20110402

Barton: Man of the match
There’s more live football on Sky Sports than ever before, including the Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Clydesdale Bank Premier League, England away Euro 2012 qualifiers and La Liga. With four live Sky Sports channels, as well as Sky Sports News, you’ll never miss a moment on Sky. Click here for more.
Related links
Teams
Players
Also see
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was delighted that Joey Barton did not allow the disappointment of missing out on the club’s captaincy to impact upon his performance against Wolves.
The midfielder delivered a man of the match display in a 4-1 win at St James’ Park, where Kevin Nolan, Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands and Jonas Gutierrez all scored, with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake only giving Wolves a slight revival at 3-1.
But Pardew had feared that Barton, who had been the target of rough provocation in the reverse fixture at Molineux, might have been distracted after being denied the opportunity to lead Newcastle out.
Regular skipper Nolan had been suffering from illness and Pardew told Barton on Friday that he was set to stand in as captain if his team-mate was not fit enough to be involved.
Pardew was therefore delighted that Barton did not sulk when Nolan retained the captaincy, as the Newcastle manager told Sky Sports: “I felt he would be slightly disappointed, because we thought Kevin Nolan was going to miss out today through illness.
Scrap
“I said to Joey, ‘I’m going to give you the armband and lead by example’.
“But when Kev came back I thought he (Barton) might have wished he was captain. But he played like a captain today.”
The victory was only Newcastle’s second in 10 Premier League games and Pardew was pleased to stop a rot, which had put last season’s Championship winners in danger of being dragged into the relegation scrap.
But three points ensured Newcastle moved into the top half of the table and have now collected 39 points to sit seven clear of the drop zone.
Pardew said: “There was a lot of pressure on us today because we could have got sucked into that situation where all the bottom teams are winning.”
‘ );
}
});
$.ajax(
url: “/yourview/comments_json/0,26302,6848750_”+selectedPageNumber+”_20,00.txt”,
cache: true,
dataType: “json”,
success: function(json)
loadingFinished = true;
$(‘#load-comments’).html(”);
processJSONComments(json, selectedPageNumber);
if (typeof _hbPageView != “undefined”)
myPN = hbx.pn + ” – ” + selectedPageNumber;
myMLC = hbx.mlc + “/” + selectedPageNumber;
_hbPageView(myPN, myMLC);
if (typeof SKY_TRACKING != “undefined”)
// section will remain as it is on the page
// contentType will be “article comments” or “match comments”
SKY_TRACKING.contentType = “article comments”;
SKY_TRACKING.pagination = “page ” + selectedPageNumber;
sky.tracking.launch ( SKY_TRACKING );
$(‘#load-comments’).css(‘min-height’, ” );
$(‘#load-comments’).css(‘display’, ” );
$(‘#load-comments’).children(‘.ss-opinion-comment-box-comment’).show();
},
error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus, errorThrown)
loadingFinished = true;
$(‘#load-comments #loading’).remove();
$(‘#load-comments’).children(‘.ss-opinion-comment-box-comment’).show();
});
window.location.hash=’yourviewcomments’;
return false;
});
}
function processJSONComments(json,page)
var perPage = 20;
var beginIndex = (page-1) * perPage;
var createdComments = 0;
var comment;
$(‘.ss-opinion-comment-box ul.pagination li’).removeClass(‘on’);
$(‘.ss-opinion-comment-box ul.pagination’).find(‘li:eq(‘+page+’)’).addClass(‘on’);
$(‘.pag-key span’).html(page);
for(var i in json)
comment = jsoni;
createComment(i, comment);
createdComments++;
updatePagination(page);
}
function processXMLComments(xml,page)
var perPage = 20;
var beginIndex = (page-1) * perPage;
var createdComments = 0;
$(‘.ss-opinion-comment-box ul.pagination li’).removeClass(‘on’);
$(‘.ss-opinion-comment-box ul.pagination’).find(‘li:eq(‘+page+’)’).addClass(‘on’);
$(‘.pag-key span’).html(page);
$(“comment”,xml).each(
function(index,node)
createComment(index, node);
createdComments++;
);
updatePagination(page);
}
function updatePagination(page)
var paginationItems = $(“ul.pagination”);
var totalPages = 0;
var startPage = 1;
if( totalPages ‘ +
startPage + ”;
if( startPage == page )
$(node).addClass(‘on’);
else
$(node).removeAttr(‘class’);
$(node).html(pageHtml);
startPage++;
}
);
}
);
setupCommentPageClickHandlers();
}
function createComment(index, commentNode )
if(commentNode.ownerDocument)
var user = $(“user”,commentNode).text();
var favTeam = $(“favTeam”,commentNode).text();
var comment = $(“body”,commentNode).text();
var dateCreated = $(“dateCreated”,commentNode).text();
var editorComments = $(“editorComments”,commentNode).text();
else
var user = commentNode.user;
var favTeam = commentNode.favTeam;
var comment = commentNode.body;
var dateCreated = commentNode.dateCreated;
var editorComments = commentNode.editorComments;
var nomination = commentNode.ysTitle;
var commentHTML = ”;
$(‘#load-comments’).append(commentHTML);
}
Stuff of champions
Paul Merson says Stoke, not Chelsea, looked like Premier League title chasers following an excellent draw.
Down Wembley Way
Ahead of their big day out at Wembley on Sunday, Brentford’s Gary Alexander chats to Chris Burton.
Tweets of the week
Our new feature continues to bookmark the finest sporting banter possible in 140 characters.
Premier League round-up
Wayne Rooney inspired a Man Utd comeback at West Ham, Chelsea drew with Stoke and Birmingham climbed out of the bottom three.
Grant – We will recover
Avram Grant insists West Ham will recover from the disappointment of their defeat by Manchester United.
Ancelotti won’t give up
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti refused to rule his side out of the title race despite a 1-1 draw at Stoke.

See more here:
Pardew praise for Barton


