Before the three tough game against the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea, most of those expert pundits thought Newcastle had very little chance of picking up any points.
An anxious looking Alan Pardew last Saturday
And despite performing well in all three of those games, the lads came away with just a single point from Old Trafford, but then came a right cropper on Saturday afternoon against Norwich City, without the three first choice center-backs.
Newcastle went down 4-2 at Carrow Road, and Danny Simpson and James Perch showed why they have hardly ever played in central defense in their careers.
And those same pundits are now saying Newcastle and their surprise good run at the beginning of the season, is over and indeed the bubble has burst.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew disagrees with that assessment of his team, which he says is rather harsh:
“We went down to 10 men and we were still in the game, so it would be very harsh to suggest that the bubble has burst,”
“Every game is a big one for us. We are in a situation where we have got a nice points tally, but we have come into a run against the top teams and lost players to injury.”
“We are just having one of those little injury runs and that is affecting us.”
Three of the Norwich goals came from free headers in the penalty area from crosses, with Simpson and Perch, both on the small side, hardly ever winning a header in the box all afternoon long.
But that’s only one game – thank goodness – and hopefully the last time we will see Perch and Simpson together at center-back for Newcastle, and we hope and pray that captain Coloccini can return on Saturday.
The next two games are at home against Swansea and WBA, and it will be bad news if Newcastle cannot take all six points from those two sides, who are much lower in the league than Newcastle.
If we are to finish in the top half of the table, which is this season’s gaol, or even higher than that as a stretch goal, then these are the games Newcastle must win.
Comments welcome.
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17 comments so far
daztoon
Dec 12, 2011 at 3:09 AM
Comment #1Just watched replay of game here in kiwi land and must say Ba took both goals really well.As for their goals the defending was amateur at best.Shola left Holt for his first and nobody marked him for the second.Same for Morrisons goal nobody tracked him as defence backed off to 6 yard box.Gosling was not a straight red a second yellow yes.At 2-3 thought Pardew should should have took off Shola and Oberton for Arfa and Sammy they had a few on yellows just let them run at em.Instead he just stood their scratching his ear.
daztoon
Dec 12, 2011 at 3:24 AM
Comment #2If Tiote stories are true i hope Ashley has got Sturridge in with the deal as him and Ba together would be a great front Pairing.Just Cash would be stupid as only 5 million would get spent
davis_toons
Dec 12, 2011 at 5:41 AM
Comment #3Simpson and Perch to r/p by Samba would be a different thing against Banana Team.
GeordieToon89
Dec 12, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Comment #4We’d never get Sturridge hes on a good wage lol, if Mikels available ad do a £20millin plus Mikel like or if Alex would consider us do 15million plus Alex and Mikel that would be immense
Klatoon
Dec 12, 2011 at 6:02 AM
Comment #5Atleast Swansea play it on the deck,unless they switch tactics to punish our obvious weakness with the high ball into the box.
daztoon
Dec 12, 2011 at 6:18 AM
Comment #6Perch just looks way out of his depth in the prem at best he is an average championship player.Think Santon is over rated too at moment but he needs playing time so time will tell still
Satan
Dec 12, 2011 at 6:22 AM
Comment #7I think some people are underestimating Swansea….we’re in a sticky patch and going to have to work damn hard to get all 3 points. If anyone saw the Man City v Swansea game at Eastlands then you’ll know the Welshmen are no mugs….they outplayed Man City for 45-50 minutes….I hope we dont turn up thinking the 3 points are already ours, you see that happening so many times
daztoon
Dec 12, 2011 at 6:49 AM
Comment #8Ben Arfa must be gutted he didn’t get a run at that defence at the weekend
Indian Magpie
Dec 12, 2011 at 6:53 AM
Comment #9If SMITH or perch Play in Midfield, ALLEN, BRITTON and gower will really run us ragged
Jail for Ashley
Dec 12, 2011 at 7:18 AM
Comment #10Really dont think for a minute that Chelsea will sell one of the most in form strikers in the league , Id say they’d rather let Torres go and we can all see big Mike forking out for his wages.
magpie6699
Dec 12, 2011 at 7:39 AM
Comment #11One point that bothers me – and hardly mentioned – is that people comment about our small centre-halves but 3 goals were headers from set plays. In a set play, you bring in your attackers. Shola and Demba are tall, so what were they doing? OK they aren’t natural defenders but how many times did we see Big Al heading the ball away from a corner? Their responsibility is greater when we have a small central pairing in defence.
Slank
Dec 12, 2011 at 7:52 AM
Comment #12GeordieToon89
Quite right. Sturridge is probably the best English striker in the Premiership. He will not be sold by Chelsea.
Slank
Dec 12, 2011 at 8:00 AM
Comment #13Daztoon
‘…Think Santon is over rated too at moment but he needs playing time so time will tell still….’
And how many times have you seen Santon play that you think he is overated?
When Colo, Enrique and Jonas arrived and started playing for us the general consensus of the self-styled knowledgeable fans said that they were rubbish.
Were you one of the many fans who thought Ba was rubbish after seeing him play for us the first time?
Give Santon a break. And yes he needs playing time just like Ba, Colo, Enrique and Jonas needed
daztoon
Dec 12, 2011 at 8:46 AM
Comment #14@Slank
From all the hype when he was signed looks another Pistone type of style and as i said judgement reserved until a decent run of of games and said yourself needs playing time so can`t see yoir point
BillBurch
Dec 12, 2011 at 8:57 AM
Comment #15Does anybody know what the real problem is with Tamas Kadar? Is it fitness, attitude or what? He was given a shirt number but was not even on the bench.
Sav
Dec 12, 2011 at 1:05 PM
Comment #16Ashley’s stinginess has cost us 3 points against Norwich.
Let’s hope his greed doesn’t cost us Tiote in January.
Hands off Mr. T!!!!!!!!!!!!
toonincheek
Dec 12, 2011 at 2:25 PM
Comment #17No chance of Sturridge coming to us, even if Chelski wanted it (which I doubt).
This season, Sturridge has already proved himself be the Chelski’s best striker and is now getting a regular start – why would he leave?