Newcastle played well in the first half today, and Michael Owen scored a great opportunist headed goal after just 5 minutes and we were 1-0 up at the break.
But then in the last 45 minutes we gave it all away, and seemed to give up the fight, and were well beaten in the end by Aston Villa 4-1.
Michael Owen – gave us a good goal to get going
The Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan spoke after the disappointing result today:
“I had no complaints about the first half at all.†“I said to the players we had built a good platform from which to go on and win a football match.–Instead of going a goal down like we have been doing in most recent games, we went in front and handled everything Villa threw at us.â€
“I impressed at half-time on the players the importance of the opening 15 minutes of the second half and picking up where we left off.†“We were unlucky with Villa’s first goal which took a deflection and even then Shay Given would have saved it if he hadn’t slipped and pulled his groin.â€
“You want to see how the players were going to respond after that and that was the most disappointing aspect of today.†“Before you knew it, we were getting bullied, especially by Carew and Harewood, and they were basically doing what they wanted to do with us at times.â€
“That was the disappointing aspect and that is what I told the players. There were still some very good performances but who cares when you get beat 4-1.â€
“We got the lead today and still couldn’t go on and win so you sort of run out of excuses in that department.†“When you look at the second half the positives are forgotten because of the negatives and we are very fragile at the moment.”
The big disappointment is that players did not respond at all to giving away two goals in the first 6 minutes of the second half. And time is running out for some of these players at Newcastle, who may not be good enough to give the performances necessary for the the Premier League.
We’re not sure where we go from here, other than to acknowledge we have some kind of crisis building at the club on the playing side, and then ensure we can escape the drop to live to fight another day in the Premier League.
We really don’t want to hear again from the players being devastated after the game and the way they are going to fight like crazy against Manchester United for a result and all that cr*p.
They need start doing their talking on the field – that’s why they get paid huge ridiculous wages – to produce on the field – not to be politicians, and say what we want to hear.
And we have to hope on the field, it’s not going to be the whimper we heard in the second half this afternoon. 🙁
We need our players to give everything they have, and for our supporters to get behind the lads big time – for the good of this football club.
But on this performance today we need more than 4 good players in the summer, that’s an absolute certainty.
As we’ve said before, it’s sometimes tough being a Newcastle supporter, when the team gives us 45 minutes like they played in the second half today. But we just have to keep believing we can pull out of this.
In the summer we must bring in some good players, who are guaranteed to be able to perform in the Premier league, which is so much better now than the European leagues.
Comments welcome – but please keep the language decent for our young supporters on this site – thanks.
66 comments so far
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:53 AM
Comment #41Ed i have seen from the last few matches that your analysis of each match is quite poor and you often just repeat what others on here say. DO you watch all of the matches ed? One minute your praising cacapa, next minute your blaming him for our whole defences short comings. sort it out ed
still a great blog though 😉
Mart
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:57 AM
Comment #42As frustrated as we all are, booing the team you are supposedly there to support, does nothing but undermine the confidence (if we have any left) of the team and can only make things even worse, if you do that during a game. It happened during the appalling home defeat to Liverpool, starting with the constant booing of Gerard, one of the best players in the country whether you like it or not , and did nothing but galvanise him into an even better performance. Then when some so called ‘fans’ starting booing us, again it demoralised us further and lifted Liverpool to greater heights.
You only have to look at the support we gave the team against Arsenal at home to see what affect the fans can have on the game.
Yes the team should play their part but I believe we’re all in this together and, say what you like at full time, but if you boo the team during the game you only let yourself down and give another excuse for the press to slag us off.
The fact is we’re in a mess and there is no easy way out. The priority now is to stay up and hope things improve following a summer of re-building. Even if the team lets us down let’s at least stand up and say we supported them to the end and tried to do OUR bit.
I understand how people feel when we are playing badly and it drives me round the bend as much as anyone , but in my opinion anyone who goes to the game with the intention of booing their own players/team is not a true Newcastle fan and should not be there. I suggest you stay at home in future or go to the dark side where you belong.
tommyinaustralia
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:12 AM
Comment #43omg i couldnt handle watching this game, butt, smith and carr are really bad and offer nothing.
i wish he played enrique at lb, faye and emre in the middle and dukes or carrol up front
scottyt
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:20 AM
Comment #44well all i can say is that i was at the match today after getting up at 5am and paying £60 for ticket and i thought our support was brilliant as always away from home .. constantly supportive, loud and just overall a great atmosphere
first half i was so pleased i thought to myself we’re playing quite well here but always you know in the back of your head that we wont keep a clean sheet with the defense we have.
second half what can i say gutted we just collapsed as usual in the second half, 6 goals against man u, 3 vs arsenal, 4 vs villa wtf happens at half time?
of course as usual the shitty villa fans only start singing when they start winning whilst at 3-1 4-1 down our fans are singing away supporting a team which at the moment to be fair is absolutely shite and dont deserve our great suppprt .. obviously they need it and wen we support the team like we did today we deserve so much more
stephen carr please som1 release him or somthing along with joey barton was crap 2day and smith did nowt
£60 at 5am to watch this shite .. but as the song goes ‘hello hello we are the goerdie boys, hello hello we are the geordie boys, wer gonna win fk all agen wer gonna win fk all, but we still follow united!!!!’ and we will becoz thats just the way geordies are, end of.
Nicky Butt is crap!
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:23 AM
Comment #45its my birthday today and the best present would be for my team to play to an acceptable standard!
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:28 AM
Comment #46the fact that villa were booed off after being 1-0 down to us at half time really does put it into perspective doesn’t it, villa fans expected 3 points today as if it were fulham, derby or wigan. People used to say we underperform, but now people just say we are s**t. When one of the worst premiership teams in history has its fans singing ‘can we play you everyweek’ it is clear that we are currently a pitiful side. Half of Derby’s points were accumulated at our expense, we are the only team to NOT beat them i think. It seems players and teams use us to set their records and boost their confidence e.g. ronaldo and carew’s first premiership hat-trick, derby’s first win etc
scottyt
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:39 AM
Comment #47well basically we have become a very poor side probably coming from souness’ reign but more recently allardyce the signings just havnt been good enough .. weve had luque boumsong cacapa barton smith babayaro onyewu and as a few of us today were saying who would you keep out of our current team? .. we came up with nzogbia milner given harper nd taylor, you could add maybe emre and beye a spose but we need a complete man city like overhaul in the summer desperately .. that is if we stay up of course
Yorkie Dave
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:34 AM
Comment #48out of our squad i would keep
Given, Harper, Faye, Beye, Taylor, Enrique, Milner, N’Zogbia, Duff, Owen, Martins, Carroll, Lua Lua and our youth and thats it.
CRAP performance, sorry thats not strong enough but i dont want to offend anyone reading. The worst ive seen since urm last week…..
We have missed out big time over the years for signings, Matthew Upson, Cristiano Ronaldo(we got Hugo Viana instead, some1 told our scout he was better and yes we had the choice!!!) Rooney wasnt a real effort before you think bout him FFS just put a bid in so sacking Bobby wouldnt seem so bad another big mistake.
selling class aswell Jenas to start the ball rolling, Ferdinand ginola beardsley god its going back abit but these players should of been with us till they retired and taught the youth something, christ even bellamy was a mistake! i met the guy on hols and said that he wished he could of stayed but was given the choice of go or play reserve team footie for rest of his contract! (ask yourselves what you wouldve done in his place!!) we lost out on Carrick!!!!! how could they not see he was a good player!!! HOW??!?!?!?!? WHY?!?!?! Basically we are not a good team we have a squad fit for a relegation battle we couldnt expect anymore from them. Smith is the biggest joke i have seen since he left leeds…..and scottyt you are right we need a complete overhaul in summer with regards to playing staff. I dont care how much money it costs GIVE US A TEAM TO BE PROUD OF!!!!!
Please tell me where do we turn to next????? He has to (IF FIT) play FAYE ENRIQUE MARTINS EMRE please o please o please……
Cape Toon
Feb 10, 2008 at 6:53 AM
Comment #49I think KK should play Faye and Emre in midfield. Enrique at LB (give the boy some game time to show us what he has … I mean 6 mil ffs!).
Give Smith & Duke no more than 30/40 mins any game they might play.
Martins and Owen up front with either open to sub depending on form during game.
Duff NZog and Milner to battle for the 2 wide positions. Lua Lua on the bench to get some more game time and an opportunity to challenge for a wide position too.
All of the above obviously to hold things down until the end of the season when we hopefully can get some quality in.
Anyhoo – those are the thoughts of an ardent TOON supporter over 10 000 kms away.
Love the site, Ed … and the comments by fellow supporters … well most comments 😉
scotty
Feb 10, 2008 at 7:25 AM
Comment #50the most worrying thing about all this is that SA would have picked exactly the same team!!!
I have stood by Smith but i have to admit defeat and say he is just not good enough for the premierleague. On numerous occasions yesterday, he received the ball with his back towards goal with loads of space around him and not once did he turn around with it and use it. I would now put Smith after Ameobi and Carrol.
As for Carr……… Enrique has done nowt wrong, he is young but he looks solid and looks to be our best player for that position so why is he dropped? where is the method for this madness?
Cacapa, As good as he once was is now no good for this leaque. If we were playing in europe then i’d probably play him but it is clear to see that he aint tall enough, fast enough or strong enough to be a CD in this league (see Benjani).
Butt is past his best and has been before we signed him. Although he has been at times our best player – it just goes to show the plight of our team. He too is slow leading to the midfield being overan and non existant at times and he is also foul prone.
There are other players i could mention but the ones i’ve listed here need omitting from the team NOW!
wags
Feb 10, 2008 at 8:23 AM
Comment #51The hole left side of newcastle looked crap and the ball seemed to go that side all time duffs movment was labored never realy did anuf with ball car well every time he got the ball it turned over that gos for butt as well i would have taken him of not barton every time butt got the ball he gave it strate back its allright being hard at the ball but whats the point if he just gives it away cacapa looked out of it all day why if faye was fit u would put cacaper in. Owen wants to get goals but hes not going to get them playing at the other end of the ground he seems toget cought way out of position on the counter attack which means there no one for milner to get the ball to. i think keegan needs to go with the younger players like enriquie and well emre on the left but moveve emre to the center and put butt aon the bench and put n’zog on the left faye for cacapa and play martins and owen up front and try to play the ball more to the front of them to use martins speed maybe use carrol hes tall and would be good for martins to play of would like to see more of lua lua liked what i have seen when he has had a run. I live i oz and have to get up in the middle of the night to watch these games and the last thing i want to see is half a side has beens ( cacapa carr butt duff smith) that cant keep up with it any more other than milners runs the side still has the same look and shape as some of alladices sides no real flow just slow and ruff what did we have 3 shots on goal and villa had 15 thers just no real service and speed from midfield by the time they get there ass into gear the opp side has got back and there is no room to pass
sparetheman
Feb 10, 2008 at 8:28 AM
Comment #52“I understand how people feel when we are playing badly and it drives me round the bend as much as anyone , but in my opinion anyone who goes to the game with the intention of booing their own players/team is not a true Newcastle fan and should not be there. I suggest you stay at home in future or go to the dark side where you belong.”
Just because I suggested booing Smith and Butt doesn’t mean I’m not a “true” Newcastle fan, whatever that means. Not ONCE have I even thought of booing the team before and I hate the booing culture but I think this is a different set of circumstances.
We’ve had to put up with players we don’t want in our team all season with suitable replacements on the bench. Keegan, despite his claims, clearly doesn’t know what the Toon fans want. My understanding is most fans want Butt and Smith out. What harm will booing do in a game against Man Utd? Once they go 3 up, we have the ideal opportunity to get our feelings across on who we like and don’t like. It won’t damage our nonexistent chances of winning the game and the players confidence can’t get any worse than it is. I’d be cheering whenever the likes of N’Zog, Owen, Emre, Viduka touch the ball anyway.
Ryan Syahril
Feb 10, 2008 at 8:43 AM
Comment #53Dear King Kev.. (1) If Faye played last night, I believe “Before you knew it, we were getting bullied, especially by Carew and Harewood” you won’t have to say those words. (2) Please sent Smith, Carr and Barton to take care of your ‘football circus’! (3) Team for the next game:
———- Viduka / Owen ————
——- Duff—– Emre ——- Milner—
—————– Geremi —————–
— Enrique — Faye– Taylor– Beye—-
—————– Harper—————–
Hammy
Feb 10, 2008 at 9:27 AM
Comment #54At 4-1 down I was praying that Smith and Barton would seek out Villa’s smallest player and chin him out of frustration, hence picking up a lifetime ban from football……..alas not..
Murph
Feb 10, 2008 at 9:47 AM
Comment #55Given – looks like he is getting over the hill
Beye – excellent but getting on (29/30?)
Carr – over the hill
Butt – over the hill (and have to agree with Leo here, he is simply awful, he cant pass a ball 5 yards. The centre midfielders in my 6th form team could do a better job!)
Barton – over the hill
Duff – over the hill
Owen – yes lack of service but does not look anything near his best
Viduka – over the hill
Smith – simply awful
Geremi – over the hill
Getting the picture? When do you ever see Man U/Arsenal buying 30 year olds and trying to get performances out of them?
It’s ridiculous. Come on Newcastle !
UTD111
Feb 10, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Comment #56Do these toys belong to anyone?? I found them outside your prams LOL
Ed Harrison
Feb 10, 2008 at 9:59 AM
Comment #57Dragoner – yes I watch the matches.
On Cacapa think I’m changing my mind – we did say in what piece we cannot make up our minds about him – sometimes he looks great and then he gets tooe easily shoved off the ball.
Think we have to play Faye at center back.
UTD111
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Comment #58God bless ‘im you’ve got to love Mr “not my fault” Allardyce LOL
Sam Allardyce has claimed that rather than the Newcastle job being too big for him, he was too big for it.
With the results under his successor Kevin Keegan so far making relegation an increasing possibility, has led many to question the timing of Allardyce’s departure, not least ‘Big Sam’ himself.
“When you get sacked, reflection is a difficult scenario,” Allardyce told The People. “The one thing you have to evaluate first and foremost is how much of it was your fault.
“I think you can accept it a lot more if you can come to terms with the fact that a good percentage of it was your fault – but that doesn’t apply to me at Newcastle.
“The usual rubbish that goes when someone like me is sacked from a club like Newcastle is that that job was too big for me. That’s just not true.
“If I’m honest, the reverse is probably true. Newcastle probably wasn’t big enough for me – it didn’t live up to my ambitions in the short time that I was there. And because it didn’t do that, the club missed a chance to realise its own ambitions.
“The more I analyse it, the more I come to the conclusion that it was never about me or results and we have seen that with the appointment on Dennis Wise and various others.
“It was about things they wanted to put in place.”
UTD111
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Comment #59The man who got us those great results against Derby reckons its not his fault – chokin on me sausage roll here!!!!
UTD111
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Comment #60And just to cheer you up further……….
Sam Allardyce had to beat a hasty retreat from the £1.8million luxury home near Durham that he was renting when he was sacked by Newcastle last month.
But so hasty that he left a precious memento behind? The house is back up for sale, and the local estate agent website is showing a picture of a study with… a SUNDERLAND shirt hanging on the wall! Newcastle fans never took to Allardyce partly because of his playing and coaching connections with the Wearsiders.
Alas, the conspiracy theorists who fear Sam may have been a Makem plant, will be disappointed to learn the red and white shirt shirt belongs to the current owner of the house.
Gooderz
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Comment #61Of course it’s not Allardyce’s fault. He didn’t buy poor players to then play out of position along with the rest of the team in tactics that came from ‘strange far-out places’ like he’s been smoking something he shouldn’t. His side never gave up the ghost going forward, and nor did they ever lose their confidence. Allardyce also dumped the talentless bums Dyer and Solano, and signed extremely creative players in Smith and Barton.
It’s a wonder why we’re in our current situation, as we should clearly be topping the table.
Allardyce, like all failed managers and SMBs, should learn to keep quiet. Just wait until Keegan is signing the sort of players Allardyce could easily have signed if he had wanted too.
CRAIGG
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:21 AM
Comment #62This is just like a conversation i had last night with Black and white blood, Utd111 and ronaldeano armchair fans slamming keegan just f**k off!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hes had five games with sams shit brigade!!!
CRAIGG
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Comment #63Black and white blood, Utd111 and ronaldeano arent armchair fans i meant we were talking about certain other people who come on to this blog
UTD111
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Comment #64Thanks Craigg – I knew what you meant LOL wish I’d gone to bed instead of stayin up markin Michael’s english essays :o))
CRAIGG
Feb 10, 2008 at 10:35 AM
Comment #65This should be our side for the rest of the season (barring injury) in my opinion i know lots will disagree but
Given
Beye Taylor Faye Enrique
Milner Barton Emre N’Zogbia
Owen Martins
Subs:- Harper, Ramage, Duff, Lua Lua, Viduka
UTD111
Feb 10, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Comment #66Think the only tinkering I’d do with that side is Harper in goal……..