brom defender Pablo Ibañez and granting Blackpool a penalty kick, which was converted, for Ibañez’s challenge on D.J. Campbell inside the penalty area. Oliver determined that Ibañez denied Campbell a clear goal scoring opportunity, gave the penalty, and sent him off.

Both the penalty kick and the straight red card were controversial, with West Brom’s players appearing to be in a state of disbelief when the decision were given. Replays seem to show that Campbell initiated the contact with Ibañez and that he would have had a fair bit of work to do to to create a clear goal scoring opportunity for himself had he gone past Ibañez. Both the penalty and red card were probably incorrect decisions by Oliver.

As both managers search for the winner, Bolton’s Owen Coyle has elected to put on his 19 year old Spaniard Rodrigo Moreno for Chung-Yong Lee in hopes the youngster can unlock Liverpool’s defense at home.

Darren Bent is obviously unaware of how all of this “historic derby win” business works and has decided to rain on Newcastle’s parade, scoring a garbage goal in the 90th minute. Newcastle had obviously checked out a bit in the closing minutes with a massive lead, allowing Bent to score a nice poacher’s goal.

The goal came off a corner kick that was knocked down by John Mensah, who is lucky to still be on the pitch after a couple of questionable challenges, a little pushing and shoving, and a lot of mouthing off. It looked like Newcastle keeper Tim Krul was going to gather the ball, but Bent came at the ball like a lightning bolt and used his toe to poke a so-called consolation goal into the back of the net that is unlikely to be much consolation at all.

Kevin Nolan completed his hat-trick when a Joey Barton corner found the head of Shola Ameobi who flicked on for a waiting Nolan who headed home to score his third of the day and finish off Sunderland. Newcastle supporters are in football heaven as Sunderland players continue to receive cautions and look to be lacking simple communication as a unit while the goals continue to flow in.

As far as the fifth goal, it was a great set piece that continued to underline Sunderland’s inefficiencies at defending anything that resembles a Newcastle attack. As good, organized and efficient as Newcastle have been, Sunderland have been equally poor as the match enters its final stages.

The Sunderland supporters are starting to file out of St. James’ Park as Newcastle have added yet another goal to their tally. Shola Ameobi now has two goals on the day, three goals on the season, and six for his career in Tyne-Wear derbies. The Magpies supporters are singing “Can we play you every week?” and it’s hard to blame them.

On the 70th minute, Danny Simpson swung a post from the right wing to the far post for Andy Carroll, who thundered a header against the crossbar. That hit off the woodwork left Simon Mignolet and most of the Sunderland defense in no man’s land. Shola Ameobi was surging into the box from deep and made no mistake about thundering the ball into the back of the net.

Former Newcastle player Titus Bramble has been sent off for Sunderland after denying a clear goal scoring opportunity for Andy Carroll, in the opinion of referee Phil Dowd. According to color commentator Steve McManaman, it was a challenge that will have Magpies fans thinking “That’s why we got rid of him.”

The card was shown on the 53rd minute and it was questionable whether or not Carroll was truly denied a clear goal scoring opportunity, as he was somewhere between 20 and 25 yards away from goal and there was one other defender that could have conceivably caught him after he beat Bramble. However, it was a poor challenge and a clear cut yellow card at least, so Dowd can hardly be faulted for the decision.

Newcastle have converted a penalty kick deep into first half stoppage time to expand their lead to three goals.

In the second minute of stoppage time, Nedum Onouha hauled down Jonas Gutierrez in the box, giving Phil Dowd no choice but to grant a penalty to the Magpies. Onouha had already been booked previously and Sunderland are lucky to go into halftime with 11 men. It was a silly, unnecessary challenge and a very easy decision for Dowd.

Captain Kevin Nolan has scored once again to notch his sixth goal of the minute and put Newcastle up 2-0 on the day. Sunderland have been a solid defensive team all season, but their defense looked like a sieve on the second goal and has given the attackers a big job to do.

It took only eight minutes after the equalizer for Newcastle to add their second, this one from open play. The sequence was started by a shot by Jonas from just outside the area that was deflected into the path of Andy Carroll on the right side of the box. He was surprised by where the ball landed and had to hit an improvised scissors kick to get the ball across the face of goal. His ball snaked through the Sunderland defense to a waiting Kevin Nolan, who was completely unmarked. His first touch wasn’t the best, but he had plenty of time and eventually tapped it in past Simon Mignolet.

Newcastle have created the opener in the Tyne-Wear derby after 26 minutes thanks to Kevin Nolan. The attacking midfielder knocked in his fifth goal of the season after an extremely physical opening to the match.

The goal came as a result of a corner kick, which swung out towards a cluster of players at the far post. Shola Ameobi was the man who rose above everyone else, knocking it down into the path of Nolan. The man wearing the armband for the Magpies had his back to goal as the ball bounced up and he hit a classy overhead kick, giving Sunderland keeper Simon Mignolet no chance and putting the ball into the back of the net.

Here at SB Nation Soccer, we’ll be providing updates throughout this lovely Halloween day. Kick-off comes in an hour--until then, check out our preview stream, breaking down all of today’s matches.