Rich

Howay the 'Pool!

Howay girls, handbags away now please.

I had that feeling since reading the thread title. Agree with the Partizan penalties debacle.

Greg on the rampage. Hope your upcoming CB stint is half as domineering!

That'd be my XI, too.

Its ridiculous to think we should be winning every header against a side like Stoke. What we needed to do was make it difficult for them and contest the header. Which we did. Aside from some sloppy work in the first ten mins and the goal, we battled really well and they created very little from their long throws. Have to agree with this, as well. Moaning about not winning the majority of headers with a makeshift defence against Stoke City takes the biscuit. What did Stoke do apart from get us worried by corners and throw-ins? They've turned over some decent teams at home this season with their roughneck tactics and for once we were able to stand up to it and withstand their threat. I wasn't even expecting a point here, personally, and had Shearer not have been in-situ this is the sort of game where we'd have lost by 2 or 3.

Being overly critical and negative will do nothing to help the situation. That's my take on it. We went into a horrible game and came away with something to show for it. Aye the performance was pretty rancid, but honestly, what were people expecting? It took Keegan 9 games to start showing the effects of his management on this rabble, Shearer is working to a much tighter timescale and there have been positives to take from it so far - at least we look up for the fight now being the main one, for me. He said himself it isn't going to be pretty, but needs must.

Who replaced Martins then, in your opinion? I would initially say David Edgar (EDIT: Damien Duff, actually), but then I think "would Shearer change the whole formation because of Martins?" That leads me to say that you're probably right. Guthrie came in to Nolan's position, Nolan moved up to Owen's, Owen moved up to Oba's. That formation MIGHT have actually been decent with Martins at the spearhead and Owen coming late from deep. A 3-5-2/3-4-3 thing. "It was disappointing that after two days of practising a system, we weren't able to implement it." Read into that what you will. Funny times.

He's not even back in full training yet though.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/premier-league/2008-2009/stoke-newcastle-236939.html http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_3005308,00.html http://soccernet-assets.espn.go.com/match?id=244217&league=ENG.1&cc=5739 Apparently not. They did fuck-all second half, and I'm not sure if possession counts when the ball is dead and they're taking about 30 seconds for every set play (throws included). If it was, then it would have been about 80-20 in their favour. Fucking cunts.

That's the ONLY way you can look at it, for any beneficial effect. We've gained a point on Sunderland and Hull, who play each other next, and who represent our only real hope of teams above that we can catch. Being ultra-optimistic you could say the same for Blackburn... and Pompey only drew at home to West Brom too, which was a home-banker for my money. This absolutely has to be seen as a forward step because of that and it has to continue down at Spurs. Even just another point there and you're looking at Hull/Sunderland dropping points themselves, one way or another. Things still look quite bright for the remaining 5 games, when you consider the fixtures, if that turns out to be the case. I'm not letting this get me too down, it could have been so much worse today.

Who replaced Martins then, in your opinion? I would initially say David Edgar (EDIT: Damien Duff, actually), but then I think "would Shearer change the whole formation because of Martins?" That leads me to say that you're probably right. Guthrie came in to Nolan's position, Nolan moved up to Owen's, Owen moved up to Oba's. That formation MIGHT have actually been decent with Martins at the spearhead and Owen coming late from deep. A 3-5-2/3-4-3 thing.

I got the idea that Shola was simply Martins direct replacement. The formation didn't change. That's what I got at least. Shearer said himself before the game that all 3 would have started (Oba, Shola and Owen).

Nah, same. Nolan has been fucking atrocious.

Shearer himself said Martins, Oba and Ameobi were all going to play and 3 central midfielders were picked aside from that so I do think it would have been Owen in between again like last season. Just depends on Oba now. Jonas HAS to play ahead of Nolan (what a horror) too.

Just judging by Shearer's body language, facial expression and tone of voice there seemed something amiss. I hope there's not like because Martins can still be vital to us. It was just this morning Al was in the papers singing his praises.

That goal COULD be monumental. We were shafted again by a bad decision and managed to cope with Stoke fairly well aside from that, despite a few naturally hairy moments. The psychological impact of coming away with something cannot be underestimated though. All of the selection issues/Martins stuff/Ameobi hatred aside, we've gone to a horrible, shitty ground in a horrible, shitty place with horrible, shitty fans and took a point against a horrible, shitty team. I take a lot of hope from this, personally... as well as the fact we were planning to go 4-3-3 as of this morning, too... now we need a repeat of last season at White Hart Lane. HOWAY THE LADS!!!

A point is NOT bad at Stoke man, fucking howay. Especially considering the circumstances. Could be exactly what we need to Spur us on. Howay the lads.

Awful decision from the referee has cost us big style there like. Stoke are even more horrific than I'd expected. Can't see a way back for us, even considering the bench.

Initial reaction, obviously don't know full story.

I'm very twitchy about today now, can't sit still. Been on the blower getting Setanta working, as of now it's on...

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/04/10/shearer-could-turn-to-damien-duff-at-left-back-61634-23356663/2/

In fairness, you're probably playing alongside the best performer from the night and you probably won't have to do much running. You can swap into right-back at any time mate

Good lad! Can't afford it at all like, but will go without food that week to be there