Keep The Faith

Defeat to Fulham in Newcastle on Saturday left us hanging on to our premiership survival with an away trip to Villa to come. A day of bad decisions from referee Howard Webb left us licking our wounds once again and hands the initiative to Hull and Sunderland who are the only clubs that have not secured survival outside the bottom three. The decision to send Bassong off was one you could not complain about but I thought the ref blew for the trip not the grappling, was the trip accidental? Mark Viduka's goal was a cracker, Schwarzer was well beaten not fouled as suggested by Howard webb. The goal scored by Fulham was clear offside but again the ref and his assistants seeing things differently to 50,000 Geordies. So what do we do from here? An away trip to Villa Park on Sunday is no easy task, they are now one point behind Everton who sit in the 5th spot. So they will be looking for a win against us as Everton travel to Fulham. We seriously need a win against villa a draw could be enough but it all really depends on what Hull & Sunderland can achieve. West Brom have just been defeated 0-2 to Liverpool and have been relegated. Sunderland have a home tie against Chelsea and Hull have a home tie v Manchester Utd, both Man U and Chelsea have big cup games to worry about and may rest influential players for the final games, hopefully they will do us justice and play a strong team but knowing our luck who know's what will happen. One thing is sure, the Geordie nation have got to pray we win and other results go for us. Don't give up hope, keep believing as I've said before we will not go down but its not going to be pretty.

United Again

Newcastle didn't let us down on a night of high tension for the north east. Widely predicted to go down, both teams put on a show that didn't fail to entertain the neutral. However to a Middlesbrough or Newcastle fan, it was indeed a painful game to watch for most of the time. Some big performances from some big players won the game on the night but it could have gone either way. I feel we were the worthy winners in the end. The bookies have now slashed the odds for us to go down as Hull City replaced us in the drop zone with many predicting they will go down along with Middlesbrough and West Brom. Nothing is set in stone yet with only two games to go and with the opposition still vying for the league title or a European place, no team down the wrong end can be assured of an easy game. While the future of Newcastle is now held in our own hands, we must be united again as before to create an atmosphere like that against Pompey and Middlesbrough. St James' park full and boiling over with passion must be a daunting place to go for even top professional players, so to create an atmosphere against Fulham could go along way to guaranteeing our premier status for next year. It's going to be tough but I believe we will do it with the players we have. On the night we saw some football that was a little desperate at times, lots of luck, hesitation, plenty of sloppy passing and some tired legs. At least we saw spirit and endeavour from every single Newcastle player and after going one down after 3 Mins we needed it. Fortunately Newcastle got an early equaliser and pushed hard until we got the next two. The substitutions were good as Gutierrez looked tired as he was being knocked off the ball too easily. I think everyone wanted Obafemi on the pitch but not at the expense of Michael Owen as he put in a good shift, but the change proved to be pivotal as Martins fired us into ecstasy. St James' went mad as Martins leapt on Shearer who was as animated as the rest of his fellow Geordies. Peter Lovenkrands, a lucky player in my eyes after his goal against Manchester Utd, got the final goal which put the game beyond doubt and enabled the Toon army all over the world to actually sit back, smile and enjoy 5 minutes of football. What a game, what a night but the hard work has just begun. Howay the lads. pic

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Time To Pray

Well it's been two games now since I last wrote. After the disappointment of the Portsmouth game and knowing we were to travel to Liverpool, I felt there was nothing much I could say that hadn't already been said.
Joey Barton's antics at Liverpool were not what we needed in a relegation battle more like cool heads and lots of passion. I have always stood up for JB but that was a silly challenge and it didn't help on the day. However what followed in the dressing room at Anfield will, I believe, help muster some courage from our weary footballers. Frustrations were aired and negative feeling set loose and left at Anfield, well hopefully they were. If we can now go into the Boro game and get an early goal it could set us on our way.
Fulham have always proved a challenge to Newcastle Utd so we must win our next home game and of course hope Blackburn, Hull and the Mackems get beat. that happens and it's all in our hands.
We will travel to Villa Park on the last game of the season needing something I imagine and I believe we can and will do it; I really think we can go to Villa and win.
We went one nil up last year in the glorious sunshine but that day Villa put 4 past us after we went ahead and we lost 4-1.
The remaining fixtures are there for the taking and once again we ,the Toon Army, have got to be right behind the players and make St James's a cauldron.

Stoke City

So 0 points taken from Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea in our last games at st james and staring relegation in the face. We come up against Stoke City on saturday hoping again for a good performance and 3 points. If there was ever a time we needed 3 points since keegan joined as manager the first time its certainly now. Stoke have an impressive home record with only 3 defeats all season so we will have to be at our best. Shearer has come in now to save us from the drop and with a decent performance against chelsea we need to pick up a little against the smaller clubs as we looked a little tired on Saturday in the second half. Liverpool and Aston Villa now provide the most difficult fixtures on paper left this season and while West Brom and the Smoggies look to be doomed sunderland are looking increasingly likely to go down with difficult games against Chelsea, Everton and Man Utd to play and Hull who have been loosing games for a while now and only picking up draws here and there have a difficult task of Man Utd, Villa and Liverpool. So 3 point on saturday can really lift the spirits and give confidence to the players.
The doom mongers are all at us because we are a big club and they want us to go down but they have all been saying for years now we are not a big club and we dont have the best fans, well i hope to prove them all wrong by staying up first and then we will see.
so my prediction has now changed and i think we will finish above West Brom, Smoggies, Mackems and Hull yes i think the Mackems and the Smoggies are down with West Brom.
Lets hope the appointment of Alan Shearer will pay off and silence the critics again and then we can look forward to premiership football next season.

Arsenal (Home)

5:30 Saturday afternoon and the toon army will be either at st Jame's park or watching setanta sports. Newcastle will have Nolan, Guthrie and Habib Beye back in contention after injury and suspension. However Barton, viduka, xisco and nacho Gonzalez are still out. Arsenal beat hull 2-1 in the FA cup tie at the emirates stadium on tuesday without goalkeeper Alumina. The stopper for them in that game was Fabianski but is unknown if he was in due to injury. Lets hope we can get beye and nolan on the pitch as they are badly needed for this game. We have done well against Arsenal at st James' park in recent years and it would go a long way if we could at least get a point. Scuppering Arsenals plans for a top two finish and giving arsene whinger something to complain about would be very satisfying although the most important thing on sat is to go out with a positive attacking attitude. We could slip into 18, as the Smoggies face Stoke if either win and Portsmouth win at home to everton then we will. However a win would take us to 14 if Blackburn and the Mackems loose. So on Saturday were really looking at wins for Everton against Portsmouth, West Ham v Blackburn, Man U v Fulham, Chelsea v Spurs, Wigan v Hull, Man city v Mackems and west brom v Bolton and a draw for the Smoggies. Fingers crossed for tomorrow then that we end the day out the Relegation zone and sit on 30 points with 8 games to go. We can do it and i feel we will stay up but it's going to be very tight, you can see my prediction for the end of season table below. Howay the lads

Playing with pride

Newcastle United never cease to amaze. Just when we think we will get a good thrashing, the depleted team put in an inspired effort and feel unlucky to come away with nothing against the league leaders. The fact that Smith has not played for a very long time, Oba out for weeks and players played out of position, says a great deal about the team and their ability. However as we have said before we need to build on this, its no good putting in a performance like that then go to Hull and roll over. We all know what that's like as it happens far to often.
Full credit goes to the caretaker and his assistant for the Manchester Utd game but we still need to get someone in before the end of the season and I believe Joe isn't the man.
Joe has done his best and obviously loves the game but he should quit football or at least take a lower pressure job. The Newcastle job comes with too much baggage but hopefully one day we will have our success.
Maybe Lee Clark will be ready for the job in a couple of years. A Geordie at the helm makes a big difference at St James' Park

Ashley Out

After the defeat to Bolton on Saturday, we are really in the shit. After all these years why is Shola Ameobi still playing for Newcastle United? If anyone can answer this please tell me. He tries his best but unfortunately it’s just not good enough. We had Smith on the bench itching to get on, Viduka as well, but what I would like to see is one of the young lads given a chance. How many has Shola had and how many more will he get?
Relegation is now in sight. We have difficult games to play and no manager. Mike Ashley continues at the helm of Newcastle United but for how long?
If we go down will Ashley sell up? If we stay up will he spend? Will he get a new manager or will he only spend £5m like the MD says?.
After last season I thought it could not get worse but Kevin Keegan took charge and things started to look good. A 1-1 draw at Old Trafford kicked off the season and was a good result but we now face Manchester United at home with only 11 games to go and it’s very worrying, - it could be very embarrassing.
After the Man Utd we have home games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Pompey, Borough and Fulham: 3 of the top five and two clubs fighting relegation. The away fixtures are at Hull, Stoke , Spurs, Liverpool and Villa - yes, two top four teams and the rest fighting the drop .We need a manager and quick because the two in charge now don’t look like keeping us up. Someone has to go down and I really hope it’s