HawK

Why the angst towards Harper? What's he done? Served as an understudy for over a decade and is now filling a hole for us and he's getting barracked? Only on this forum. If you want to be angry at someone and blame this defeat on someone because you feel 'Given would have saved that', then point your finger at the director's box each and every time you think that, because that's fact of the matter.

From Setanta http://www.setanta.com//uk/Articles/Football/2009/04/11/Prem-Stoke-v-Newcastle-report/gnid-48187/ Local lad Andy Carroll came off the bench to score the most important goal of his career to earn Newcastle a 1-1 draw at Stoke. Having fallen behind to an Abdoulaye Faye header and then weathered an epic storm that should have seen Stoke go at least five goals up, Carroll looped an unlikely equalizer over Thomas Sorensen to give Newcastle an absolute lifeline. To be absolutely blunt, Newcastle look like a Championship side. In fact, on Saturday’s evidence, they don’t even look that good. In fairness to Shearer, his preparations weren’t helped on the morning of the game when Obafemi Martins cried off with a groin strain at 11am. The Newcastle boss looked angry, surely Martins knew earlier? However, there can be no defending Shearer’s selection of Shola Ameobi as Martins’ replacement. About as effective as a solar-powered lamp, it is fair to say that Ameobi cost his team big time in the first half. Newcastle’s defending from set-pieces was woeful and Ameobi was chief culprit. The warning signs were there after just five minutes when he totally lost Ryan Shawcross – the prolific Stoke man should have scored with a free header that fell wide. The theme for the half had been set. Aside from one Michael Owen half chance, from a Ryan Taylor free kick, Newcastle played a form of footballing statues as Stoke peppered the visitors’ area at every opportunity. Twice Ricardo Fuller should have done better with free headers, while James Beattie also came close at the back post. Shearer’s decision to drop Fabricio Coloccini after his nightmare showing against Chelsea was making little difference…Newcastle were a mess. A goal was inevitable, although in the visitors’ defence it came from a ridiculous refereeing decision. Habib Beye had clearly won a goal kick, but the ref signalled corner. Controversy beckoned. Time for Ameobi to totally lose former Newcastle man Faye, who powered home an emphatic header for a deserved 1-0 lead. Cue thousands of slumped Kevin Keegan-styled Magpies. Stoke were rightly ahead…their tempo excellent. Unfortunately, their superb work on the pitch was marred just before half time as Ryan Taylor became the target of a missile. An FA investigation may well follow. Speaking of investigations, there surely would have been a full-blown inquest into Newcastle’s defending at half time, yet they came out even worse for the second half. Twice in five minutes they were forced to clear off the line, first from a Rory Delap header and then Ryan Taylor doing his job on the post after Ameobi had lost his man for the umpteenth time at a set-piece. Anybody who levels a long-ball accusation at Stoke wants to watch them play…with Matt Etherington flying down the wing they got crosses in at will – Fuller the next man who should have profited. Newcastle were so poor that Bruce Forsyth could have found space in their defence, and Tony Pulis must have been cursing his side’s prolificacy as Glenn Whelan paused, had a cup of tea, and then fired straight at Harper from the edge of the area. Finally Shearer acknowledged things needed changing. On came Gutierrez for Guthrie, and finally Ameobi was hooked for Andy Carroll, yet still the chances fell Stoke’s way. Fuller, so skilful, rolled his marker to set up a rapid-fire counter that saw Etherington run one-on-one. All the winger needed was a calm first touch…but it let him down as Beye got back to shackle. Newcastle were about to punish him big time. Carroll was the man to rescue Geordie hopes, making up for a glaring initial miss by looping the most self-powered of headers over Sorenson into the far corner. Local hero. Maybe he should start ahead of Ameobi. STAR MAN: Ricardo Fuller 8*. A constant threat...although as guilty as most Stoke players for missed chances. Click herefor our exclusive player ratings and match stats. ---------- Setanta Player Ratings, seem about right: Stoke Newcastle Thomas Sorensen 6 Steve Harper 7 Andy Wilkinson (90) 6 David Edgar 6.5 Ryan Shawcross 7 Sebastien Bassong 6 Abdoulaye Faye 7.5 Habib Beye 6.5 Danny Higginbotham 6 Ryan Taylor 7 Liam Lawrence 6.5 Danny Guthrie (62) 6 Rory Delap 7 Kevin Nolan 4.5 Glenn Whelan 6.5 Nicky Butt 5 Matthew Etherington (81) 7 Damien Duff 6 Ricardo Fuller 8* Michael Owen 6 James Beattie (72) 6.5 Shola Ameobi (74) 4 Substitutes Substitutes Steve Simonsen Tim Krul Seyi Olofinjana Fabricio Coloccini Richard Cresswell (72) 6 Alan Smith Danny Pugh (81) 6 Jonas Gutierrez (62) 6.5 Stephen Kelly (90) N/A Geremi Michael Tonge Andrew Carroll (74) 7.5 Ibrahima Sonko Nile Ranger Just about somes him up really doesn't it.

Thank f*ck we didn't give stoke 3 points.

hulk has better teeth

Benitez

To the point, this isn't the early 90's. Football is not just a game any more, it is a business. Globalisation, scouting networks, money and more have completely changed the game. Don't expect the miracles that Keegan provided, even if Shearer seems to shape up to being a good manager. When the chips are down, we've still got to get behind our team and our manager, after Shearer there are no more potential Messiahs. Let's do this.

Yeah, everyone found out that the "Wise System" isn't actually that bad and he's done a great job with the youth/reserve squads and little to nothing with the senior squad. About as close as he got to the senior squad was Bassong whom they probably thought was going to be in the reserves (until he turned out to be massive). Probably the same with Xisco who has spent more time around the reserves than the senior squad to be fair. any proof of this ? Any proof of anything? Other than Keegan being a big baby and walking away leaving a s*** storm in his wake where all the blame went straight to Wise and "the system"? We'll never know what goes on behind the closed doors. And that's it in a nutshell.

Apparently seems to be the 'cool thing' on this forum to have a pessimistic-sniper outlook.

A player that I certainly took for granted in his time at SJP. Pace and can cross, who can do that now in the Premiership? Skinned players for fun while planting inch perfect crosses on the heads of our number 9s. I saw his contribution in the Newcastle Barcelona match, not only did he pretty much single-handedly destroyed their back line, he was marking a certain Luis Felipe Figo, playing in his prime. How can it be so hard now with the amount of money going into academies and into football to produce players like this, to run and to cross a ball into the box. One of my favourite ever Newcastle players.

Where do I get my terminator eyes?

Thought this was a forum ^ ^

What about a revisit of what KK did, the 4-3-1-2? 2 pacey players up front in Martins and Lovenkrands and Owen just behind, he chipped in with a few goals from that position I recall. Stick Guthrie in the middle with Butt and Barton (when fit) or Jonas. Basically just cutting out our midfield that can't create and just let it be, and hopefully just pace up front will allow us to catch a few teams on the break. With the tactical masterminds we currently have directing our team I'm suprised they haven't at least tried this with the players they've got available.

3 Taylors playing, good for the commentators

I think I might actually go an support Huddersfield town, at least I can be optimistic about something then. Lee Clark seems to be doing absolutely everything right when it comes to learning his trade. And to hire the guy that helped Keegan instill the confidence in our late 90s team is a stroke of genius.

The 'but nobody decent would come here' is an even bigger indictment on the shitty structure we have going on. The biggest affirmation of this is that the only guy who wanted to work in this structure is Kinnear. Any manager with half a brain wouldn't touch us with an artificially elongated barge pole.

We can only cross our fingers and close our eyes and wish very very hard, and maybe, it might just happen.

I cannot see, legally, how it can be changed - businesses being businesses. The only way to get it changed would be the monopoly argument. Otherwise the only way I can see is if a seperate body to UEFA/FA was formed and created it's own leagues, maybe you'd see an exodus of teams from uncapped to capped leagues at the end of Season X/Y. But for the record, I think the structure of the American NFL is far superior, even down to the drafts - I'd rather kids were only allowed to play for their school teams and would get drafted like that.

Mr C. Ronaldo? Bigger accomplishment what he's done in the last couple of seasons in the EPL (undisputedly a much higher quality league) I'd say. Larsson at Celtic? NB - Messi is awesome but lets not go overboard? I'd have to disagree, the spanish league is not far off the premiership at all. Some would argue it's better, not me though. And for me Messi is special in a way that Ronaldo isn't. Fair enough Ronaldo produces more, is more consistant, has the better physique etc but Messi does things that only the special ones can and he has whatever it was that Maradona had. Not sure what you would call it but Ronaldo doesn't have that. Larsson was fantastic but he's in the next tier of great players for me. I was simply drawing what I thought was a fairly obvious parallel of players seeming better when playing against lower quality opposition and often with lower quality team mates - I wasn't meaning in any way that Larsson is in the league of greats, far from it. If a team is set up to work off one man then that man will be a legend - Shearer at Blackburn, Le Tiss at Southhampton, Sheva at Milan. All played beyond themselves and when put in a regular formation without the whole team geared up for them alone they were no where near as good as they were before. Don't get me wrong, I loathe United, but for me, Christiano is miles ahead, he's pretty much a perfect footballer.

Mr C. Ronaldo? Bigger accomplishment what he's done in the last couple of seasons in the EPL (undisputedly a much higher quality league) I'd say. Larsson at Celtic? NB - Messi is awesome but lets not go overboard?

How did i miss the green boots lol

In Nigerian culture, disembodied spirits are often jovial, as depicted by the effect the orbs are having on our number 9.

Well, tbf, judging kinnear on 'if he wins the fa cup' is on a par with shola getting 15 goals a season, you'd stick with both, but neither are ever going to happen.

What a load of fuking tosh. Because? Where is your personal experience/evidence? Random flaming with no actual base? When you work on a daily basis with those who don't have an advanced level of English and where it is a second language, your way of speaking naturally drops so that you can be understood and you do pick up the intonations, accents and elocution of their interpretation of English. This is efficient and natural for most people, it means you are understood and do not have to repeat yourself and is not taken as offensive in any way by those you area communicating with. Done this for years myself and my way of speaking has changed at least 4 or 5 times.

I just got an SMF error