When you've hammered a team for 89 minutes and have created countless chances I don't think it's too crazy to think you may finally get the goal you deserved off a late corner. I don't think anyone expected Blackburn to get such a clean break before we could get people back, maybe we should have anticipated it, but it's not exactly hard to figure out why we had so many guys forward. That and Enrique should have hammered Bentley so that he never got up. That would have saved the goal to be quite honest.
But why not have a chance of gaining all 3? Seems to me that bet would have better, more rewarding, odds. Oh yes, I'm sorry, I forgot my place. You are right, we are Newcastle, and we must play to tie at home...
Yeah little old Blackburn. Pah, the Mighty Toon should be playing to wipe those little teams off the map Unfortunately as good as your team should be with your huge support you're in a relegation battle now, not the safe mid-table of Sam's days, simple as that. You need to make sure you pick up whatever points you can because the teams below you are picking up points now. I don't think you'll get relegated, but you've got to start picking some points up and soon. 3 points clear but with a shite goal difference and Liverpool coming up ... oh shit. Throwing away that point with the schoolboy error of throwing absolutely everyone up front was stupid. Fine if you're a goal down, you might as well lose by 2 as 1, but not when you're struggling and a points there for the taking. And yes Ricky should have brought Bents down, no doubt about it. Better to get the red than give that goal away. Just another sign of the lack of character needed to battle at that end of the table. I don't think Keegan's the man for the job at this end of the table, sorry. The old, "you score 4 we'll score 5" mantra of the 90's Newcastle team doesn't work with the team as it is, you just need to battle to stay up for this season. Can't see why you didn't stick with Sam. Let's face it, you'd love to be where he was with that little team, what're they called ... you know, the ones the Mighty Toon should be wiping off the map. Oh, and what's all this shit about pummeling us for 90 minutes. It was a home performance I agree but not a pummeling. I know what was in the media, but that's the media. I don't recollect feeling like we'd had a pummeling, especially with all the possession and shots we had. Maybe it's just relative to your recent games. I feel a bit sorry for Newcastle to be honest, the fans haven't actually asked for this. If the media didn't make everything out that happens as Newcastle as the news of the century we wouldn't all be on here taking the piss.
I was channel surfing last night and on ESPN Classic they had a game between Newcastle and Leicester City at St James' from 1997. It stirred memories, because it was Newcastle's second dramatic 4-3 game that season (the other being the more famous one at Anfield of course) - but it was entertaining enough in the context of this thread. Phillippe Albert and Darren Peacock at the back - Heskey and Claridge for Leicester made them look like abject amateurs. At the other end, meanwhile, Gerry Parker and Matt Elliott are facing Shearer and Ferdinand. Seems Keegan is still hankering for days like those today, eh? I wonder what happened to Darren Peacock? EDIT: He was forced to retire in 2000 and now lives in Portugal, according to Wikipedia. I wonder if the likes of Darren Peacock write and edit their own Wikipedia pages?
I can see why the Nukes are in such trouble. Their fans don't ask for anything better. A normal person would realize that having NINE MEN forward on a corner kick isn't really better for scoring than having a "mere" eight, but having 2 defenders back is alot better than having 1.
So I guess we should just fold then because we obviously have no clue as to what is going on...stick a fork in it? According to the all absolutely right, correct and sensible logic on display here, you lot cannot be proven wrong. So why should we bother and we should just roll over 'cause thats what we deserve? And i do ask that as a question because thats the only thing I can take away from this mess... Can I have bunch of smarter monkeys manning the keyboards please this lot is broken.
It's just down to preference isn't it? The way Keegan played in the past was admirable I thought, honestly. Entertaining, attacking football. I think the only thing that's being pointed out is that it's not the time for that football at the moment. Again, that's just opinions but I know that I'd rather be battling for ugly points right now with the relegation trapdoor starting to open. Or you can always have the most entertaining relegation season ever. I know which I'd prefer. A point against a top half team is not a shameful thing to get at the moment, as much as some of you think it's beneath you. Next season go for it I agree but at the moment, as huge a club as it is, Newcastle has a shit/underacheiving team. I know it sticks in the throat and you should be looking to beat teams like Blackburn at home ... but facts are facts and you're just struggling, you need to scrap for everything and forget the pride thing. In my opinion
Well, I have to say I thought of this thread when I went up to Anfield today (sad in a vaguely troubling but not really surprising way, I'll readily admit). I haven't been on so much this season, what with nippers and house moving and whatnot, so I was looking forward to this one. Newcastle at Anfield is always worth it. I saw the reverse of this fixture on the telly. I thought Newcastle were shocking that day. Indeed, I think I may have commented on the fact right here, or in a thread very much like it. That was in the death throes of the Allardyce "era". Today, they were worse. I know the aim is to make the team play like it's 1997 all over again, but surely at this stage even the daftest Geordie would recognise the value of being, at the very least, hard to beat. We were awful in the first half and whilst the opening goal was flukey, the other two were like stealing sweets from a baby. That was the worst performance by a visiting team since Besiktas. In the league, since Derby. I honestly can't see how this is going to get turned around. I reckon we should seriously entertain the notion that Newcastle may get relegated this season. They're only just better than Derby and in no way, shape or form better than Reading, Sunderland, Wigan or Birmingham.
It is looking more and more likely. Only 3 points between them and Bolton in 17th, and Bolton and Birmingham in 16th both have a game in hand and far better goal difference. I've love it.
When you can write the sentence "Wigan's draw today is bad news for Team X" about a team, that team is in serious trouble. This joke works just as well with the sentence "Sunderland's loss today was a big help."
Would it be indecently early to start idly speculating here what a Second Division Newcastle would look like? Given, Duff, Martins, Emre, Owen, Smith, N'Zogbia and Milner would be gone, for a start. The entire "defence" would remain, obviously. And they might be able to hang on to Geremi for a season or two. Mind you, Keegan would be in his element. It would probably be a lot more fun than being in the Premiership.
It would be incredibly indecent to discuss their team for next year in such a manner ....... So would you like to see Owen back then? If you could get him cheap. Not sure about Duff, I'd love to see him back but he'd have to be cheap with the risk we'd be taking on all his injuries. But for old time's sake and all that.
Hardly a consideration for Kevin Keegan and/or Geordies. West Ham went down with Joe Cole, Paolo di Canio, Jermaine Defoe, David James and Freddi Kanoute. Even Leeds, after three years of selling anything that wasn't nailed down, still went down with Paul Robinson, Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Dominic Matteo and James Milner. Leeds may be an extreme example, but there's little to distinguish West Ham 2003 from Newcastle 2008. Once you're on a slide, it's very hard to stop it. I actually bought into Newcastle going down on Betfair today. £20 at a really rather generous 4/1.
Well, when it comes down to it three teams get relegated every year. And there is so much talent in the English professional leagues that it's hard to imagine teams failing with it, but when you look at who they are competing with it makes a little more sense.
Hmmm. My humor is apparently a tad too dry. Yeah, I remember that situation. I was mocking the Geordies' pretensions to greatness. But didn't that West Ham team go down with 42 points? Newcastle ain't getting to 40. Won't this mean, though, that you'll have to root against Newcastle every match hoping that you'll win your bet?
Yeh, the "too good to go down" line doesn't have a good historical record. Relegation is about so much more than just talent. It seems too many Newcastle players (and their manager) don't have the stomach for a relegation dogfight. I stil ldon't think they'll go down, but the odds are increasing with every passing week.
I dont think it has anything to do with Keegan. Its Newcastle club as a whole, buying rejects that dont cut it at other clubs i.e. geremi, smith, butt and forcing them to play together its easier said than done. Not to be harsh as they are talented but they aint something to write home about. I thought Newcastle were in real real trouble when they played Liverpool earlier in the season at home and had their first shot at goal at Reynas goal in the closing stages of the match 91st minute I think, by viduka. Watched the whole match and had never seen a team fall from such greaces so darn hard. I feel for them as this is a bad situation to be in, and I want to say that theyll go through but they have suporters that are as hardcore as Man Utd, liverpool and arsenal on intentions to win games. But even they aint saving this black and white ship.
I remember when we went down, with some players who had won the league only a few years earlier. Looking at the individuals (well most of them) we were far too good to go down, but the team as a whole couldn't play. We dragged ourselves out of the bottom and were in about the same position as Newcastle are now, at the same stage. We were thinking, that's it we're safe now, then we took our eye off the ball and teams around us started picking up points. Before I knew it I was looking at the table with a few games to go and it wouldn't sink in that we were effectively stuffed. In fact it didn't really sink in until I turned up at Huddersfield for the first game of the next season! That was a bad day