With Chelsea being beaten 2-1 tonight at Manchester City, and Liverpool throwing away a two goal lead to go down 3-2 at Loftus Road, the results tonight went Newcastle’s way, but there was late drama in both games.
And that means that Newcastle are now 5 points clear of Liverpool on 47 points and only two points behind Chelsea, and we could be in 5th place in the Premier League on Sunday night.
If Chelsea lose at home to Tottenham on Saturday afternoon and Newcastle win at the The Hawthorns the following day, then Newcastle will be in 5th place in the league table on Sunday night, one point clear of Chelsea.
Chelsea looked good tonight and played well, and when Gary Cahill put them ahead in the 59th minute with a rather fortunate deflected goal – it looked good for Chelsea, and until that goal City simply had not looked creative enough.
Chelsea had been the better side, but when Carloz Tevez came on after 66 minutes for his first game since last September, things turned in City’s favor with the Argentine’s added creativity.
Sergio Aguero scored from the penalty spot on 74 minutes for his 17th league goal of the season.
And then a wonderfully worked goal between Tevez and Samir Nasri just five minutes from the end, was enough for Manchester City to take all 3 points.
So QPR scored three unanswered goals in the last 13 minutes and Man City scored two unanswered goals in the last 12 minute to win their games, and both results were great for the Magpies.
City are now on 69 points and just one point behind Manchester United, but 14 points above 3rd placed Arsenal, who won 1-0 at Everton.
Liverpool were cruising 2-0 up at Loftus Road, with goals from Sebastian Coates after 53 minutes and Dirk Kuyt after 72 minutes, and it seemed that Liverpool were in an easy winning position.
But QPR had replaced an out of form Joey Barton with Jamie Mackie on the right wing, and would you believe it, the London side came storming back with three goals in the last 13 minutes of the game.
And that allowed QPR to get their first win in six league games, and climbed out of the bottom three.
On 77 minutes Shawn Derry headed in nicely from a corner, and then Djibril Cissé got the equalizer with four minutes to go, but then Mackie got the dramatic winner in stoppage time, and QPR fans went wild.
What a finish by QPR when all looked lost, and there have to be question marks about that Liverpool defense – Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse please take note – for our home game with the Reds on April 1st.
And Tottenham almost lost their 4th league game in a row at home to Stoke, but Rafael Van der Vaart scored the equalizer deep into stoppage time to get a draw 1-1 against a good Stoke side, after Cameron Jerome had put Stoke ahead on 75 minutes.
And Tottenham are now one point behind Arsenal in 4th place after collecting just one point from their last four league games, since hammering Newcastle 5-0 at White Hart Lane – that will teach them! :D.
So if Tottenham can beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, and Newcastle can get all 3 points at The Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon, amazingly enough, Newcastle will be in 5th position in the league table.
The results tonight should give Alan Pardew and the Newcastle players some real incentive to be at their very best on Sunday afternoon, and if we can play near our best form the lads could get the win.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
75 comments so far
cheick Norris
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:02 AM
Comment #41@Davy the southern press don’t seem to understand that football is massive in the north and that cities other than Manchester and Liverpool actually exist outside of London
MUTINYbyLEMONS
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:09 AM
Comment #42everton losing, liverpool losing, chelsea losing, sure is great wednesday for us. Just need to win against west brom. Hopefully Ba with his new syrup will trun and score a few. Hope ben arfa is retained in the team
Tsunki
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:10 AM
Comment #43New look chelsea is actually Abramovich buying our club, selling the ground off for housing, and putting our ex-players in blue kit. Voila – Chelscastle United!
Mike Ashley also has his head shaved to become the mini-Ray Wilkins.
wynsleap
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:11 AM
Comment #44All if’s and but’s I know, but if we had kept that two goal lead against Wolves, scored from that Demba penalty against the Mackems and hadn’t let in that 94th minute winner against Arsenal we could have had another 5 points which would have put us ahead of Chelsea and right on Spurs and Arsenal’s tails.
It can be a fine line between success and falling short.
MUTINYbyLEMONS
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:13 AM
Comment #45guthrie, tiote, cabaye, abeid and vuckic. Hmm we have central midfielders who all have good long range shots on them. We should try to really encourage them to shoot more during the games.
lesh
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:14 AM
Comment #46Great stuff tonight and we owe a great debt to an ‘out of form’ Joey Barton!
Let’s get the win at WBA and let Liverpool and Jose watch us go.
And, most importantly, Ed you’re remarkable! Thanks.
MUTINYbyLEMONS
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:14 AM
Comment #47If david luiz had been sent off and we had scored that penalty, maybe steven taylor would not have got injured and we could be in a champions league place or a very healthy european place at least.
cheick Norris
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:19 AM
Comment #48at the risk of having my head bitten off would chelski really want cheick “180 spin” tiote and Tim “can’t kick” krul?
they only seem to buy yew finished article and as good as our players are they are not the finished article. also buying ba after a good first half to the season? Liverpool bought Carroll based on half a season and got burnt bad….
…or maybe im hoping Roman abramovich reads this and decides not to bother
cheick Norris
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:25 AM
Comment #49oh and my post forgot to mention the ott pricetags.
night night folks
Tsunki
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:28 AM
Comment #50Planbobbillyted can be:
Blog Aggression Group of Optimism Valley S*nderland – Housed Illiteracy Team
It’s a bit of a long title I know but can anyone come up with a suitable acronym?
AK Malaysia
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:32 AM
Comment #51Yahoo!!! What better way to start my 37th birthday celebration today by hearing the news that Liverfool & Chelshit has lost their respective games last nite!! Sweet sound through my ears! HOWAY!!!
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Mar 22, 2012 at 12:34 AM
Comment #52Tsunki, i tippith my cap to you sir 😉
Dyer8
Mar 22, 2012 at 3:06 AM
Comment #53vs WBA
—————Krul
Simmo–Willo–Collo–Santon
HBA–Cabaye–Tiote–Jonas
———-Cisse–Ba
Kc-Toon
Mar 22, 2012 at 4:22 AM
Comment #54Chelsea sack jocob mellis for setting off a smoke grenade in the changing rooms, yet weve still got nile ranger on our books after everything hes done!
Ben3arfa
Mar 22, 2012 at 5:13 AM
Comment #55Happy to see that muppet Enrique make an idiot out of himself and gift the game to QPR .. wonder how the view is like 5 points beneath us
NEWEXPATMAGPIE
Mar 22, 2012 at 5:31 AM
Comment #56Well the only task we have to be concerned with is winning the games we have left to play!
And while its “Optimism City”on here! Those games are not Won yet! Results have gone our way last night! But we have the two clubs who lost sniffing around and “Rumour City”! has it that this summer our best players:
Krul, Tiote, and one or two others will be shipping out to the highest bidder! Not wishing to piss on yer bonfires but lets not go Over the Top with our clebrations here!
30Mil for both Krul & Tiote is laughable! Tiote i would,nt sell alone for 30Mil! And if another club comes for both of Krul and Tiote together then i would actually double that figure!
Finally , i think this is the first time in all the years i,ve been on here that i,ve actually seen Wor Ed make a post! Good to hear from you Ed! Hope your keeping well?
The game at home against Liverpool is starting to have more and more significance! To quote KK: “I am gonna Love it when we Beat them”! The result in that game could be the difference between us reaching Europe next year or not!
Can we be optimistic? Yes i think we can! But i,me not going to start jumping up and down till the job,s done!
Three point at the Hawthorns please !
HWTL!
cheick Norris
Mar 22, 2012 at 7:23 AM
Comment #57tsunki you legend
cheick Norris
Mar 22, 2012 at 7:31 AM
Comment #58@tsunki do they represent the Generally Ignorant Mackem People of Scumderland
Ibizatoon
Mar 22, 2012 at 7:54 AM
Comment #59The G.I.M.P.S? Fantastic. It’s great to see such efforts being put into optimism valley.
Ruddy….comment 30 – “Rates are high, but so are our spirits” – Brilliant – Perhaps our valleys slogan.
What great results for us last night. Has set the tone for this weekend well, I hope we can take advantage of it now
Jail for Ashley
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:01 AM
Comment #60I can imagine Joey Barton being one of them people who when being interviewed in a few years time will be arrogant enough to say he’s had no refrets in life,but out of all the stupid things he’s done surely going to QPR is the daftest of them all,I bet you he’s wishing he kept his mouth shut and his fingers off the keyboard now.
Ibizatoon
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:04 AM
Comment #61I missed Ed on here? Christ. Could have asked him about an exclusive Optimism Valley log-in screen for the blog, which would block out the G.I.M.P.S. Not all neggers, we the noble men of O.V believe most opinions are valid, other than those of clear mackems. Hmm…clear probably isn’t a word I can use with Mackem…obvious mackems? Dirty mackems? Yeah, that’s the one 🙂
Ibizatoon
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:05 AM
Comment #62JFA….Not sure tbh. I think Joey thrives as a big fish in a small pond. The championship is perfect for him. He can outshine most of the players in the league and feel important again…bless him
Jail for Ashley
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:11 AM
Comment #63Ibiza,
Not sure mate no matter how thick skinned he is it can’t be very nice having your fans boo you constantly during a game and then joins you as you get brought off,luckily for him there’s not that many of them. o_O
voodoo85
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Comment #64Just wanted to clarify this, what happens with Europa League places if Spurs or Chelsea finish in top4 and win FA Cup
as they would qualify for CL, does it open another door for EuropaLeague in the table positions ??
eg. if the season was finished now and spurs won the fa cup, chelsea would get EuropaLeague place by way of being 5th, would we then also get in due to spurs being in champs league
Ibizatoon
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Comment #65JFA…Very true. Still makes me chuckle…ambition
Jail for Ashley
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Comment #66Joins ? (hound) so damn annoying this predictve text.
toonbrother
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:18 AM
Comment #67This blog keeps getting ahead of itself. When you have posts like this you end up with egg on your face. Like when we arrogantly overlooked Brighton in the FA cup and ended up getting knocked out. Lets just dont we just hope and pray we win on Sunday. Last time we played west Brom it did not end up too well for us
Ibizatoon
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:22 AM
Comment #68ToonBrother….You’re absolutely right. It’s the easy games we normally make a mess off. However, we managed to get a result back against Norwich and I’m expecting the same against West Brom. Although, I generally hope (Expect) us to win every game. Comes with supporting the toon. What would a game without heartbreak be?
voodoo85
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:23 AM
Comment #69just googled in myself – from what i can find, if a top 5 team (ie – qualify for EuropaLeague by position) win the league cup – the 6th placed team will qualify
if a top 5 team or league cup winner also win the fa cup (ie – already qualified), then the team in 7th will qualify for Europa League
So—
Liverpool qualify by winning league cup and therefore, if tottenham or chelsea win the fa cup and finish in top 5, it would give the team in 6th a europa league spot
obviously if liverpool finish 6th, the team in 7th would get the spot as liverpool have already qualified
hope that all makes sense
cheick Norris
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:24 AM
Comment #70west brom away is probably one of the tougher games we have left. our slow defense and their fast paced attack means we’ll be in for a tough day.
results last night were great for us. shows that we arent the only ones whose season is a little off the boil
Ibizatoon
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:26 AM
Comment #71VooDoo…I’m pretty sure if the winner of the FA Cup has already qualified by their league position that the runner up would qualify. But as you say, if the final is Chelsea vs tottenham, then yes, it’s looking good for the toon 🙂 We just don’t want Everton, Bolton or obviously the great unwashed in that final
Rotonda heights
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:39 AM
Comment #72I wish we would stop seeing headlines ”williamson demands this, that and the other”
He is by far our weakest link and many recently conceded goals are down to him.
Wilaimson admits he can not be a ball playing defender and I’m afraid with where we want to be, that’s really not good enough if you’re playing in the premiership. Anyone at this level should be technically competent.
I wasn’t always the biggest saylor fan, but I wish we had him back now for a push for Europe, as he was obviously doing something right.
It looks like we’ve cooled on M’Biwa, which is a shame as he ticked a lot of boxes.
voodoo85
Mar 22, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Comment #73@ibizatoon
yes, you are right – thanks
cupiddstunt
Mar 22, 2012 at 2:06 PM
Comment #74NEWEXPATMAGPIE @ # 56
You’re not pissing on anybody’s bonfires but your own, instead of believing what’s happened in the past and what your own eyes could tell you, you choose to believe the rags, your choice of course.
Offers of 15,20,25,30 mil were made to NUFC all were knocked back, and then 35 mil up front in cash before the club gave in and let AC go and that was because AC wanted to go to the promised land of more money.
So what makes you think the club is going to have a fire sale of our best players just because the rags say so?????
I personally think any players that leave NUFC this summer will either be considered surplus to requirements or will be leaving because like AC their heads will have been turned but they will be contributing hugely to the NUFC coffers like in the AC event.
If you believe the rags you are sadder then the knobs that write them.
The best players are on long term contracts so will be sold at our price and under our terms and I have come to trust our board to squeeze the best out of any deal, and DL said in one statement that such monies will be reinvested.
cupiddstunt
Mar 22, 2012 at 2:17 PM
Comment #75Toonbrother @ # 67
You are so right of course it could all go egg shaped over the weekend, so let us all be like some of you and sit all glum faced expecting the worst let us not smile for fear of a loss and heaven forbid the idea of enjoying the position we currently hold as we could be several places lower at the end of the season.
So sad faces on boys and no celebrating the possibility of success until failure has been passed by.
Personally I like to be positive so be as glum as you like just don’t try and drag me down to your level of despair.