The loss to Everton last Saturday at St. James’ Park left a lot of Newcastle supporters very disappointed.
Kevin Nolan– an air of disappointment in training
A win against a side lower than us in the league would have seen us in 8th position today on 39 points, but we are now just in the top half of the table in 10th place.
But it was the performance that was disappointing and not just the result last Saturday.
For all the Newcastle attacking play and endeavor in the second half, we didn’t really carve out too many chances and we didn’t seem to have the skill or class to open up the Toffees defense sufficiently.
And it was Everton who could have so easily made the score a lot worse for the Magpies, as they missed at least three clear cut chances in the second period.
We did have a few players missing in the second half, but that was only Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, and it’s surprising how just two players missing made Newcastle look a little ordinary – it’s scary in fact.
It seems that the Newcastle players were also disappointed after the game, and captain Kevin Nolan said this yesterday about the training this week:
“There’s been an air of disappointment more than anything because it was a tough one to take,”
“We’ve got a week off now where we haven’t got a game, we can have a couple of days away from each other and then come back firing on all cylinders next week to prepare for Stoke and hopefully get the three points that are needed to get back to winning ways.”
“In a way it’s probably a good thing because there are a few lads with niggles and knocks and if we did have a game this weekend then we could have been struggling to get 11 out to be honest.”
“So at this moment in time it’s a good thing for the club, hopefully we will get a few of those lads back into training in the early part of next week and then we’ll be strong going into the Stoke game.”
Newcastle have 9 games left in the season, and six of them are against sides who are currently lower in the Premier League.
Those sides are Stoke (A), Wolves, Aston Villa (A), Blackpool (A), Birmingham and WBA, so the last thing we want to happen is to lose to any of those games.
Indeed, if we can get a draw in the away games and a win at home, that would get us 12 points and we’d be as safe as houses on at last 48 points.
We’re hoping for something close to that, because there’s still time to finish this season off in style.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
dublin mag steve
Mar 11, 2011 at 11:35 AM
Comment #1and so there should be defeat at stoke and were right back in a dogfight at the foot of the table.
Toonboy_84
Mar 11, 2011 at 12:14 PM
Comment #2I’d be happy with a point an Stoke to be fair!
G
Mar 11, 2011 at 12:20 PM
Comment #3agreed Toonboy_84. I would much rather take all 3, but Stoke have proved time and time again that they are a difficult side to beat, and on their turf, 1 point would be a decent result for us.
Geordiedoonsooth
Mar 11, 2011 at 12:40 PM
Comment #4WE’RE DOOMED MR Mainwaring
GeordieGerman
Mar 11, 2011 at 12:49 PM
Comment #5Don’t panic… ! Don’t panic… !
shearermania
Mar 11, 2011 at 1:27 PM
Comment #6were the toon so always expect the unexpected….
ill go for a 5-0 hammering all goals scored by kuqi in the last 4 minutes….howay
chuck
Mar 11, 2011 at 4:43 PM
Comment #7Could this be a repeat of what accured two seasons ago ?
With eight games left no one expected total collapse and relegation.
So with expectations high for a european spot in our future, we may well be satisfied with survival this season.
Next year is a different kettle of fish, with our four or five top quality recruits, plus Ireland and BA, the sky is the limit, may even win something.
Thats if we dont collapse during these next few games.
clinta2
Mar 11, 2011 at 10:30 PM
Comment #8I’d also be happy with a point. We tend to not do too great against the physical sides- I can see this happening again next weekend.