Montey

Yoooo fooking rippa!!!!!!!

Someone has to, Smith has f****** disappeared. Again. how can someone dissappear with that hairstyle! With his head that far up his own arse he just blends in with the crowd.

The scary thing is it's possibly the other way around, that we're seeing something that the management is not.

There is no room for sentiment in football and we are paying for it. I cringed when KK was appointed when rumours of Deschamps were being floated around. This is football Rocky fuking Balboa style without the triumph There's our problem... we haven't hired a manager named Adrian. Adriiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on man, I'm as confused about the selections as anyone, but that's just bollocks. I find the concept hard to believe as well man, but if we reject the conclusion that Keegan is incompetent we need to start looking for other reasons. Contract issues is one possible reason and in the case of Smith, interference from Ashley is another (remember who was on his shirt when he first came to the club). Keegan's selections defy all logic and we need (for our own sanity) to try and work out what is the cause of these bizarre selections is. It should be noted that improved selections probably won't get us in to the top half of the table, but it'd probably keep us out of the relegation fight at least.

I'd truly love to know if Keegan has his hands tied in selecting the squad by "if fit, must play" clauses. I just can't conceive how some of our squad even get on the bench, let alone the pitch, and I truly wonder whether Keegan doesn't have a choice for some sort of contractual reason.

Tell me about it, I've had to suffer 380 for 2 years, 500 for 3 years & 580 mile round trips for 3 years in the past. I don't have to travel to watch it, but it sure gets you down sitting on your couch to see us lose again at 4 or 5am in the morning instead of getting sleep.

I took a real mixed bag of things out of watching this game. Consequently I won't give a number rating, but will classify as the good, the bad and the mediocre.... The good: - For large parts of the game we looked to be well in control. I think is is happening more to a jelling of the squad than individual capabilities, as the individual capabilities can't possibly explain it. - Harper has got to be the best reserve keeper in the league. I think Harper and Given are pretty much the main contributors to maintaining our position in the league for the past couple of seasons. Between them they save our arses more times than a firm grip on the soap! - Milner is the only mid-fielder we have that is showing any value for money. He seems to be about the only creative influence in the squad right now, and just about all chances involved him in some way. - Martins at least looks like we have one player capable of being a forward. The Bad: - Butt is immensely useless. The guy is so hopeless the opposition don't even waste a man on him. - Smith has got to be the worst forward in the top 3 leagues. Almost every challenge he was involved in he lost, he has no ability to score at all, he can hardly tackle to save his life, and he has no ability to maintain possession. - Owen is completely trading on past glories now. The whole game the commentators are talking about how a player of his quality would normally have put those goals in, but it is very evident that those past capabilities are well beyond him now. Whilst he retains some vision, his touch, speed and scoring instinct are completely gone. In fact he spent a good deal of this game in the midfield leaving Smith as a lone forward. The Mediocre: - The defensive line is a little more robust than it once was, but they still have too many incidents where they don't know where they should be and execute the most ridiculous attempts at clearing the ball. - Barton and Duff really are not good enough to be first team players. I think they would be fine as squad members to cover for others, but they just don't have the skills, speed or vision to cut it. This causes the defense to continuously come under pressure as they are both easily shoved off the ball and cause the forwards to keep having to come back to fetch the ball because they can't get it forward. - The tactics are still all over the shop. The substitutions were better today (eventually), but we are still putting out weaker teams than we have available. - I still think N'Zogbia is a class player, but he has spent so much time rusting in that back position he's lost some of his snap for the midfield. Anyway, those are my initial "knee-jerking" thoughts. Ignore them if you want, you can disagree as well it you like, I simply don't care at 4:16am.

I'm not yet anti-Keegan, but why do those who are pro-Keegan ignore that his team selection and in-game tactics have been just as bad as the last 3 managers?

Well, I'm off to bed. I'm not staying up til 6am in the morning to put up with watching this shite!

I'd love to know why some of our players are not on the field.... top of my list is Viduka? Yep he sure did, but surely he's not using Sam's selection book as well?!?!?!?!?!

Yeah but up front isnt his correct position...... Sleeping in the drivers seat of the team bus is his best position during the game.

Based on how we'd played to half-time, I thought we were at least in it for the draw.

The problem we've got with Smith is that Ashley loves him.

Whilst there is so much that could be said, I only have two things I am going to say: 1. Smith is a complete waste of space. The guy just wanders around, and forces Owen to have to keep tracking back into defense, because he (Smith) is such a lazy fuck! 2. What the fuck is the point of putting Viduka on the bench if your just going to leave him there to feel is ass grow? It is absolutely criminal to leave him there and keep Smith on!

Because its not the same. If I watch it live I get to yell at the TV (my wife frequently gets woken up when the Toon are playing), get online and yell with other supporters, and to experience the game in real-time rather than knowing the results first, which ruins the experience and destroys the emotional involvement.

Fly to England then? I am going to.... but that will take a few more pennies than paying for the most expensive ticket at our most expensive ground (cheapest return airfare to UK is around 725 Pounds, and that's not necessarily a viable flight, nor including accommodation, flight to Newcastle, ticket to ground, etc...)

I am really torn over this concept. On one hand I really am concerned about the impact such travel would have on the team and club (financially and physically) for a game in the middle of the home and away season. But on the other hand, as someone who stays up to 3am or 5am every weekend to watch the team I love, I'd do and be prepared to pay just about anything to see them in the flesh for a change.

If one looks at the consistent run of bad refereeing decisions against Newcastle in recent games, one couldbe forgiven for thinking there's some sort of conspiracy involved here. Yeah, we've played complete bollocks football for a while now, but a lot of the opposition have pinched results they shouldn't have got because of mind-blowingly bad refereeing.

<-- At that useful contribution. So come on genius, lets here your super plan to get something from this game, perhaps you'd like the weeping Jesus to bring down his foot, ala a Monty Python sketch?

Butt has to get subbed off. He's been complete shite (again)! Get Butt off and Viduka on in his place, dropping Smith back in to the midfield. With so many corners going our way, Viduka will improve our chances of scoring from the corner set plays and will provide a better possibility of link-up play between himself, Smith and Owen.

Just a random thought.... but do we need to kind of get over the concept of "value for money"? What I mean is do we have to accept that the gloss of playing for NUFC has been somewhat tarnished and until it is back, because we're winning again, we will have to accept paying slightly over the going rate for the players we want? Do we need to accept that for the moment (until that gloss comes back) we will have to target the players we want and just be prepared to pay whatever it takes to get them in, then once we're consistently winning again other players might be more attracted to the club? I'm just a little concerned we might be working from an old evaluation of what players were worth 3 or 4 years ago (that is, player of skill X is worth Y where Y is that value from 3 or 4 years ago). I wonder if we might be missing players because we can't attract them for the moment with the glamour and the glory argument, so we need to waive the cash under their noses for now. Thoughts?

I thought Sam was supposed to have these new training regimes that stress fitness, yet we were completely shagged by the 55 minute mark. We need a whole new centre to the team. All of our centre guys, from the backs to the strikers, right up the middle, suck!

Both Butt and Smith need to be sub'ed off.

Is that even possible!?!? The football equivalent of Tea-Bagging! Don't know about you, but my arse and my face are on opposite sides of my body. Not sure you're supposed to bumming yourself in the face. But it may be you have different hobbies to me.