Newcastle won seven of their nine games before the end of last year, and that culminated in a 5-1 home win, when we were 1-0 down to Stoke City but the referee helped us out by sending two players off just before half time, and also awarding us a penalty, which Loic Remy missed, but in any case went onto win that game 5-1 with four second half goals.
Shola Ameobi – can still get to 6th place
But then we lost a close home game to Arsenal 1-0, and lost the next two and in the eight league games after the Stoke win ,we managed to lose six – how’s that for consistency.
And during that time, both Mathieu Debuchy and Loic Remy managed to get themselves sent off, and were suspended for three games, and they are now both out injured for a few weeks.
We now have three wins (West Ham, Aston Villa and Hull) and a draw at Norwich in the last 11 league games, so only 10 points from those games have seen us lose touch with the top six teams.
Everton are in 6th place on 51 points, eight points above Newcastle and they have a game in hand – so any chance of qualifying for the Europa League seems to be non-existent.
However 32 year-old Shola Ameobi still thinks Newcastle can get to 6th position, and he had this to say today:
“We still believe we can do it,” “As players you look and see there is still 27 points to play for. That’s a lot of points and way more than enough to get us into Europe.”
“We’re still fighting even though Southampton have gone ahead of us but we play the next two games at home (Crystal Palace and Everton) and they will be vital come the end of the season as to where we finish.”
“As disappointed as we are with this result we have to move on and hopefully use those next two home games to really push up the table and hopefully finish in a European position, which is our ambition as a club.”
“We’ve got Everton, Manchester United and Southampton to play and whatever happens in those games will probably determine how well we do, but every game is huge now.”
“Your fortunes rest on the last ten games of the season for me and it’s important you continue to carry the momentum we’ve had throughout the season.”
“We don’t want the season to peter out, we really want to push ourselves as players. Set backs are always going to happen, but it’s how you react to them and we have to make sure we react quickly to this defeat.”
We suppose it’s possible if not very probable that we can get into 6th place, but we’ll have to start winning some games, like the next two homes games against Crystal Palace on Saturday and Everton on Tuesday night, and they are two difficult games.
And this will be Shola’s last season at Newcastle, after playing for fourteen years in the Newcastle first team, and it remains to be seen if he continues playing next season at some other club.
We need to beat Crystal Palace on Saturday – that’s the next step for the lads.
Comments welcome.
Note: Lewis Williams is in his final year at the University of West London (UWL) studying for a BSc (Hons) in Construction Management, and he is busy on his dissertation on Site Waste Management Plans and he has a survey he needs filled out.
This survey is for anyone who has been part of a construction project (past or present) that used some form of waste management on the project. See if you can help him with they survey here.
8 comments so far
Jail for Ashley
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:03 AM
Comment #1Talk the talk Shola lad, because talking might get you another year, your goals certainly won’t.
On last nights discussion on Shane Long, the general consensus is that the fans would love for his work rate and ability to get at defenders, he’d apparently be the perfect foil for a decent goal scorer, as for him not scoring goals, we’ve put up with Strolla for fifteen years and how often does he put a full shift in, albeit is numerous injuries.
Himanshu Dhingra
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:10 AM
Comment #2Makes Me sick
Shola Ameobi.
Forget injuries was always dreadful.
If he gets a new contract then its curtains for NUFC.
14 years – 41 PL goals, 7 against Sunderland and many against bottom clubs
70TWO
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:14 AM
Comment #3Any chance of qualifying for Europe was dependent on winning all our games home and away against the teams below us, including Southampton away. And also relying on both Everton and Man U having a poor run in. But judging on the performance at Fulham the players have already given up, including Shola.
Rotonda heights
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:20 AM
Comment #4He really does talk the talk doesn’t he!! Friends who support other clubs always tell me how lazy Shola appears to be.
Shola may be frustrated at a lack of playing time, I think the fans are frustrated he’s had so much. If Shola is a premiership player then so am I.
Jail it’s finally dawning on me that under Ashley, mid table mediocrity is and will always be the norm. There is officially now literally nothing to play for .
No cups, no Europe, added to no creditable D.O.F or promising, exciting and successful manager with a vision and we still have the tackiest sponsor on the planet splashed all round the ground.
There will be no Remy, Grenier or Cabella etc and even if there was they’d be ”Pardewed” in no time a la Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Cisse et al.
Still 50000 will make sure absolutely nothing changes and for that reason I’m out…!
Jail for Ashley
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:22 AM
Comment #5702,
Do you think the players would want to risk their annual bonus and finish higher than eighth.
Himanshu Dhingra
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:25 AM
Comment #6RH
Sold out this week too.
I guess fan are expecting good victory against Palace.
Could be in for a rude shock
Jail for Ashley
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:39 AM
Comment #7Rotonda,
What do you mean it’s finally dawning on you, it’s been so obviously apparent since that summer of 2012 that, that is he he is wanting to achieve.
Spoof
Mar 20, 2014 at 8:53 AM
Comment #8Jail
it was obvious to me way before the summer of 2012, as soon as he took over he was saying he wanted to do it the Arsenal way, which had me believing that he would not splash the cash, sadly I was right.