Kevin Keegan has truthfully admitted to the BBC that Newcastle’s poor form could see the club dragged into the relegation dogfight, which is the last thing we wanted this season.
Kevin Keegan – relegation fight looming?
Yesterday’s game against Aston Villa started out well and Newcastle were deservedly 1-0 ahead at half time after a good goal form Michael Owen after 5 minutes.
But they literally collapsed in the second letting in another 4 goals and dropping our goal difference in the league to a worst ever -18.
Kevin Keegan said after the game:
“I believe we have enough to be a Premier League club next season but I’m under no illusions that we need to get to the 40-point mark.–I have a big challenge. It’s not a case of me coming in and waving a magic wand but it’s down to me to solve it.”
“We built a very good base on which to go and win the match – we handled everything Villa threw at us,” “I told the players to pick up where they left off [after half-time] but before you knew it we were getting bullied, especially by [striker] John Carew.”
“These players have taken a lot of knocks. We need spirit and togetherness.”
Here are our remaining league games through the end of the season
Day Date Time Venue Team Points? Sat 23Feb 17:15 H Man Utd 0 Sat 1Mar 15:00 H Blackburn 1 Sat 8Mar 15:00 A Liverpool 0 Mon 17Mar 20:00 A Birmingham 1 Sat 22Mar 15:00 H Fulham 3 Sun 30Mar 15:00 A Tottenham 0 Sat 5Apr 15:00 H Reading 3 Sat 12Apr 15:00 A Portsmouth 0 Sat 19Apr 15:00 H Sunderland 3 Sat 26Apr 15:00 A West Ham 1 Sat 3May 15:00 H Chelsea 1 Sun 11May 15:00 A Everton 0
We currently have 28 points from our first 26 games. On December 15th last year we had 25 points from 17 games, after we had just beaten Fulham 1-0 with a last minute penalty from Joey Barton. How the mighty have fallen. 🙁
From our reckoning above we should be able to pick up at least 13 points from our 12 remaining games, and finish on 41 points and be safe.
But the home games are all going to be crucial with wins will be expected against relegation teams Fulham, Reading and Sunderland. And possibly another win against Blackburn at St. James’ Park.
That’s when the Newcastle fans have to be the 12th man and help the lads through. So it doesn’t look too bad when you analyze the remaining games, but we also have to pick up our form, which has been abysmal.
What do you think?
Comments welcome.
48 comments so far
George
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Comment #1I hate to say it but i do believe we are doomed. After yesterdays showing i just can not see how even KK can save us.
The last time KK was here it was a precarious time and we survived, but i some how do not think lightening will strike twice in the same place this time.
Tom_Toon
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Comment #2All because Mike Ashley is scared to spend and because Big Sam didnt win the easy fistures earlier on, we could already be safe now.
iain
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:21 PM
Comment #3loose away at brum and imo the home game vs reading will decide who goes down us or them.
this is sams fault.
the derby results have got us here as those should have been 4 points guarenteed.
scott9
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Comment #4u cant blame this on big sam
scott9
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Comment #5team we should play from now
given
beye faye taylor enrique
milner barton emre zog
owen viduka
Nick Dryden
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:27 PM
Comment #6Allardyce could shift blame for England. No mention of the awful football or non – football, the terrible results, the disastrous signings like Smith, Barton, etc. Sam says NUFC isn’t a big enough club for him and didn’t share his ambitions. Were these the ambitions of being pleased with playing for a 0-0 draw at Sunderland, Reading, Derby etc. What a joke Allardyce is. Yes I can really see the top 5 lining up to employ him.
lacking ambition – playing for 0-0- draws at Readingn, derby and Syunderland
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Comment #7i blame the players for our current situation, too many of them are not good enough or not willing to put the effort in. We can all blame it on sam, but at the end of the day he didn’t play everyone out of position, and it is the players themselves that determine how well the play
Geordie Joe
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Comment #8I fully blame allardyce. we would be in the same position if he was still here. He is a disgrace to football. His style is an insult to the beautiful game. Then to say he is bigger than newcastle united what a w***er. He wasted 6 mill on smith (wich at the time i thought was a pointless signing at the time) 8 Mill on barton. Yes he was given less money than previous managers but he still managed to waste the little he was given. His record was the worst of all the shite managers we have had since keegan was last here.
We are absolutly desperate for a half decent CM. Emre is Our only good CM and I believe he is too good for the rest of the team which in turn makes him look bad when he comes on.
Toonloony
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Comment #9I think we will survive, if we can muster a draw at Man Yoo it will spur us on to win a few, I think the match prdictions like a draw at west ham are mybe a little defeatist, christ they are only a bunch of ex newcastle rejects!! I think we will finish around 12th or 13th, then next season push top 6th and get a cup. Lets be positive instead of doom mongering!!!! Its the negativity from the allardyce era that has put us here!!!
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Comment #10geordie john your point about emre is a good one, when a player is miles ahead of the other players it seems like he is wasting passes because no one else is on the same page
Geordie Joe
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Comment #11The only players i would really like keep are:
Owen
Martins
N’zogbia
Emre
Beye
Milner
gloryhunter
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Comment #12…. but who in their right mind would buy most of the rest?
Tom_Toon
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Comment #13wake me up when its over.
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Comment #14exactly gloryhunter, who would? we would have to sell the rest to newly promoted teams at a reduced price…basically, mike ashley needs to accept he is going to make a loss in the short term
milnerfan
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Comment #15Its amazing how many managers there are on this site. everyone thinks they no best for what starting line up. You can put any 11 on the field, if they dont have passion n pride n dont wna play football then we will be going down. I never thought a club like newcastloe would ever be out of the top half. What went wrong?
gloryhunter
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Comment #16Tom toon: Am I in the future, the past or in a coma. Life on Mars or Ashes to Ashes.
If only DI Gene Hunt could swap jobs with Terry McClown.
Lenny
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Comment #17I blame Big Sam for playing people in the wrong positions to start with, the players for just not performing in the 2nd half’s of matches… how many times are we going to conceed goals in the first 10 mins of the 2nd halfs?? and i blame the total ineptitude of some match officials!!! refs and linesmen must have cost us a good 6 to 9 points this season!
Jamie
Feb 10, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Comment #18I tell you what went wrong – Sam did not sign enough players with premiership experience, that he did sign like Smith and Geremi have been poor. The rest of the so called high reputation players – Duff, Given, Cacapa, Carr, Viduka, Butt are complete and utter shite, none of the above would be in any of the top sides teams, though we still seem to be using these guys are who quite frankly don’t cut it anymore. (no pace, strength, sharpness and desire)
Id like to see like most have said already.
Harper
Beye, Taylor, Faye, Enrique
Milner, Barton, Emre, N’Zogbia
Owen, Martins
You tell me that this side if played each week will go down!
Toonloony
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Comment #19I think the passion has gone from the toon players, they need to remeber we pay there wages, we drag our sorry asses to watch them to such god awful places as wigan, derby and portsmouth to name but a few, they serve up a bowl of utter shite!!! If I performed that badly in my job I would have been sacked long ago, but then I suppose I could have got a job at the toon!!!
Geordie Joe
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:02 PM
Comment #20We deperatly need a rob lee. Some one who will burst forward at any given chance. there is such a big gap between midfield and upfront.
Pete
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Comment #21I think 13 points is a bit optimistic tbh. I can’t see us getting anything from the Chelsea, West Ham and even Birmingham fixtures.. Hopefully 37-38 is gonna be enough
Davey G
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Comment #22Dragoner do you still think our best defender is Cacapa???
As I predicted, comes up against a decent centre forward and capitulates!!! This is not a dig it is just a fact and it would be good to hear admit you are always WRONG!!!Outpaced, out muscled and out thought by the big bustling centre forward, who untuil yesterday was hardly prolific. A la Benjani v Portsmouth.
The bloke is the weak link. Faye will surely be at CB againt Mancs!!!Cacapa shouldnt make the squad!!!
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Comment #23i said it yesterday, i will say it again, what did taylor do to excuse him from the overall poor performance? NOTHING
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Comment #24everyone was poor yesterday so do not try to single out cacapa
StevieA
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Comment #25“Harper
Beye, Taylor, Faye, Enrique
Milner, Barton, Emre, N’Zogbia
Owen, Martins
You tell me that this side if played each week will go down!”
I agree. Owen & Martins will get the goals. Believe it or not even on current form there are a lot of worse teams than us.
The fixture list hasn’t been kind has it? But we have games against Blackburn, Fulham, And Birmingham coming up so it will surely get better.
We need Faye in the team and we certainly need Emre. Owen & Martins need to play every game, if they do they could both hit form but we need to create more chances.
The players seem scared to shoot from long range at the moment. We just seem to make it hard for ourselves to create chances, it’s not rocket science just run at the opposition and pick your passes better.
Also why are we not counter attacking teams on corners? Hope we can just leave Oba on the half way line with Emre half way between so he can pick up any loose scraps from opposing teams corners and set Oba Martins on a counter attack.
We need to get Oba Martins running at people again like Bellamy used too. Martins is one of the quickest players in the league, what went wrong?
Keegan will get it right but he needs to bring his own players in. We need 2 quality midfielders and a world class centre back to begin with. Also a big, skillful striker is a must.
At home why not try Kadar in defence and the italian lad up front? What have we got to lose now?
Viduka needs to go. He just can’t play enough games sadly.
StevieA
Feb 10, 2008 at 1:19 PM
Comment #26Oh and Faye is our best defender I think. He reads the game very well and is always a step ahead of the opposition. I would be tempted to make him the captain to be honest.
Butt isn’t good enough. I forgot to add that.
Smith has lost his confidence so not good enough.
Relegation fight? Bollocks. He is just trying to get the best out of the players that’s all.
Davy C
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Comment #27i sent you this earlier on Ed and it seems you were interested in it!
here’s what I put:
We have so far won 28 points.
20 of these against sides from the bottom half of the table from a possible 39. That’s 20 points won but 19 lost! We have 5 games left against sides from the bottom half, 3 at home (Mackems, Reading and Fulham) and 2 away (Birmingham and Spurs). That’s 15 points to play for against sides from the bottom half.
Last season we amassed 22 points in total from sides in bottom half. By this time in the campaign we had six teams from the lower regions of the premiership left to play and won 5 points from these games with a total of 10 points from our last 12 altogether (including a win v Liverpool!). Our run in then may be seen to be slightly easier than this time round. We ended up with 43 points (we had 33 by this time last season) and Sheffield United went down with 38 points.
We need to do better than we did in our final 12 games last season or we will be in the deepest of deep doo doo!
I hope that I’m wrong but it’s not looking good and last season we didn’t have a sad team left to play who base their whole season on hoping they’ll beat us!!
Positives please!!
Keegan – and the fans – may be the decisive factor!
MiMo
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:23 PM
Comment #28It’s venturing on delusion to think the Toon are going to pick up 13 pts. Wake up and smell the coffee son they are going down and believe me while it hurts to accept the truth it is better than wasting your time praying for a miracle. Why are you or anybody so confident that this pile of rubbish can beat Fulham, Reading and Sunderland who are all in better form than Newcastle and will be fighting for their premiership lives? How can you honestly believe that there is a point to be picked up against Chelsea when they have 28 pts out of the last thirty compared to Newcastle’s three from the last 27! Why would anyone but a dreamer think they will get a point at West Ham. My advice is get your self an insurance policy and put £100 on their relegation at least you will have some money to drown your sorrows. I’m sorry to say this but for the first time since promotion I am totally convinced they are going down.
Geordie Joe
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Comment #29Mark why don’t you go and support arsenal then you f***ing W***er.
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:32 PM
Comment #30bit harsh geordie joe lol
Dragoner
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:32 PM
Comment #31so nice to see man u being beaten at old trafford aint it, i just hope city can keep it up
Jamie
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Comment #32Stevie – Your so right, I see we are reading off the same sheet!
Cacapa is so weak and this showed yesterday, for god sake, Nicky Butt is bigger built and thats saying something. It is no coincidence that the smoggies are ahead of us now, look at their back line, Young, Huth, Wheater, and Pogatetz – all of which are over 6 foot and built. How many goals have they conceded in their last 5 games? I’ll tell you – 2!! yes 2 goals! they have beaten Arsenal 2-1 and were unlucky not to beat Pool. Just shows with the correct foundation and getting the basics right, thats when you add your flair players and goal scorers. At the moment we lack both ends of the scale, in fact we lack everywhere and so we need to pick the STRONGEST team possible and scrap it out, keep our status and build from the summer. In a way I’m thankful for the bad form this season to show we need wholesale changes!!
daiv
Feb 10, 2008 at 2:56 PM
Comment #33Lads don’t blame it on Sam. We had 25 points from 17 games. Now we have 28 from 26 games. We have the worst record easily in the league in the last nine games. Five points from 27. keegan came talking about Europe. Five games late he is talking about relegation. Blame Keegan because the team is playing worse. The defence is worse (no surprises there) and we cannot score. So keegan cannot win games three two. I am very worried. What worries me more is that Keegan keeps picking the magic 3 Carr Butt and Smith. If he carries on selecting them we are definitely doomed because the rest of this poor team cannot carry the magic 3. Are they paying Keegan’s wages?
daiv
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Comment #34Five game ago before his first games Keegan was talking about knowing how good the NUFC players were and getting into Europe.
Now he does know the players and is talking relegation. ASfter all the money we have spent…relegation. It is a nightmare
r weplayed keega
Stamford Toon
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Comment #35daiv. I agree with you. It’s no good blaming Sam. KK has achieved nothing ! Messiah? rubbish !!
It’s time some of you got real and stopped living in the past. We need a today man.
Geordie Joe
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:04 PM
Comment #36daiv – fair enough but i am convinced we would not have picked any more points in recent games even if sam was still here.
daiv
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Comment #37Geordie Joe,
I am no supporter of sam. I wanted him out but not in mid January. he would have steered us boringly to 12th or similar and we could have loked at things again in the summer. Sacking him mid jan was crazy. It needed a miracle worker to change things then and sadly kevin has lost his magic touch. It may be just me but when I listen to him on TV he says the Right things but he does not seem the same person. The passion and drive is missing.
sam
Neil A H
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:18 PM
Comment #38I looks bleak since we definitely need at least 10 points to stay up but I think Fulham will go down with Derby. Therefore we must gain more points than than Birmingham, Reading, Sunderland, and Wigan. We have a 6 point cushion at this point. But were not going to get a point from the next three games so if these other teams pick up points the Birmingham game is going to be massive. I don’t think three teams can over take us but I wouldn’t be surprised.
daiv
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:20 PM
Comment #39City beating Maure is great. They were useless last year and look what happens with the right manager. Last time we beat Manure at Old Trafford was 1972. We never even threatened them mid nineties. Still, we can all get some hope from this result. A win at manure before I die. Sweet dreams
mitch
Feb 10, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Comment #40How any one can blame KK is beyond me Sam was a defeatest any thing but a win done sam KK has got a team who have no confidence to apply there trade he has only had 5 games I for one hope that on sat we get behind the lads and stop the boos and groans it does us no good lets try and be positive for a change then teams will not like playing at home agsinst us we are the 12 man it was us who won N zog that free kick that Emre put in the box for owen so come on lets shout for every ball and get sir Alex really pi**ed