QPR got their first win of the season 2-1 at home to Fulham, and will now be full of confidence when they visit Newcastle in our next game, and Aston Villa won 3-1 at Liverpool so those two clubs beneath Newcastle both gained 3 points on us – after we lost 3-1 today at home to Manchester City.
Yaya Toure after scoring Manchester City’s third goal
And Newcastle slump to 15th place with Villa now above Newcastle on points, and we remain two points above the drop zone.
It was Newcastle’s defense again – mainly our back four of Simpson, Coloccini, Williamson and Santon who again leaked three poor goals, but the comeback by Newcastle in the second half at least bodes well for the future, but we are on only 14 points from our 17 games, and that’s 5 points worse off than we were after 17 game sin our relegation season.
Alan Pardew tried to be upbeat after the game as he talked to Sky Sports:
“We look like we’ve got goals. Unfortunately we look like we’re going to concede goals at the minute.” “It’s that resilience we’ve got to get back but I was happy with a lot of things that went on.
“We opened them up on a number of occasions but they’re a good side; they’re certainly going to have their moments and they did.” “Their best players played well. Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez up front were a real handful.”
“From our point of view it was a soft second goal, I think we should have done better there. I think Davide Santon just got put off by the player who ran across him.” Papiss had a great chance at 2-1 which normally you’d like to think he’d bury, right in the middle of the goal, and then suddenly it’s a different game.”
“But I was proud of my players second half. I thought we really came out with intent, didn’t let the second goal knock us into negativity so there’s a lot to lean on going into QPR.” “We’ve had some problems but it’s about the next game in this business and the next game is QPR at home. We’re going to be under pressure to win it but we’re in good shape to do so I think because we gave a good account of ourselves.
“But fair play to the champions, they played well.”
We don’t have to mention that we have now lost six of our last seven league games, but our play in the second half was at times excellent and we even looked a good side with Vurnon Anita looking a class act and involved in almost every good play Newcastle had.
This lad also worked his socks off, and if he can keep improving like he has done over these last 10 games or so – we’ll be missing Yohan Cabaye less and less.
But it’s our defense who are simply leaking too many poor goals, and it undermines the good work in the other half of the field.
We have to hope we can beat QPR next Saturday, otherwise we really will be in trouble.
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9 comments so far
Jail for Ashley
Dec 15, 2012 at 7:49 PM
Comment #1Being force fed 13 bird roast made by the Venky family is too good for Ashley.
Geordiedoonsooth
Dec 15, 2012 at 7:50 PM
Comment #2If we aren’t careful we could be in the bottom 3 by The beginning of January. We definitely need a RB, CB, MF & a forward. Forget Europe let’s just make sure we stay in the PL
BelfastMagpie
Dec 15, 2012 at 7:56 PM
Comment #3Anything less than 3 points next week & we’re in trouble.
I just wish he would stop playing Cisse right wing & drop the donkeys.
boater
Dec 15, 2012 at 7:57 PM
Comment #4Wait don’t tell me… We are paying the price for not spending in the summer, gutierrez is out of form but seemingly undroppable, it’s Ba OR cisse but not both, everything will be okay when Douglas, Debuchy and Remy sign, Williamson is a championship player AT BEST, simpson is useless in the opposition third, Tiote is becoming a liability with his passing and needless fouls, Pardew is a patsy, Marveaux will singlehandedly cure all our ails (based on his wigan performance) and shola ameobi needs to go…
jimmysmith
Dec 15, 2012 at 8:09 PM
Comment #5Simpson, Willo, Perch, Cisse as a winger – if we are playing a top team, we might just get away with one of them playing, but not two, three or god forbid all four.
Cisse is a striker who needs to go head to head with Ba for the strikers role, the other three are worthy players but need to be down the pecking order.
We need a top fullback, centre back and a genuine winger to address our lack of depth and more importantly balance.
Great game, City were at times brilliant and we dug in and battled hard which was heartening. No one let us down although Santon’s defensive weaknesses were utterly exposed early doors and it needs mentioning that Willo more than held his own against world class opposition.
marcotoon
Dec 15, 2012 at 8:49 PM
Comment #6Today was the first time I saw the team play in a while and apart from the goals conceded, I thought we played really well. We deserved a point from the game. Our recent run of results is a concern and I agree that we must beat QPR, however as to the stat quoted in the article about us being worse off than in our relegation season, that surprises me because we are a much better team since then. If we produce our second half performance more often we will progress up the leauge.
wynsleap
Dec 15, 2012 at 9:37 PM
Comment #7boater @ 4 – yes you’ve just about got it spot on.
Why are you stating the obvious?
Oh sorry …. am I detecting some sarcasm there?
kkma
Dec 15, 2012 at 11:12 PM
Comment #8Are we having 17 points instead of 14?
taker83
Dec 16, 2012 at 4:03 AM
Comment #9Pardew, in simple words, F*** you