Newcastle dodged a bullet tonight, but still deserved their valuable point at Birmingham City, with a strong and gutsy second half display.
Martins – looked good in second half – but then substituted?
Things hardly looked promising at half-time with Newcastle a goal down and looking a little fragile. It was not unlike last week at Liverpool.
But Keegan had some impact with his team talk at the break, as the lads came out battling in the second half, and the lads deserved their draw, which could have been a win with just a wee bit of luck. Bu overall a draw was probably fair to both teams.
Both teams gained a place in the league table with their point tonight, with Newcastle moving above Reading by a point, and Birmingham moving ahead of Sunderland on goal difference.
This is how things now look after all the weekend matches.
Pos Team Games Won Draw Lost GF GA GD Points 12 Wigan 30 8 7 15 27 42 -15 31 13 Middlesb. 30 7 10 13 27 44 -17 31 14 Newcastle 30 7 8 15 31 57 -26 29 15 Reading 30 8 4 18 35 57 -22 28 16 Birmingham 30 6 9 15 34 46 -12 27 17 Sunderland 30 7 6 17 26 48 -22 27 18 Bolton 29 6 7 16 28 43 -15 25 19 Fulham 30 4 11 15 27 49 -22 23 20 Derby 30 1 7 22 14 64 -50 10
Newcastle are now 4 points above the drop zone, but if Bolton win their game in hand we’ll only be a couple points above the drop zone, with an inferior goal difference on all relegation threatened teams.
We still did nothing tonight to improve our goal difference, which is still a very poor -26.
Don’t get us wrong, we were not cavalier and exciting tonight, and the way things are looking if we do survive relegation, it looks like it will be by limping across the finish line.
The Newcastle get their chance to support the lads and roar them on for a first win against Fulham on Saturday. We liked the look of Owen, Martins and Viduka as our attackers.
But please Kevin, leave Oba on for the full game – he can get goals out of nowhere – which would be a big help in these nail biting games. 😀
Anything is better than relegation – but if we do survive this season then Ashley and Mort must support Keegan to bring in new players he wants and needs.
We don’t want to go through this again.
Comments welcome.
63 comments so far
richie
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:22 AM
Comment #41yes i see.. he showed nerves previous time iv seen him, tonight he looked like a different player
one thing i did notice was when he was pinned back in his corner he would try pass it out rather than get rid ..the spanish way rather than the eng
but after tonight very happy with the 2 full backs
canmag
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:23 AM
Comment #42watch today’s game very decent second half.
wasted too many dead ball situations ie geremi
keep him away from all corners and free kicks
he is just about the worst i have seen in along time, if he is going to play then maybe the team for sat should be
harper
geremi beye taylor enrique
butt
duff barton zoggy
viduka or martin &owen
subs forster diatta edgar vids or oba & lua lua
CJ
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:24 AM
Comment #43Good point spyro think of him in a good steady defense hopefully what we will have next season and watch him at his best he has a great left foot although i think he try’s the long ball a bit to much but that is what happens when your midfielders are not coming to get the ball.
shirts
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:26 AM
Comment #44I like that team, but have a feeling that Faye’s a better DM than a CB, so maybe drop Butt (though I read he had a good game tonight). How about:
Harper
Beye, Taylor, Cacapa, Enrique
Duff, Faye, N’Zogbia
Viduka
Owens, Martins
CRAIGG
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:36 AM
Comment #45I just hope we beat Fulham on saturday or that dribble of knob cheese andy dunn will have a field day in the bog paper of the world on sunday morning.
c’mon lads shove it up that eton attending, polo playing, mozart listening, Quentin Crisp admiring piece of upper class arse (Watching my language ED)
GP
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:37 AM
Comment #46Kompany is well known and I’m not sure if we could get him here, but I wouldn’t mind him to say the least. What I think we really need in the backline is a CB with lots of leadership, someone to command the backline. Woody would have been great but it was not meant to be. Kompany and Van Buyten in the summer? Haha, I can only hope…
Gazzatoon4
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:38 AM
Comment #47i was actually at the game tonite and thought we did really well the 4-3-3 was a good selection but against teams with more quality than birmingham i could see us gettin easily exposed. viduka played very well tonite and owen linked up the play very well. Got to say barton and enrique in my opinion didnt have the best of games but barton did have lot of work to do as was playing in a 3 man midfield which was clearly tough! but apart from that a good point! lets just hope we can improve on that and get a win over the weekend
Tom_Toon
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:39 AM
Comment #48Ye there is no chance in getting Kompany, but id just love it if we could, love it 😉
richie
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:40 AM
Comment #49ye i think centre of the park is very weak and its leaving our defence open, we should priortise a tall commanding midfielder..
i dont think wel get carrick
didi hammann if he was 10yrs younger !!!
Tom_Toon
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:41 AM
Comment #50or perhaps Simon Rolfes.
Spyro
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:42 AM
Comment #51Fulham match will be very similar to tonight, they have some good attacking players but arent great at the back, much like birmingham. If we take the same approach for the whole 90mins as we did in the second half tonight, we will win…i think
richie
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:42 AM
Comment #52id get garven from ipswich and give him a chance in the prem
GP
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:43 AM
Comment #53Because the first time Hamann was here it worked out perfectly.
Spyro
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:43 AM
Comment #54Hangelaand has been hot and cold for them since he came, lately he has been hot and really has made the difference for them, i just hope he is not 100% on the weekend
richie
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:50 AM
Comment #55ye perfectly lol
Leo
Mar 18, 2008 at 1:00 AM
Comment #56well done butt as most know i dont particularly like the fact that he gets a game, but who else would we play, if we are honest.
that was a hard game to watch, i was at the pub and had to drive home but the adrenolin was pumping soo hard that i wasnt sure whether it would be safe.
it is important that we keep viduka fit for the rest of the season, he has soo much class!!!!
Hamabi
Mar 18, 2008 at 1:03 AM
Comment #57Much better. Positive moves have positive effects. It’s always possible to play with 3 defensive midfielders yet play positively and this is one way to go.
Leo Kompany for the Toon
Mar 18, 2008 at 1:05 AM
Comment #58lets start a petition to try and pursuade kompany to come to newcastle. enough people saying it will be interesting… highly unlikely that he would come, but would be awesome
ObaFan2
Mar 18, 2008 at 1:42 AM
Comment #59Bolton’s game in hand is gonna be easy…….Man U at Old Trafford !!!!!!!!!
btw KK on bbc interview said it’d be a good fight between him n Oba but KK’s a bit taller than him ! 😀
Toooooooooooooooooon
Mar 18, 2008 at 3:16 AM
Comment #60i bought kompany for newcastle united every time i play football manager. kompany, nigel de jong and heitinga
Tripp
Mar 18, 2008 at 3:47 AM
Comment #61Here are the Sky Sports stats. Like Craigg pointed out, the passing was superior. Also note the possession….
Birmingham City Team Statistics Newcastle United
1 Goals 1
1 1st Half Goals 0
4 Shots on Target 5
7 Shots off Target 7
3 Blocked Shots 8
3 Corners 8
9 Fouls 13
1 Offsides 0
2 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
54.8 Passing Success 71.6
35 Tackles 23
60 Tackles Success 78.3
39.5 Possession 60.5
48.9 Territorial Advantage 51.1
Tripp
Mar 18, 2008 at 3:50 AM
Comment #62I have to say that while we didn’t get all 3 points the positives in this game out weigh the negatives by quite a bit. Simply coming back from 1-0 in an away game is a huge step in the right direction. The fact that we dominated the second half is another. There’s still a lot to work on, but this was defo a positive game. Wish we coulda got the other 2 points. And now saturday… probably the biggest game of the season and I have to say I fancy our chances. As much as I love the guy, I wish McBride weren’t playing…
simen
Mar 18, 2008 at 3:13 PM
Comment #63Yep Leo, let’s do it! He can be our new Philippe Albert 😀