Matt Ritchie is once again our Man of the Match against Birmingham, when we had a disappointing 0-0 draw and have now dropped 7 points in the last three games.
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But Matt could and should have been our match winner  on Saturday after he scored a perfectly good goal in the first half that the officials got wrong (what – again?) and they disallowed it for offside.
Matt Ritchie in action on Saturday
Some poor officiating has cost us points this season, but we have also caused some of our own problems by missing too many chances.
But thankfully Newcastle are still in a fairly dominant position to win an automatic promotion spot back to the Premier League.
[table â54â not found /]Matt Ritchie has been one of our very best players this term and after a dip in form towards the end of last year he has come back to his best at just the right time and the Scottish International started scoring goals when number 9 Dwight Gayle was out injured from mid January.
Matt now has 13 goals this season for us and Dwight Gayle has 21, so 34 goals is not a bad return for two forwards Raga brought in over the summer – two great buys for Newcastle.
Second in the voting is Spanish U21 International Ayoze Perez who looks to be coming into form at the right time.
Ayoze is followed in 3rd place by the impressive Daryl Murphy, whose Championship experience is a big plus at this stage of the season for Newcastle.
And a mention for Grant Hanley in 4th place, who came in for the injured Ciaran Clark and proved once again he can get the job done for Newcastle – he’s still an underrated player at Newcastle.
It was not a good result on Saturday and we should have taken all 3 points, but it was a decent performance especially in the second half.
But results are all that matters in the final 8 games of the season and we need wins – and more wins – to get that automatic promotion.
Howay The Lads!!
Comments welcome.
4 comments so far
Jib
Mar 20, 2017 at 7:51 AM
Comment #1https://twitter.com/rolandoaarons?lang=en
sing in the corner
Mar 20, 2017 at 7:54 AM
Comment #2Unless Dwight weighs in with a scoring streak now I think I would have our player of the season top 3 as Ritchie, Clarke and Shelvey at the moment.
sing in the corner
Mar 20, 2017 at 7:57 AM
Comment #3Blimey! Is it only Oct / Nov that Rolando did his knee. Seems like ages ago, probably because he’s had one setback after another đ
scout
Mar 20, 2017 at 9:19 AM
Comment #421 goals so far and not in your top 3? Give your head a shake man.