Newcastle played well in the first half today, and Michael Owen scored a great opportunist headed goal after just 5 minutes and we were 1-0 up at the break.
But then in the last 45 minutes we gave it all away, and seemed to give up the fight, and were well beaten in the end by Aston Villa 4-1.
Michael Owen - gave us a good goal to get going
The Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan spoke after the disappointing result today:
“I had no complaints about the first half at all.” “I said to the players we had built a good platform from which to go on and win a football match.”“Instead of going a goal down like we have been doing in most recent games, we went in front and handled everything Villa threw at us.”
“I impressed at half-time on the players the importance of the opening 15 minutes of the second half and picking up where we left off.” “We were unlucky with Villa’s first goal which took a deflection and even then Shay Given would have saved it if he hadn’t slipped and pulled his groin.”
“You want to see how the players were going to respond after that and that was the most disappointing aspect of today.” “Before you knew it, we were getting bullied, especially by Carew and Harewood, and they were basically doing what they wanted to do with us at times.”
“That was the disappointing aspect and that is what I told the players. There were still some very good performances but who cares when you get beat 4-1.”
“We got the lead today and still couldn’t go on and win so you sort of run out of excuses in that department.” “When you look at the second half the positives are forgotten because of the negatives and we are very fragile at the moment.”
The big disappointment is that players did not respond at all to giving away two goals in the first 6 minutes of the second half. And time is running out for some of these players at Newcastle, who may not be good enough to give the performances necessary for the the Premier League.
We’re not sure where we go from here, other than to acknowledge we have some kind of crisis building at the club on the playing side, and then ensure we can escape the drop to live to fight another day in the Premier League.
We really don’t want to hear again from the players being devastated after the game and the way they are going to fight like crazy against Manchester United for a result and all that cr*p.
They need start doing their talking on the field - that’s why they get paid huge ridiculous wages - to produce on the field - not to be politicians, and say what we want to hear.
And we have to hope on the field, it’s not going to be the whimper we heard in the second half this afternoon. 
We need our players to give everything they have, and for our supporters to get behind the lads big time - for the good of this football club.
But on this performance today we need more than 4 good players in the summer, that’s an absolute certainty.
As we’ve said before, it’s sometimes tough being a Newcastle supporter, when the team gives us 45 minutes like they played in the second half today. But we just have to keep believing we can pull out of this.
In the summer we must bring in some good players, who are guaranteed to be able to perform in the Premier league, which is so much better now than the European leagues.
Comments welcome - but please keep the language decent for our young supporters on this site - thanks.
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66 responses so far ↓
1 Hammy // Feb 9, 2008 at 21:51
Carew bossing our defence???
I’m sure Faye would have sorted him out, we should have brought Faye and Emre/Enrique on at half time to push us on, although we’d have been screwed with Given.
Some poor decisions cost us today……..
Best get Fazackerly back in there to help KK out.
2 Hadrian // Feb 9, 2008 at 21:59
there are pretty blatant reasons why keegan pick that squad today , i cbh to waffle on about them tho , but im pretty confident that viduka or martins will be starting next game , along with faye .
enrique …… well , there must be a reason nobody wants to play him, its been going on for ages and comments from sam and others imply he’s just not clued up enough.
barton played well enough to get himself benched for next match .
3 Ed Harrison // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:03
We need Faye playing every game for us - that’ll be the day when he’s bossed around. I think we have to drop Cacapa and play Enrique for Carr. Smith has to be dropped and bring in Viduka - he looked as sick as a chip on the bench today. Emre looked good when he was brought on. Keegan cannot have favorites - that’s why Sam got us into trouble to start with.
And what’s Jose ever done wrong at Newcastle?
4 Rob // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:07
That 1st goal was coming for 2 minutes beforehand, dithering in defence, Shay Givens hopeless kicking, last thing we needed. No forward capable of holding the ball up front. Viduka should start every game he can. scores goals holds ball up and lays it off well.
5 Ant // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:09
3 words: Emre, Martins, Zog
6 Leo* // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:10
hadrian i wish i knew as well, why jose enrique doesnt get played, from what i have seen he is good, makes little mistakes but is quick and gets back and makes up for it.
I HATE BUTT
7 Bert Shaft // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:13
Keegan said…“Before you knew it, we were getting bullied, especially by Carew and Harewood, and they were basically doing what they wanted to do with us at times.”
Well why didn’t heput Faye on then? Has his brain turned to mush already.
8 Gooderz // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:13
Still little mention of a certain Nicky Butt. He was pretty non-existent today and picked up yet another yellow card albeit a soft one as there are still doubts as to how much contact he actually made with Reo-Coker.
I have no qualms about having him in the squad. He’s still a very able player with a wealth of experience, but his age and his style of play mean that he shouldn’t be playing every possible game, more like coming on as a sub to add a bit more steel to the team and see the result out.
Hopefully Faye will take his place, win aerial duals, boss playes out of the way, and sit back when the fullbacks get forward to join the attack.
9 Hammy // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:14
Worst players for us today were Smith, Butt, Barton and Carr. I am sick of seeing Smith snarling at the ref over petty free kicks given against him, Barton couldn’t pass today to save his life, Butt has two speeds…..stop and reverse
and Carr brought to a halt any attack on the left by cutting inside to put it on his right foot….
Thought Owen played well today, god only knows what he thinks of the service he’s getting….
10 davey // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:18
we are now officially sh*t
11 ende // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:18
Kev out!
just kidding. But maybe now we can hope it’s obvious that our problems are not at the managerial level but rather at the player level, and as such we can start working them out. Just gotta do the best we can with what we have until Summer comes around. Biggest thing we can work on right now is gaining confidence throughout the team, every player, every coach, and every fan.
12 CJ // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:22
Davey wev’e been officially shit for a couple of season now.
13 Leo* // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:25
in the last two days when we have got the ball to the edge of the box and crossed it we have caused teams all kinds of problems… we dont do it enough compared to other teams.
14 daiv // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:27
Kevin worries me a lot. We could pick up wins with the right team…without Butt, Carr and Smith and with Faye, Enrique, Viduka/Martins but Kevin seems to want to get us relegated by picking the miagic 3. Kevin is doing a worse job than Sam and Im devastated. If he keeps picking the magic 3 we will go down and he deserves the same as Sam got. hate to say it. he needs help because he is not the manager he was. Alan Shearer should come in as number 2 and stabilise the ship.
15 Leo* // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:33
notice how the villa fans boo’d their team at half time… and yet the press wont jump on the fact that they are fickle!!!!!!!!!!!
bastards
16 Leo* // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:39
btw nicky butt is shit
17 Sales Training // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:42
There must be some reason Enrique isn’t getting picked - remember, we don’t get to see the training sessions. Maybe Viduka still isn’t fully fit yet. We played much better when he came on against Boro.
I think Butt is living on his reputation. I suspect Keegan is hoping he will “return to form” whereas it looks more like he’s over the hill. A shame as he put in a couple of good seasons. Keegan may also have him in there for his experience - though it doesn’t seem to be helping. Faye started a bit slowly but put in some good games before disappearing of to the African Nations.
Ian
18 Tom_Toon // Feb 9, 2008 at 22:50
I just like to say.
Sort it the fuuuuuuucck out, look its fkin simple.
No Butt, no Smith, done and dusted.
Do it! (Sylvestre Stallone voice)
19 Oztoonfan // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:17
Why leave our best forward on the bench all day for crying out loud Smith cannot hold a ball up he cant win a header and he cant shoot or score, so why play him up front!!!! Viduka is on his day the best in the league why not play him hes has the touch and ability to hold of two players at a time and we get bullied why u think that is keegan as every time we play the ball forward smith loses it!!!!
As for butt he has no confidence his header out for Carew’s goal was pathetic for EPL player…
Carr needs to be dropped he did well first half but he has no height cant win headers has no pace and passing is poor need i say more…
Thought Owen was fantastic again, Milner finally got back to form, Duff good again but lacked service in second half, send barton of to jail who cares he is useless cant shoot dosent get in the box to score and cant pass 5 metres….
Dont mean to be negative but i can really see us getting relegated this year we have no backbone besides about 3 or 4 players and KK is doing another Allardyce playing players who are shite, no wonder Roz left and Pearson jumped ship, to many rats below eating out the ship…
Love the club but 13yrs of getting dissapointed every season beside when Sir Bobby was around, im really saddened, but will always love the club forever….
20 sparetheman // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:20
Keegan actually praised the partnership of Smith and Owen in the post-match interview with the BBC. Unbelievable. If I was at the Man Utd game I’d protest his inclusion in the team. I’d bet my bottom pound that he’ll be playing along with Butt.
I normally don’t like fans booing players, but management just don’t seem to get it! I BEG those at the Man Utd game to barrage those two with massive boos when they touch the ball. It would make my day (even when we lose 10-0).
21 Magjp // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:27
I have been lamenting the inclusion of Smith in the team for a long time.
I just dont understand it, Smith does nothing!
And being bullied by Carew is no excuse when you have Faye on the bench, and you have Butt who is absolutely crap!
Agree, we need to start boooing our own players soon.
22 Tez131 // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:36
I am not impressed!!
All I can say is boro are above us!!
Mackems ares 2 points below us!!
Our next few games:
Man Utd (H)
Blackburn (A)
Liverpool (A)
Mackems:
Pompy (A)
Derby (A)
Everton (H)
It will be unthinkable if both get above us.
I’m going to bed tonight not happy with the current state of our special club.
The only way we can stop sliding down the table is to go out and attack teams, scored goals and create chances!! If you dont have chances you can score goals and to be fair the way we are giving away goals we need to score more.
DEFENCE
We need Faye to start as he is about the closest person we have to a commanding experienced CB. Play Enrique and Beye as our full backs.
MIDFIELD
We really need 2 things here someone that can put his foot on the ball and make smart passes to start attacks (not wasteful with the ball and lose it ‘Butt’ style). I think the only player we have that is close to this is Barton but he has got to get back to his Man City days if not maybe play Faye here as at least he is solid. And then a player in Attacking Mid that can create something from nothing with one touch passing & killer ball as well as break into the box. At the minute it is far to easy for teams to defend against us because they are only marking our strikers and don’t have the sudden run from an attacking mid to cover.
I think for this Att Mid the closest we have is Emre or N’Zogbia which could fill this.
We have wingers in Duff and Milner (I know we need competition but January is over) Lua Lua can provide cover for right if needed.
STRIKERS
If we created half the chances that other ‘european contenders’ produced I garantee owen and martins/ viduka would have a field day. Owen is a poacher/ finisher without chances he will be lost with chances he is lethal. Martins pace and Viduka hold up play can provide to variations for him to play with. I do think we need rid of Smith and bring in another Strong Striker (Or if we could tempt Henry lol :)).
Any thoughts?
23 Gooderz // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:40
How is Keegan doing a worse job than Allardyce?
He hasn’t made any signings, and he hasn’t started players in ridiculous positions.
He has played some players that shouldn’t be near the first team, but he sees them in training and they could warrant a place from that plus their experience, but after seeing how they play, he should then see that a change or two is in order.
24 vin // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:40
booing our players in a pre-meditated attack? are you mental??…I presume all your opinon comes jsut from the newspapers. Either that or you actually want to live up to the reputation the papers would like the rest of the world (london) to beleive. I cannot believe a proper NUFC supporter would go into a match (like they are actually there at SJP) with the thought of gettingonto a players back..what if SMith scored a hattrick? (unlikely, i know.,..but do you get my point??)
25 Black and White Blood // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:47
Tez - no easy games are ther at all!!!
26 Tom_Toon // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:48
If smith scored a hatrick id go to live in mongolia, cut off my penis, get someone to pull out all my teeth, rape a chicken and then kill myself.
27 Tez131 // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:52
Tom_toon - We’ll hold you to that but leave the poor chicken alone…
28 gloryhunter // Feb 9, 2008 at 23:57
Another one singing “I feel like chicken tonight”
29 gloryhunter // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:00
Smith is trying to pick up an injury so he can sleep out the rest of the season as a hero. He’s a liability.
30 Si // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:02
It was very important to bring in a few quality players during the last transfer window. It would have given the squad a lift. So what if we’d payed a few million over the odds to get the players we wanted. What’s an extra few mill to a billionaire ??
This didn’t happen and we are now looking at thye real possibility of a relegation battle. On current form, we’d go down.
Should have spent in Jan, only ourselves to blame…
31 Jamie // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:04
Its the players fault not the manager, we have so many very poor and average players, coupled with very few athletes in the team barring Faye, Beye and Martins, how are we meant to be challenging for anything other than losing every game? For the next game we better ship out Smith, Butt and Cacapa for Faye, Emre and Viduka / martins.
Also there are a hell of a lot of decent players playing for overly bad teams in the division, for example - Jason Koumas, better than any midfielder we have at the club bar N’zogbia, we not buy this guy? also Kevin Nolan, big powerful box player, Dean ashton again is very good center forward who we should look to buy.
Giles barnes who we are meant to be buying, we can only hope he signs. Why or why didn’t buy lassana diarra? what a superb asset he is proving to be at pompy already.
32 AdamCF // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:07
Gooderz.. I suspect playing Carr at left back and not starting Viduka may have been just a tad ridiculous.
KK needs to make a point of difference with the squad now and play the youth. The others clearly are not up to it.
33 AdamCF // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:11
Jamie.. the resposibility always falls on the managers shoulders. He needs to put a rocket up some of the ‘automatic’ selections otherwise, it could be a sorry sight. I’m not sure whether talking about who should be brought into the club right at the moment is totally necessary, as we don’t know where we will be at the end of the season. Mind you a good signing should’ve been made in January and it wasn’t.
34 Jamie // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:28
My point was that the squad is just not good enough, the manager can say whatever he deems right, but if the players can’t perform (a lot have high reputations but are getting past it now) then that will need to be addressed with new blood.
Yes we can go on about how good we will be with our first team of who we have at present, we can only hope these guys will actually play at the same time, bloody acn competition!!
Faye obvious cannot have been fit to start, now that Cacapa has yet again contributed to losing another game, he should be dropped, we can only hope. Same with Carr, out of his depth, go play in the championship please! Enrique and Faye replacing them will see us strengthened i thank you. Butt has nothing to give, Emre should start in place of HIM and not Barton, Nzogbia for the hapless Duff please o please, another weak useless has been, do you see the trend?
Get the pace back upfront, lets see Martins start for once, as center forward, not out on the right wing :S, this will see the brilliant, and very pissed off Michael Owen actually get some decent service to thrive off!
I feel sorry for Taylor and Harper, Given is rubbish compared to of old and Cacapa with is lack of height, strength and pace is just to much baggage for Taylor to bail out time and time again.
35 Mac // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:28
Newcastle lost a fan today. i am 29 years old and held a season ticket for 16 years,even when i was away with the Army for 10 years i kept it on,but today was the final straw,i have never and will never boo a Newcasle team but i can not watch anymore atleast not this season.
36 Pele's Big Toe (right foot) // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:40
Guys
|I’ve been a season ticket holder now for 8 Years & in that time it has cost me a minimum of £6000 to watch this sort of CRAP home & away.
It was bad enough under FFS as a chairman but I really think Ashley & his cronies have shot themselves & this club in the foot!
All we hear is how the new board are building to bring new, great players to the club in the summer - how many “great” players will be willing to come to a championship team?
Just look at our run in to the end of the season….when those below us are starting to get some confidence & get the odd win & some draws - what the hell will we get?
I really think not buying in the Jan window will be our undoing - although I think the fact that no one wanted to come to the toon speaks for itself.
Ashley might sit quite happily with the away fans as he did today with a huge grin on his face but this is OUR club - not just his toy.
When the fans pay what they do for a season ticket & get to watch this bollox, something needs to give.
For me, this will be the LAST season I pay for a season ticket. At least watching it in a pub or at home there is something else to take your mind of the rubbish (booze or broads!).
37 Jamie // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:41
Mac - its very depressing isn’t it when you see other teams move forward and we just always are moving backwards.
God Newcastle need to get with the program and get some decent recruits! all we can do now is give the young generation a go, at least these guys can actually run!!
38 Pele's Big Toe (right foot) // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:43
Me too - Carr HAS to go - do you think he purposely played crap as he was out of position?
Never like the guy………….NEVER
39 Pele's Big Toe (right foot) // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:45
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm methinks Kev has lost it……….or maybe he’s brought his soccer circus home……
40 Dragoner // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:47
“Cacapa with is lack of height, strength and pace is just to much baggage for Taylor to bail out time and time again.”
LOL! i knew it, i must have said it one or two days ago at most, if we concede while cacapa and taylor are at cb then cacapa will always be blamed. Tell me, what did Taylor do today to excuse him from the poor performance?
i suppose someone will say, “cacapa made a bad clearance that led to carr’s handball”…but what about emre’s poor pass, which led to beye’s poor touch before the ball had even come near cacapa. Where was Taylor in this whole situation? Come to think of it, when did taylor ever get anywhere near the ball throughout the 90minutes to make a mistake? at least cacapa was in the right place at the right time.
Where was taylor for any of the four goals!?…oh yeah i remember, he was standing BEHIND Harper wasnt he lol.
41 Dragoner // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:53
Ed i have seen from the last few matches that your analysis of each match is quite poor and you often just repeat what others on here say. DO you watch all of the matches ed? One minute your praising cacapa, next minute your blaming him for our whole defences short comings. sort it out ed
still a great blog though
42 Mart // Feb 10, 2008 at 0:57
As frustrated as we all are, booing the team you are supposedly there to support, does nothing but undermine the confidence (if we have any left) of the team and can only make things even worse, if you do that during a game. It happened during the appalling home defeat to Liverpool, starting with the constant booing of Gerard, one of the best players in the country whether you like it or not , and did nothing but galvanise him into an even better performance. Then when some so called ‘fans’ starting booing us, again it demoralised us further and lifted Liverpool to greater heights.
You only have to look at the support we gave the team against Arsenal at home to see what affect the fans can have on the game.
Yes the team should play their part but I believe we’re all in this together and, say what you like at full time, but if you boo the team during the game you only let yourself down and give another excuse for the press to slag us off.
The fact is we’re in a mess and there is no easy way out. The priority now is to stay up and hope things improve following a summer of re-building. Even if the team lets us down let’s at least stand up and say we supported them to the end and tried to do OUR bit.
I understand how people feel when we are playing badly and it drives me round the bend as much as anyone , but in my opinion anyone who goes to the game with the intention of booing their own players/team is not a true Newcastle fan and should not be there. I suggest you stay at home in future or go to the dark side where you belong.
43 tommyinaustralia // Feb 10, 2008 at 1:12
omg i couldnt handle watching this game, butt, smith and carr are really bad and offer nothing.
i wish he played enrique at lb, faye and emre in the middle and dukes or carrol up front
44 scottyt // Feb 10, 2008 at 1:20
well all i can say is that i was at the match today after getting up at 5am and paying £60 for ticket and i thought our support was brilliant as always away from home .. constantly supportive, loud and just overall a great atmosphere
first half i was so pleased i thought to myself we’re playing quite well here but always you know in the back of your head that we wont keep a clean sheet with the defense we have.
second half what can i say gutted we just collapsed as usual in the second half, 6 goals against man u, 3 vs arsenal, 4 vs villa wtf happens at half time?
of course as usual the shitty villa fans only start singing when they start winning whilst at 3-1 4-1 down our fans are singing away supporting a team which at the moment to be fair is absolutely shite and dont deserve our great suppprt .. obviously they need it and wen we support the team like we did today we deserve so much more
stephen carr please som1 release him or somthing along with joey barton was crap 2day and smith did nowt
£60 at 5am to watch this shite .. but as the song goes ‘hello hello we are the goerdie boys, hello hello we are the geordie boys, wer gonna win fk all agen wer gonna win fk all, but we still follow united!!!!’ and we will becoz thats just the way geordies are, end of.
45 Nicky Butt is crap! // Feb 10, 2008 at 1:23
its my birthday today and the best present would be for my team to play to an acceptable standard!
46 Dragoner // Feb 10, 2008 at 1:28
the fact that villa were booed off after being 1-0 down to us at half time really does put it into perspective doesn’t it, villa fans expected 3 points today as if it were fulham, derby or wigan. People used to say we underperform, but now people just say we are s**t. When one of the worst premiership teams in history has its fans singing ‘can we play you everyweek’ it is clear that we are currently a pitiful side. Half of Derby’s points were accumulated at our expense, we are the only team to NOT beat them i think. It seems players and teams use us to set their records and boost their confidence e.g. ronaldo and carew’s first premiership hat-trick, derby’s first win etc
47 scottyt // Feb 10, 2008 at 1:39
well basically we have become a very poor side probably coming from souness’ reign but more recently allardyce the signings just havnt been good enough .. weve had luque boumsong cacapa barton smith babayaro onyewu and as a few of us today were saying who would you keep out of our current team? .. we came up with nzogbia milner given harper nd taylor, you could add maybe emre and beye a spose but we need a complete man city like overhaul in the summer desperately .. that is if we stay up of course
48 Yorkie Dave // Feb 10, 2008 at 2:34
out of our squad i would keep
Given, Harper, Faye, Beye, Taylor, Enrique, Milner, N’Zogbia, Duff, Owen, Martins, Carroll, Lua Lua and our youth and thats it.
CRAP performance, sorry thats not strong enough but i dont want to offend anyone reading. The worst ive seen since urm last week…..
We have missed out big time over the years for signings, Matthew Upson, Cristiano Ronaldo(we got Hugo Viana instead, some1 told our scout he was better and yes we had the choice!!!) Rooney wasnt a real effort before you think bout him FFS just put a bid in so sacking Bobby wouldnt seem so bad another big mistake.
selling class aswell Jenas to start the ball rolling, Ferdinand ginola beardsley god its going back abit but these players should of been with us till they retired and taught the youth something, christ even bellamy was a mistake! i met the guy on hols and said that he wished he could of stayed but was given the choice of go or play reserve team footie for rest of his contract! (ask yourselves what you wouldve done in his place!!) we lost out on Carrick!!!!! how could they not see he was a good player!!! HOW??!?!?!?!? WHY?!?!?! Basically we are not a good team we have a squad fit for a relegation battle we couldnt expect anymore from them. Smith is the biggest joke i have seen since he left leeds…..and scottyt you are right we need a complete overhaul in summer with regards to playing staff. I dont care how much money it costs GIVE US A TEAM TO BE PROUD OF!!!!!
Please tell me where do we turn to next????? He has to (IF FIT) play FAYE ENRIQUE MARTINS EMRE please o please o please……
49 Cape Toon // Feb 10, 2008 at 6:53
I think KK should play Faye and Emre in midfield. Enrique at LB (give the boy some game time to show us what he has … I mean 6 mil ffs!).
Give Smith & Duke no more than 30/40 mins any game they might play.
Martins and Owen up front with either open to sub depending on form during game.
Duff NZog and Milner to battle for the 2 wide positions. Lua Lua on the bench to get some more game time and an opportunity to challenge for a wide position too.
All of the above obviously to hold things down until the end of the season when we hopefully can get some quality in.
Anyhoo - those are the thoughts of an ardent TOON supporter over 10 000 kms away.
Love the site, Ed … and the comments by fellow supporters … well most comments
50 scotty // Feb 10, 2008 at 7:25
the most worrying thing about all this is that SA would have picked exactly the same team!!!
I have stood by Smith but i have to admit defeat and say he is just not good enough for the premierleague. On numerous occasions yesterday, he received the ball with his back towards goal with loads of space around him and not once did he turn around with it and use it. I would now put Smith after Ameobi and Carrol.
As for Carr……… Enrique has done nowt wrong, he is young but he looks solid and looks to be our best player for that position so why is he dropped? where is the method for this madness?
Cacapa, As good as he once was is now no good for this leaque. If we were playing in europe then i’d probably play him but it is clear to see that he aint tall enough, fast enough or strong enough to be a CD in this league (see Benjani).
Butt is past his best and has been before we signed him. Although he has been at times our best player - it just goes to show the plight of our team. He too is slow leading to the midfield being overan and non existant at times and he is also foul prone.
There are other players i could mention but the ones i’ve listed here need omitting from the team NOW!
51 wags // Feb 10, 2008 at 8:23
The hole left side of newcastle looked crap and the ball seemed to go that side all time duffs movment was labored never realy did anuf with ball car well every time he got the ball it turned over that gos for butt as well i would have taken him of not barton every time butt got the ball he gave it strate back its allright being hard at the ball but whats the point if he just gives it away cacapa looked out of it all day why if faye was fit u would put cacaper in. Owen wants to get goals but hes not going to get them playing at the other end of the ground he seems toget cought way out of position on the counter attack which means there no one for milner to get the ball to. i think keegan needs to go with the younger players like enriquie and well emre on the left but moveve emre to the center and put butt aon the bench and put n’zog on the left faye for cacapa and play martins and owen up front and try to play the ball more to the front of them to use martins speed maybe use carrol hes tall and would be good for martins to play of would like to see more of lua lua liked what i have seen when he has had a run. I live i oz and have to get up in the middle of the night to watch these games and the last thing i want to see is half a side has beens ( cacapa carr butt duff smith) that cant keep up with it any more other than milners runs the side still has the same look and shape as some of alladices sides no real flow just slow and ruff what did we have 3 shots on goal and villa had 15 thers just no real service and speed from midfield by the time they get there ass into gear the opp side has got back and there is no room to pass
52 sparetheman // Feb 10, 2008 at 8:28
“I understand how people feel when we are playing badly and it drives me round the bend as much as anyone , but in my opinion anyone who goes to the game with the intention of booing their own players/team is not a true Newcastle fan and should not be there. I suggest you stay at home in future or go to the dark side where you belong.”
Just because I suggested booing Smith and Butt doesn’t mean I’m not a “true” Newcastle fan, whatever that means. Not ONCE have I even thought of booing the team before and I hate the booing culture but I think this is a different set of circumstances.
We’ve had to put up with players we don’t want in our team all season with suitable replacements on the bench. Keegan, despite his claims, clearly doesn’t know what the Toon fans want. My understanding is most fans want Butt and Smith out. What harm will booing do in a game against Man Utd? Once they go 3 up, we have the ideal opportunity to get our feelings across on who we like and don’t like. It won’t damage our nonexistent chances of winning the game and the players confidence can’t get any worse than it is. I’d be cheering whenever the likes of N’Zog, Owen, Emre, Viduka touch the ball anyway.
53 Ryan Syahril // Feb 10, 2008 at 8:43
Dear King Kev.. (1) If Faye played last night, I believe “Before you knew it, we were getting bullied, especially by Carew and Harewood” you won’t have to say those words. (2) Please sent Smith, Carr and Barton to take care of your ‘football circus’! (3) Team for the next game:
———- Viduka / Owen ————
——- Duff—– Emre ——- Milner—
—————– Geremi —————–
– Enrique — Faye– Taylor– Beye—-
—————– Harper—————–
54 Hammy // Feb 10, 2008 at 9:27
At 4-1 down I was praying that Smith and Barton would seek out Villa’s smallest player and chin him out of frustration, hence picking up a lifetime ban from football……..alas not..
55 Murph // Feb 10, 2008 at 9:47
Given - looks like he is getting over the hill
Beye - excellent but getting on (29/30?)
Carr - over the hill
Butt - over the hill (and have to agree with Leo here, he is simply awful, he cant pass a ball 5 yards. The centre midfielders in my 6th form team could do a better job!)
Barton - over the hill
Duff - over the hill
Owen - yes lack of service but does not look anything near his best
Viduka - over the hill
Smith - simply awful
Geremi - over the hill
Getting the picture? When do you ever see Man U/Arsenal buying 30 year olds and trying to get performances out of them?
It’s ridiculous. Come on Newcastle !
56 UTD111 // Feb 10, 2008 at 9:56
Do these toys belong to anyone?? I found them outside your prams LOL
57 Ed Harrison // Feb 10, 2008 at 9:59
Dragoner - yes I watch the matches.
On Cacapa think I’m changing my mind - we did say in what piece we cannot make up our minds about him - sometimes he looks great and then he gets tooe easily shoved off the ball.
Think we have to play Faye at center back.
58 UTD111 // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:00
God bless ‘im you’ve got to love Mr “not my fault” Allardyce LOL
Sam Allardyce has claimed that rather than the Newcastle job being too big for him, he was too big for it.
With the results under his successor Kevin Keegan so far making relegation an increasing possibility, has led many to question the timing of Allardyce’s departure, not least ‘Big Sam’ himself.
“When you get sacked, reflection is a difficult scenario,” Allardyce told The People. “The one thing you have to evaluate first and foremost is how much of it was your fault.
“I think you can accept it a lot more if you can come to terms with the fact that a good percentage of it was your fault - but that doesn’t apply to me at Newcastle.
“The usual rubbish that goes when someone like me is sacked from a club like Newcastle is that that job was too big for me. That’s just not true.
“If I’m honest, the reverse is probably true. Newcastle probably wasn’t big enough for me - it didn’t live up to my ambitions in the short time that I was there. And because it didn’t do that, the club missed a chance to realise its own ambitions.
“The more I analyse it, the more I come to the conclusion that it was never about me or results and we have seen that with the appointment on Dennis Wise and various others.
“It was about things they wanted to put in place.”
59 UTD111 // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:03
The man who got us those great results against Derby reckons its not his fault - chokin on me sausage roll here!!!!
60 UTD111 // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:07
And just to cheer you up further……….
Sam Allardyce had to beat a hasty retreat from the £1.8million luxury home near Durham that he was renting when he was sacked by Newcastle last month.
But so hasty that he left a precious memento behind? The house is back up for sale, and the local estate agent website is showing a picture of a study with… a SUNDERLAND shirt hanging on the wall! Newcastle fans never took to Allardyce partly because of his playing and coaching connections with the Wearsiders.
Alas, the conspiracy theorists who fear Sam may have been a Makem plant, will be disappointed to learn the red and white shirt shirt belongs to the current owner of the house.
61 Gooderz // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:11
Of course it’s not Allardyce’s fault. He didn’t buy poor players to then play out of position along with the rest of the team in tactics that came from ’strange far-out places’ like he’s been smoking something he shouldn’t. His side never gave up the ghost going forward, and nor did they ever lose their confidence. Allardyce also dumped the talentless bums Dyer and Solano, and signed extremely creative players in Smith and Barton.
It’s a wonder why we’re in our current situation, as we should clearly be topping the table.
Allardyce, like all failed managers and SMBs, should learn to keep quiet. Just wait until Keegan is signing the sort of players Allardyce could easily have signed if he had wanted too.
62 CRAIGG // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:21
This is just like a conversation i had last night with Black and white blood, Utd111 and ronaldeano armchair fans slamming keegan just f**k off!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hes had five games with sams shit brigade!!!
63 CRAIGG // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:27
Black and white blood, Utd111 and ronaldeano arent armchair fans i meant we were talking about certain other people who come on to this blog
64 UTD111 // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:30
Thanks Craigg - I knew what you meant LOL wish I’d gone to bed instead of stayin up markin Michael’s english essays :o))
65 CRAIGG // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:35
This should be our side for the rest of the season (barring injury) in my opinion i know lots will disagree but
Given
Beye Taylor Faye Enrique
Milner Barton Emre N’Zogbia
Owen Martins
Subs:- Harper, Ramage, Duff, Lua Lua, Viduka
66 UTD111 // Feb 10, 2008 at 11:10
Think the only tinkering I’d do with that side is Harper in goal……..
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