Tevez makes it two!Newcastle succumbed to a 3-1 defeat at St James’ Park this afternoon, but it wasn’t as straight forward as the scoreline may suggest.
It may well be a cliche in footballing circles, but there was certainly enough about the performance to give me hope despite the defeat.
It’s a strange feeling really, as usually I would be pulling what is left of my hair out after a 3-1 defeat, but I feel strangely mellow after witnessing a performance which saw us have the bulk of possesion and create many more chances than our rich, title-chasing visitors. Another heartening factor was the effort and determination on show from the players today. They didn’t give up, despite being behind for 88 minutes of the game.
Fabricio Coloccini returned to the starting line up in place of the poorly Sol Campbell. Wayne Routledge was recalled to play out wide with Joey Barton pushed into his favoured central midfield role whilst Kevin Nolan effectively took the place of the injured Shola Ameobi meaning that Newcastle lined up in a kind of 4-4-1-1 formation. (more…)
Carroll: Could be the key to survival.The coming months are sure to be full of speculation about transfer targets and new arrivals on Tyneside as Newcastle United prepare for their return to the top flight of English football.
We have already noticed the keyboards and printing presses of various news outlet cranking up their output in the past few days as the clamour to be the one to get the holy grail of all press reporting – the ‘you heard it here first’ exclusive – increases. Of course much of what is reported will be false as the media adopt the ‘scatter gun’ approach in the hope that one of these rumours will come off, but that shouldn’t stop us fans speculating on targets and there has indeed already been some healthy debate and some great players mentioned that could improve the team. People have their own ideas about which areas of the team need strengthening, and there has already been some form of concensus as to which areas are a priority and which ones aren’t. (more…)
