Newcastle were well beaten last night the end of the game, by a side in the lower half of the table, and worryingly they conceded 3 goals in the league for the first time this season.
Hughton – under pressure to get Magpies back on track
Notr only that, but it was the first time this season in the league that Newcastle have been beaten by more than one goal, and today sees WBA back on top of the league, albeit only on goal difference.
But after Friday’s night’s 5-1 thumping of Cardiff at St. James’ Park, last night has tlo be a bitter disappointment for the long-suffering Newcastle fans.
Andy Carroll did have what looked like a good goal disallowed just after the break, which would have made it -1-1, and the penalty given to Derby a little later looked dubious at best.
But Newcastle cannot and shouldn’t complain, and last night, for whatever reason, it was a bad day at the office.
Chris Hughton said after the game:
“It would be too easy to blame the officials although I thought their penalty for their second goal was very soft. It was the sort of penalty we would like to receive, especially as we’ve only been given one all season.”
“That came at a crucial time in the game and it was a turning point in the game. On the balance of play, it was an even game in terms of chances and Wayne Routledge had a really good chance when we were 1-0 down.”
“We were always a threat, I didn’t think they were better than us but they put the ball in the back of the net and we didn’t.”
So Newcastle’s 15 game unbeaten run comes to an end, and we actually think that could be aa blessing in disguise. In fact we don;t mind losiing games as long as we win most of the others.
But one worry lots of Newcastle fans have is whether the lads have the mental strength to get back to their winning ways, when it really matters – in the run-in.
In the past, when they have been challenged this season, they have come through well, so the visit to Swansea on Saturday becomes another huge game for Newcastle.
It’s interesting that when this lack of character and mental strength of his players was brought up last night Chris said:
“I would refute that accusation. We knew we had a really tough game here after the excellent performance against Cardiff and we got exactly that. We didn’t get that little bit of fortune you need.”
“I don’t think there was a hangover at all. We have to dust ourselves down and take it on the chin. We have conceded three goals, which isn’t something we are used to doing.”
“But we have to move on and look to bounce back against Swansea. It is a setback but there were always going to be highs and lows between now and the end of the season.”
“We’ve another tough away game at Swansea coming up – we must make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.”
Newcastle have been on a poor run of form these last 8 leage games with just 11 points, so we’ve dropped more points than we’ve earned in that period.
We’ll have to see which team turns up on Saturday at Swansea – the swashbuckling all out attacking side of last Friday, or the team that wilted in the end to a lower half of the table team last night, just 4 days later.
Comments welcome.
7 comments so far
pearceet
Feb 10, 2010 at 11:11 AM
Comment #1Sounds like excuses from Hughton after a poor almost typical Newcastle performance
toongloom
Feb 10, 2010 at 11:21 AM
Comment #2Shocking performance. We need to play CHs favourite formation away from home, 4-5-1 so can pick up the draws and odd wins. At home we can go for it!! And by wen is steven taylor back? we desperately need him, this bad run of games started wen he got injured and it shows how bad our rest of defence is! Also enrique?? we need our normal defence back.
Widiculuss Wichard
Feb 10, 2010 at 11:44 AM
Comment #3I have just read somewhere that 3 0f our 4 league defeats this season have occured when both Coloccini and Steven Taylor were missing from the team.
Hmmmmm.
spiderpig
Feb 10, 2010 at 1:09 PM
Comment #4derby beat forest last week too.
psb
Feb 10, 2010 at 5:39 PM
Comment #5The last eight games have yielded 14 points – check your facts !
psb
Feb 10, 2010 at 5:42 PM
Comment #6Is this the same mental strength that brought us wins at Cardiff, Sheff Utd and Preston ?
psb
Feb 10, 2010 at 6:21 PM
Comment #7Apologies, I meant 13 points !