Great expectations?
Posted on November 14th, 2010 | 86 Comments |
I’m Mark, and I’m good friends with Mr .org himself, Toonsy! I often go to the games with him. Like Toonsy, I currently live in The Midlands in a dive which is known as Rugby. I bleed black and white and Newcastle United are my life.
Its always been Sunderland or Newcastle in my family. Luckily when I chose my team I had the sense to stay away from the dark and unwashed side and opt for The Toon. Much like our No.9, who has a Sunderland supporting Grandma I think!
Anyway, I’m going to attempt this ‘blogging malarky in the hope that I can match Toonsy’s, Workyticket’s, and the rest of the gang’s good work with this great blog. But enough about me as I’m beginning to make this article sound like a lonely hearts ad…..
As I’m sure most will agree, the lads have made a decent start to the season. They have certainly exceeded many expectations anyway. This evening we sit in a very respectable 8th place in the Premier League table on 18 points. Of course the shock win for the unwashed at Stamford Bridge this afternoon nudged us down another place after sitting in 7th place yesterday.
I read a comment somewhere last night stating that if we had won our two home matches against Blackburn and Fulham respectively, we would have gone up to 3rd yesterday. It got me thinking a bit to be honest. Do the majority of our supporters expect us to be winning every home game? Obviously we must pick up points at home, especially against the so called ‘lesser sides’.
I went to the Blackburn game and I must admit that I had a bit of a gut feeling before kick-off that we’d lose the game. Blackburn are a physical team and are very differcult to play against. I think Big Sam will always be desperate to come out on top against Newcastle which I feel perhaps added extra urgency to the away team. He would have had those lads pumped up for this one.
In all honesty I believe it was urgency that we lacked on the evening. That game came off the back of a wonderful trio of wins – The derby game and tricky away ties at West Ham and Arsenal. The lads looked a little casual at times maybe, which is my only critisism.
The Fulham game was end to end stuff and it could have been a different with a bit of luck or if Mark Schwarzer hadn’t have been in goal for the opposition. He was magnificient on the day, as were Fulham defensively.
It’s easy, sometimes, to forget that we are a newly promoted team. Before a ball was kicked this season many Newcastle fans were in agreement that survival was the only realistic target for the season. Now we sit comfortably above mid table 13 games in and it’s amazing that already were speaking of missed oppertunities, though naturally it’s what we do as football fans.
Of course the table is so tight right now and seemingly one defeat can knock you down the table quite dramatically. I just hope that the expectations aren’t already through the roof for the season and that some fans will not see such a fall down the table as failure. Safety first, remember?
It’s very disapointing to have already lost three arguably winable games at St James’ Park, but the Premier League is a different class to The Championship and funny results do happen. Take Arsenal, title contenders, lost at home to two promoted teams. Then Chelsea going down 3-0 at home to a team that we thrashed 5-1 on our turf.
I am guilty of getting carried away this season at times, but we must ride the rough with the smooth and no matter what get behind this group of lads that have worked so hard to get us back here. Expectation can be a hinderance when it’s set too high. I’m really proud of the boys thus far and will keep offering my undying support. I love how weve proved a lot of the doubters wrong already.
We next face a tough away trip to Bolton’s Reebok Stadium on Saturday. Bolton look like a new team under Owen Coyle and sit 5th in the table currently on 19 points, just one more than us.
I hope we fair better this time round at Bolton. Last time we went there we were on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline. We were poor that day. Though I remember the crowd being great that day, with one long haired Bolton fan trying to give it the biggun from the stands in reponse us singing ‘is it a man or a woman’ at him.
Embarrassed, he seemed to dash for the exit to which he fell down the stairs, much to the amusement of us sat in the away end. Toonsy also met a friend for a life at the Asda near the ground, he was a trolley boy or something but he was odd and took a shine to us. That is one to ask Toonsy about though!
Any team ideas for the game guys? Let’s hope that Kevin Nolan fancies a couple on his first return to The Reebok since leaving for Tyneside.
Thanks for reading……..HWTL!
NUFCBlog Author: MarkToon
MarkToon has written 10 articles on this blog.
An excellent read Mark. Not a bad debut at all. That ASDA bloke was funny.
“What do you think of Kevin Nolan”
I think you’re spitting on me :lol: