Benwell Lad

Considering the number of fans and "pundits" who had us down for relegation again and going to the wall like Leeds just 6 months ago, a lot of people will be f@cking ecstatic at that ! Personally I won't. I expect something higher and could never be happy with S*** defensive football.

Count me in !

Colo has been immense this season - player of the season so far for me - I think any centre half would enjoy playing alongside him at the moment as he looks so "in control" and assured. To pick up on a couple of earlier posts - it was very unfair for him to have been judged so harshly last season, as DISG said, against the backdrop of turmoil and chaos he walked in to - but the fact he never threw a "sicky" as some may have done, said a lot about his character. Completely different league but I see him being a success in the PL this time round, IF we go up. Another post comments that we haven't missed Taylor. I thought we would despite not being his biggest fan. Williamson looks to be a good signing, although as said earlier anyone would enjoy playing alongside Colo right now. We have a much better squad than when we started the season, it's unlikely we could have gone to tough places like Watford and got a result with so many key players missing early on. Credit to Hughton - he looks like he's spent what budget he has wisely.

Mike Ashley signed the contracts of EVERY player at the club so it's totally his fault. Would be interesting to find out how he would have been treated if he'd shipped out four or five more of our best players to reduce the losses to £10m a season. I suspect the headlines would be 'NUFC losing £250k a week!!!' and also 'Mike Ashley asset stripping c***'. Something along those lines. The headlines should just be "Ashley spouts more bollocks". The papers should report our profit and loss when the accounts are released and only then. Thecertainly shouldn't run a headline about us losing half a million every week as a statement of fact, when the source is the same people to have admitted in court that misleading fans and the media is what they do. You still think an NUST takeover is a viable and preferable option to the present regime ? Or have they been misleading the fans and media too ?

Words of wisdom from the Lone Star state.

Totally agree but not much chance of that on here mate. It doesn't take much to get the knees jerking especially where the rotund southern one is concerned.

And so he should. Darren Bent at left back, what he playing at!? He did what? [move]PLAYED DARREN BENT AT LEFT BACK![/move] Cheers! At first I thought Bruce played Bent at left back first until I realised he played him at left back! How about that? He did what? Played his leading scorer and centre forward at full back apparently ;D :laugh: :iamatwat:

I think any sane Newcastle fan would echo those sentiments.

WE GOT RELEGATED!! Why are people forgetting this? Fickle Newcastle fans is certainly looking like a valid stereotype! We certainly did ! And in the absence of a better plan, having a bunch of charvers singing the same old catchy ditty week after week is probably the best way to remedy that.

I've always felt that Ashley's mistakes came through naivety, rather than any desire for personal gain or malicious intent. He therefore has the capacity to learn from those mistakes and should be given another chance. Certainly there don't seem to be any wealthier alternatives on the horizon. Any possibility of partnership between NUST and Ashley is a non-starter though. NUST crossed the boundary between criticism and abuse, and the information they were giving to the public seemed, at best, unreliable. They cannot work together in an atmosphere of trust. Was just about to post that as a response to the post you've quoted. Whether it was intentional or not, they've put themselves in an "all or nothing" position in my view. Yep, agreed, that is likely the case, although with that said you just never know with Newcastle United or Mike Ashley. I certainly don't for one minute believe that this will happen, but should it I wouldn't be that surprised. It could be argued his treatment of Keegan (and by proxy the fans) means that there would never be the level of trust required to work together, but sometimes needs must. If Ashley needs cash and fans want in, it might be the only way. Fan representation and fan involvement/investment could be a good thing and I'm sure Ashley has previously said they'd welcome it. I no longer think this can come from the NUST. Unless they do something tangible pretty soon, it's going to look like they have been mis-leading fans along with some of their friends in the press. They just seem to lack any credibility.

A good, thought provoking, article which illustrates just how difficult a decision it will be, but the most salient point in the article is " It is probably unfair and potentially destabilising to be talking about Hughton’s long term prospects at this juncture, with job only half done." This is really not the time to be debating this. We need to be totally focused on the job in hand and the remaining games in the Championship. Anything else can wait.

You make some very good points. Back then we were considered to be a second tier club, many of us had resigned ourselves to being that or at best a yo-yo club, though even the yo-yo was more down than up. When things started to take off under Keegan there was a huge upsurge in optimism and belief and it felt like we were finally moving forward and breaking off the shackles of mediocrity and the feel good factor was sky high. This time many fans have only ever known top level football and feel that promotion is merely putting us back where we should be anyway. Having seen quite a few promotions, my view is that both men have done equally good jobs and although I can't imagine CH ever becoming the legend KK was, his job has probably been a tougher one due to the fracticious circumstances he's had to operate within. I'm not sure Chris Hughton really is "Newcastle's most successful manager ever" as different times and different leagues cloud the issue, but he is certainly one of the most dignified people to have ever been associated with the club and if he get's us promoted he deserves all the praise he gets for doing so.

Kudos for that man! It really is a testament to your character that you were able to do that He will get what he deserves in the end. Hopefully quite soon. The behaviour of this total dickhead does not reflect the feelings of the vast majority of "Geordie" supporters.

No. I still dislike him, it's just easier to forget about the inept t*** when we're winning. Not really asking about liking or disliking HIM, just wonder if those who supported the idea still think fan led ownership is a goer and preferable to FCB right now ?

Wouldn't go as far as to say the nufc.com match report for the PNE match is either "pro Ashley" or "anti NUST takeover" but it sounds like their opinion has softened and swung a bit since a month or two ago. I wonder if any other NUST supporters are changing their opinions too ?

Drawing direct comparisons between Keane and Ranger is a bit daft, but I know which one I'd rather have at the club over the next 3-5 years and he aint playing in the SPL right now !

Tra la la la la la la ! Just seen Bruce's post match interview. He's lost it.

Yeah but the trouble with that argument is that Ashley, although sorting out the clubs finances, cost us millions and set us back several years by getting us relegated with ridiculous mistakes. It's always going to come back to that. Plus he had the chance to sell us to "them rich Arab blokes down the road" and didn't. He's a greedy c***. Wasn't really meant to be an "argument" as such, and I'm certainly not going to argue with the points you made. Facts are facts, and mistakes have been made. Everyone, including Ashley NOW knows that. Bottom line though, is we are where we are, we can't go back in time, so we need to look forward, get back in the PL quickly and move forward from there.

Once I heard Routledge was out I knew it would not flow like Wednesday, but we still dominated the game and could have won by more than 3. Harper was impeccable, it's good to know that should the opposition get past the best defence in the league they still have to get past the best keeper. Colo and Williamson again looked extremely assured against physical forwards. Does Darren Ferguson get employed because of his surname ? His team were lame - you can see why their results are so poor and his post match comments were just plain stupid.

Pro/Anti Ashley fueding apart, this once again shows that it is absolutely imperative that the club spends no longer than one season outside the PL, who ever the future owner may be. In the absence of skinny Geordie benefactors and with corporate backers deserting, we may have to be thankful that the fat cockney bast@rd did stick around a while and bail things out.

Think we need a flatulence thread. Would it be in football or general ?

Doom mongers who are predicting instant relegation, lowest ever points record etc (IF we get promoted) are similar to those who predicted us doing a Leeds before the season started or who six weeks into the season had us promoted by March. The present squad will be better than at least 3 Premier League squads next season even if it wasn't invested in during the summer. I.E. it would probably survive. However mere survival should never be enough for our club and significant and wise investment will be required to push on. "lktmpl" you're far too positive for this board mate, many on here won't allow you to enjoy the novelty of winning matches and to some we only ever win because the opposition is sh*t - not because we've made them look sh*t.

Preston have sold out - pretty much as expected, should be a big crowd and decent atmosphere. They'll have been working hard on defensive set pieces and defending this week but I still see us scoring at least twice if we play like last night. Bit of a stupid time for a football match though - what's wrong with 12.45 or Friday night ?

Almost took a "Solanoesque" first touch on the run, from a long diagonal ball in the first half last night. Almost.

I thought overall it was an excellent performance and a very good result. We were right on top during the 1st half and it was only a matter of time until we came good. I can't understand why to some on here the opposition are always sh*t when we win. Coventry looked poor but credit has to be given to our team for making an "in form" team look like that. The effect of two good pacy wingers is really positive on the teams performance, Jonas makes it look so easy and when their full back rugby tackled him out of frustration in the second half it just shows how difficult he is to play against. Andy Carroll is an effective player -potentially a decent centre forward - and probably deserves more credit than he seems to get. I thought we'd miss Steven Taylor but now I don't think we are. Williamson looks like a very good defender and could prove to be a decent bit of business - I'm pleased we got him rather than Kilgallon. Had a look at the remaining fixtures, I never count any chickens where NUFC are concerned, but they do look pretty straightforward. Only Forest (H) and Boro (A) look like tricky fixtures to me. That said we've shown too many times before that we can turn easy looking games into difficult ones.