Spurned Chances

Again Newcastle leave empty handed after putting in a decent second half performance at spurs on Sunday. many individual errors and little penetration made for a shocking display in the first half and many fans becoming very frustrated with the lack of basic ability notably by two of our hardest working players. Looks like they just had an off day, but off days are not something we can afford. It now looks like we will have to get something at Liverpool or villa to stay up as we can not assume (being Newcastle utd fans) we will win our remaining games at home. The second half saw the Toon Army calling for Obafemi to come on, as soon as he did things changed, spurs were immediately on the back foot and the two changes Viduka & Martins for Carrol & Nolan almost paid off when martins broke but his shot was off target, a goal was disallowed for handball but you could see and feel Martins enthusiasm like a young kid who is trying to get his ball back from his older brother. It almost came from about 6yards out Martins got on the end of a ball but sadly for us he smashed it over the bar then went down holding his groin, at that moment I thought he was going to be out for the season as speculation had it he was carrying a groin injury. The Toon Army had sensed something coming as Viduka was holding the ball up well and Martins pace was causing major problems for spurs who had chances at our end as gaps opened up at the back, lucky for us spurs are not a great team blessed with talent or we could have been embarrassed. The Toon Army however stuck with them and it almost paid off but a couple of things did come from the game, the attack formation that King Kev adopted late last season was used to great effect in the second half and one unnamed player finally has been dropped. We now need to Attack Attack Attack Attack Attack as we sang on Sunday, the first time since KK left. keep up the fight until the fat lady sings, we can do it and we will do it, but we need the Toon army to keep with them. Its got to be huge pressure on the lads and its never easy to play under them circumstances.Dont make it any harder for them and stick with them till the finall whistle. With a little luck we will get out of this ditch and play top flight football next season.

Every body now

Stoke proved to be a tough match for Newcastle on Saturday but a goal from local lad carrol got us a well earned point at the Britannia stadium.
I questioned Shearer's choice of strikers at the begining of this match as Ameobi started the game and he proved to be a big disappointment once again by failing to defend corners, his man lost him once before the goal came.
The actual goal was again Ameobi getting lost and ball watching while ex mag put the ball in the back of the net. I would have hauled the lad off at half time and threw Andy Carrol on. In the 68th min that's what happened and we ended the day with another local hero.
Can we go to Whiter hart lane on Sunday and expect a performance like last year and the year before? We all surely hope so, as both games proved to be two of the best games I've been to over the last few years. Harry has turned the fortunes of his spurs side since taking over and a win for them will put them into the comfort of mid table survival ready for another long hard slog for next season. We now need to pick up points at places we are not expected to before our three home games against Pompey, Fulham and the Smoggies. The question is can we do it?
Well Liverpool are not going to give up anything as they pursue the league title so our only hope is this game its going to put immense pressure on the lads on and off the pitch but we must all stay strong and positive.
If we believe we can stay up we can and will but if we feel we have no hope then why bother trying, ask yourself do you want to see Newcastle United in the premier league next season.
If yes then give everything especially if your going to the game.
Back at st Jame's we must create an atmosphere like stoke we have one of the largest stadium's in the country but consistently we are not as loud as stoke fans. We are supposed to be the best fans in the country well out of 53,000 people only a fraction are passionate enough to sing and really get behind the team and create an difficult place for opposing players to ply there trade.
"Sing your hearts out for the lads"
photo source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk

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

Keep us Up

Lets hope Micheal Owen can at least do one thing for Newcastle United - keep us up. To be honest we need his goals at the moment and if he can get a couple tomorrow and win the game for us he may yet be remembered kindly on Tyneside when he does leave next season. Nicky Butt could make his return and we need him badly as Smith showed he had not competed at the top level for months by losing the ball and being off the pace somewhat. Who knows what will happen tomorrow but wherever we Geordies are there is one thing that's certain, we will all be praying for a win. After the Man Utd game people may think we will win this one but we know that's not the case as I have said before we need to dig deep again and play this game like our life depends on it. It does in a manner of speaking. After the Hull match we have Arsenal then Chelsea at home before we travel to Stoke. A must win game then and at least 1 point against Arsenal, maybe nothing against Chelsea. Shit, when you start looking at the fixtures it doesn't look good. We have 28 points and these games to play...... Arsenal-h Chelsea-h Stoke -a Spurs-a Pompey-h Liverpool-a smoggies-h Fulham-h Villa-a