It was 29th September at Leicester, and we were losing 1-0, and just before half time, Isaac Hayden was then sent off.
The game ended in our worst defeat since the dreary days of manager Steve McClaren – it ended 5-0, and after that, we had 5 points from our first 7 games.
It looked like we were definitely in for another battle with relegation.
We still maybe will have that fight, but in the last five games, we have three wins against Man United, West Ham, and Bournemouth.
And are up to 15 points from our first 12 games – the best we’ve been since five years ago when Alan Pardew was still at the club.
[table “84” not found /]We could drop a couple of places if Man United and Wolves win their games today – both are ahead at the time of writing.
Not only have we picked up points, but Steve Bruce has been true to his word, and he has had Newcastle play a more attacking style of football.
And the new front three of Allan Saint-Maximin (ASM), Joelinton, and Miguel Almiron have looked threatening, especially the two wide men.
We looked great last week in the first half against West Ham and yesterday, after being outplayed for the first 25 minutes and 1-0 down, we came back with two goals from Clark (second in two games) and DeAndre Yedlin.
The Magpies then held out well as the Cherries chased the equalizer over the last 20 minutes of the match.
We also had breakaways when we should have scored – much like last week at the London Stadium.
So hopefully, we still have that defensive resilience built up under Rafa Benitez, but now we have some real threat in the final one-third of the pitch.
Yes, we now have real pace with ASM and Almiron looking lightning fast down the wings.
Allan Saint-Maximin in action against the Cherries yesterday
So we even have some hope that maybe – just maybe – we can avoid a relegation fight this term and even finish above 10th place for only the second time under woeful and stubborn owner Mike Ashley.
[table “32” not found /]Steve Bruce has taken severe criticism, as most managers would after the way Mike Ashley stupidly allowed Rafa Benitez to leave the club.
But maybe he can now manage Newcastle to a decent season – certainly the players seem to like and respect him.
Yes, anything can happen in the Premier League, so it’s not really clear whether we can avoid a relegation fight.
But more displays like the last two and we should be able to pick up those points.
There’s a two-week International break, and then we have 6 games in December – so at the end of this year, we’ll know how we can fare this season.
But after all the nonsense over the summer, when we lost a world-class manager, a decent finish this season would mean success for Newcastle United.
Who Was Newcastle's Man Of The Match Against Bournemouth?
- A. Saint-Maxmin (34%, 733 )
- DeAndre Yedlin (24%, 516 )
- Fede Fernandez (15%, 322 )
- Miguel Almiron (8%, 176 )
- Ciaran Clark (8%, 172 )
- Jetro Willems (5%, 98 )
- Jonjo Shelvey (3%, 65 )
- Joelinton (1%, 26 )
- Martin Dubravka (1%, 14 )
- Isaac Hayden (1%, 12 )
- Andy Carroll (0%, 10 )
- Paul Dummett (0%, 8 )
- Christian Atsu (0%, 7 )
- Jamaal Lascelles (0%, 5 )
Total Voters: 2,164
Loading ...Comments welcome.
100 comments so far
Bills Son Is Back
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:23 PM
Comment #1Bleatin – But hang on a minute – isn’t the “fair and balanced” approach applicable to our coaching setup? Yes we have won, but the obvious signs we are riding our luck and using up our guile are there and worth pointing out. It’s fair and balanced to say we have crept backward from the last half of last season to dogged defending all game, defensive players are top scorers and the man of the match. It’s fair and balanced to see this style of approach is as likely to set us on a worrying run as a good one.
Eh??
The obvious signs are we are riding our luck?? We have crept backward from the last half of last season to dogged defending all game??
And you say this is your “fair and balanced” approach??
Riding our luck? We’ve missed more chances than other teams have against us.
Crept backwards? We’ve got nearly double the points of last season at the same stage and we’ve won 3, drawn 1 and lost 1 of our last five games – every bit as good as our best form in the last half of last season.
Dogged defending all game?? Do you actually watch the matches or just MOTD highlights? We had 20 shots yesterday and we’ve scored 5 goals in the last two games and created a boat load of chances.
Our defenders are scoring goals because Bruce has encouraged the CB’s to get forward and demanded a goal contribution from them, worked on set pieces and corners in training and told Yedlin and Willems to play higher up the pitch and get into the box when we are attacking. The opposite of Rafa’s defend and don’t concede first and attack but not too adventurously second.
I don’t call your views fair and balanced.
Ron Knee
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:26 PM
Comment #22-1 Interesting.
Ron Knee
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:27 PM
Comment #3Undone.
posada
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:33 PM
Comment #4Just a point on the planning decision.
The Magnificent Seven who voted to grant it.
Are they obliged to explain that decision objectively to others.
What did they consider for and against.
Why did they come down on the side of granting the application.
Perhaps they are not required by the rules to explain themselves.
What about being morally obliged to explain themselves.
Out of loyalty to the people of Newcastle.
The folks they purport to represent.
toon22
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:45 PM
Comment #5Posada
Hiya JIB
Bills Son Is Back
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:47 PM
Comment #6toon22
Hiya OP
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:47 PM
Comment #7The fair and balanced view is that until our forwards start scoring, relying on our defenders to score is always going to mean we are requiring a bit of luck. It would also be fair and balanced to that for the last 10 years, under every coach/manager we have rode our luck during good runs. With the exception of our Championship years.
It is fair and balanced to say we are getting plenty of chances, and also that we would have likely taken more if the club had got Rondon instead of Joe. You could equally say we have been unlucky not to score more, rather than we are riding our luck relying on the defenders.
We are still looking reasonably solid at the back, and there is definitely a togetherness between staff and players. Just like there was last season.
Wr have points on the board, more than for a long time at this stage. Form table over the last 5 games has us 5th.
We are always just round the corner from a collapse with Ashley, we have been since he bought the club, and will be till he leaves.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:51 PM
Comment #85th at the time of writng anyway, not sure how todays games will affect it.
On the pitch, last few games we are starting to look in better shape than we have for a while.
Off the pitch, same problems still exist, and they will hamper real progress long term.
bettyswallocks
Nov 10, 2019 at 3:54 PM
Comment #9OLG……….. What Lesh is insinuating , as he has done numerous times to me, is that you have plagiarised the words, “Will of the people” from some far right publication or media outlet. He refuses to accept the result of the 2016 referendum on Brexit in case you didn’t know.
If you use any words that don’t meet with his agenda he condescendingly assumes that you have been brainwashed by the enemy and are using their words or phrases as you couldn’t possibly be capable of choosing your own words to make a point.
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:02 PM
Comment #10It would have been great to see Rafa continue to build. Perez would have still left, as Perez had said that Rafa and the club agreed to let him go back in January. Rondon would be here, and who knows who else might have come in.
But, he didn’t, and our goalscoring threat from individuals was weakened. Some of the set plays have clearly been worked on to make up for this, and we are creating and earning opportunities to score through desire and a setup that is using the basis of what Rafa built, but adjusting it to give our attacking players more opportunities. How we adapt if certain key personnel are unavailable could well prove a big test.
Will we stay up, I have always said we would, can Bruce use this start as a platform to build more? Possibly, but to a limited degree with what is at his disposal. A couple of first team starters bought in January and we are in good shape. That is where Ashley could derail it all.
lesh
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:02 PM
Comment #11Online
Sorry for any misunderstand but the use of the words ‘will of the people’ has tended to be the favourite phrase of the pro Brexiters. The worry is that that phrase is often used by many who hhaven’t clue what they’ve been suckered into believing in.
But, yes, that planning committee decision’a disgrace, an endorsement of Ashley’s rape of NUFC and big two fingered salute to the good people of Newcastle. The full text of the planning committee meeting should be available for public examination and it’ll be interesting to read their justification. I can see jobs being a.major influence on it but ffs….. the jobs would’ve been created if SJP were to be extended! Maybe Chi can be brought back onto the case?.
Ron Knee
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:04 PM
Comment #12“The will of the people is the will of the government and vice versa.” Joseph Goebbels, 1933.
lesh
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:04 PM
Comment #13Rotunda
If you went to school in Oyster Bay, it’s done you more good than whatever school BettysBollocks went to. 😉
Jib
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:07 PM
Comment #14posada
The planning committee did set out their reasons for granting the application
The thrust of their argument was that extending SJP at the Gallowgate end
was unfeasible.
I did warn folk that basing objections on one premise viz the SJP situation was
going to give them a “get out”.
The objections should have been from all parts of the demographic
and
for many different reasons
lesh
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:08 PM
Comment #15Ron Knee
And in 2019, Boris Trump and his gang. God help the UK if the supposedly enlightened British voter elect the nasty party!
Yes, there are parallels between the UK and other countries that seem to be taking the populist route to freedom!
Bills Son Is Back
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:20 PM
Comment #16Lil,
You reckon we keep riding our luck?
I reckon we are the opposite, one of the most unlucky teams in the Prem.
For example, we’ve had less pens and less players sent off against us + fewer pens awarded and more of our own players sent off than most.
Even in the last Champs promotion we had about 3 pens and Brighton had about 13 or 14.
As far as missed chances etc., either way luck evens itself out over a season.
Most fans will sweat in the last 20 minutes of a close game and will think their team has been lucky if the oppo misses chances. The fact that we have generally had one goal leads and defended deep inevitably leads to the oppo having more possession/chances and us thinking we have been lucky to hang on.
In short, saying we’ve been lucky is a red herring.
posada
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:21 PM
Comment #17Jib
Extending SJP at the Gallowgate end
was unfeasible.
Can’t really argue against that particular aspect of things.
Have had a few run ins with Trent on that one.
If they have set out the logic to their policy decision.
Well, on the face of it that’s fair enough.
lesh
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:22 PM
Comment #18Betty’s
@9
You just don’t get it do you! You don’t or won’t get how words and phrases are assimilated into language. It doesn’t matter what the words are or where they are uttered. Repeat something often enough and people believe it – especially those who accept and use the words without realising they’re being conditioned!
How often do you hear “get it done” and who’d been saying it day in day out? The next one they’re working into minds is ‘oven ready’
You’ll have noticed that the press is making very little refeence to any media cover up of Russian interference in the referendum or the 2017 elections or most recently, suppression of an investigation into Liar Johnson’s shenanigans with the American bint and trade missions (those little trysts must’ve cost us, the taxpayers a pretty penny.
Ron Knee
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:24 PM
Comment #19Bravo in goal for Citeh – Liverpool’s 12th man?
Bleatin' n Bruced
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:27 PM
Comment #20Well done lilo for reasoning properly without having to get offended by the suggestion that everything is not running perfectly despite a few wins -which are great and a massive relief by the way – I see bills son is continuing just as he has been for over a decade, a cantankerous gnarly old bloke who doesn’t get the point because he’s so angry at whatever he’s angry about.
bettyswallocks
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:28 PM
Comment #21God help us if Corbyn gets elected . He will scare off huge waves of foreign investors, wreck the economy losing the country many many jobs and then borrow billions to subsidise his reprivatisation and open doors immigration policy putting more burden on our Social Services particularly the NHS.
Not to mention his unpatriotic approach in sympathising with extremist foreign terror organisations and his refusal to adopt a sensible defence policy. Need I go on?
Jib
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:28 PM
Comment #22Lesh did you see that ex MI5 head , Dame Stella Rimington
(retired from the Service in 1996) although restricted by the
Official Secrets Act , was able to confirm that at least five
members of Corbyn’s advisory council were red- flagged as being
a threat to the state.
Bills Son Is Back
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:32 PM
Comment #23Bleatin, I see bills son is continuing just as he has been for over a decade, a cantankerous gnarly old bloke who doesn’t get the point because he’s so angry at whatever he’s angry about.
Your full of wind.
Foul smelling as you talk a load of the brown stuff.
The angry lot are you and your cohort of whingers, not positive fans like me.
Bleatin' n Bruced
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:33 PM
Comment #24Come on Bills son, tell me what’s fine and functional without the lazy use of stats about how we are playing at the moment. At the least it’s unconventional, most likely dependant on prior defensive drills and snatching wins on the break against frustrated teams, at worst a ticking time bomb if we can’t get the front men scoring and we start a run of losses against the top end clubs that drag us down into the mire again.
If you can’t see this is a makeshift squad bravely scrappng it’s way to safety with a second rate coach, then disappointment may hit you as hard as surprise will hit me if we get into the European places at season end. There’s a long long way to go yet before getting your uppity on.
toon22
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:34 PM
Comment #25JIB
Why are you talking to one of your alts pretending its someone else ?
Bleatin' n Bruced
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:34 PM
Comment #26You politics boys at the back there! Yes, YOU. Shut it will ya?
😐
jane
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:35 PM
Comment #27not surprising since Jeremy Corbyn has been associated with various terrorist organisations.
toon22
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:37 PM
Comment #28Jabba has trousered the money from the land sale and has ended any hope of a future expansion of SJP
Im sure the money dont actually matter in this case though, its pure spite
Charlie in the Gallowgate
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:38 PM
Comment #29Bit of a cock up yesterday with the two minutes silence crowd started to clap instead of staying silent
Had to happen didn’t it City asked for penalty opposition go up the other end and score – then go to VAR
jane
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:39 PM
Comment #30i wouldn’t be surprised if lesh is on MI5’s radar.
toon22
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:39 PM
Comment #31Bills
Banging in the same PR drum as usual ?
Lets all be positive
Lets all just sit back and watch Jabba asset strip the club
Watch him bleed us dry while he spends the tv money propping up his tat shops
Its wored so well over the last 13 years hasnt it
jane
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:41 PM
Comment #32i knew that would happen when the stadium announcer said the silence would begin and end on the ref’s whistle.
bettyswallocks
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:42 PM
Comment #33Tsunki………. He started it sir honest.
toon22
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:42 PM
Comment #34Lets all get behind the traitor and the rag tag bunch we have as a team
Lets hope Jabba can shift as many as possible for a massive profit, while the ones he cant we will be left footing the wage bill for
He cant loose
Lets all get excited scraping a mid table finish, lets pass that off as success
Jib
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:43 PM
Comment #35This match at Anfield is building up to be a cracker !
Essex Geordie Bill
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:44 PM
Comment #36Lesh
Are you aware that people who pay the most in taxes in this country are preparing to either move or shift their assets away from this country should a Corbyn led Labour party come to power.
We have a choice between two crap parties but Labour is the crappiest I’m afraid.
Labour will drag us into poverty same as they did last time around.
Jib
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:44 PM
Comment #37toon22
By the way Anfield is a football ground
Liverpool play there
2 – 0 already !!!!!!!
Lilongwe Geordie
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:48 PM
Comment #38Bill,
If you read my post, I put forward both the suggestion that we have rode our luck, and could also be said to be unlucky.
We have got very few penalties in recent history because we have also had less possession in and around the opposition bix than most other teams, that has been very much the case since we were promoted with Hughton. It isn’t that there is a conspiracy against us, it is that we rarely got in the oppoaition box, and rarely ran at players in the box
Not that the luck for penalties is anything to do with whether we are tactically riding our luck, which is all my post was about. Go on any club blog and almost every group of fans feel they are hard done to by the referee consistently. We aren’t any different in this respect.
The Wife
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:49 PM
Comment #39Folks, I don’t want to start handing out red cards.
bettyswallocks
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:52 PM
Comment #40Well said EGB…. The voice of reason. I hope for the sake of the country that it prevails.