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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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.