TRon

If we can just somehow get three points from this game, with another week's training for Viduka, Enrique and Barton we could be well set to win against boro and Fulham with a near full strength squad. We just need to get a team out capable of getting us past this one to give us a fighting chance.

Sums up our season that we have had two central midfielders who could have given us another option in Barton and Nacho but they have missed the whole campaign through injury. Now they are close to return they might be just too late.

It's bizzare how so many people are ignoring this. The problem is getting the ball into the final third of the pitch which is what you would expect the midfield to take responsibility for. FFS Owen even looks better in midfield than our midfielders...how sad is that?

No your not I still maintain our best back four are Beye, Colo, Bassong and Enrique. Colo has looked shaky and was righly dropped but he could easily return a stronger player for the experience.

Superb piece, I hope some of those who are already doubting Shearer will accept the difficulty of the situation. I am just praying that Viduka and Martins availability will give us enough firepower to get a win against Portsmouth. If we win that game I think we will get enough momentum to pick up the points we need with Barton coming back soon as well. If somehow we can survive this season we'll be able to judge Shearer properly next season if he stays on.

That was all true last season as well but Keegan kept faith and he scored the goals which kept us up. He's useless up front but he offers more as a midfielder than Nolan. There's an argument that Guthrie should play but he doesn't offer a goal threat and hasn't convinced in the pressure games.

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/04/21/enrique-and-barton-to-face-portsmouth-61634-23430403/ I think after seeing our shambles of a team fail to respond to his efforts, Shearer is going to play his better players whether they are match fit or not. I don't blame him, Mark Viduka even overweight was so much better than the majority of his team mates on Sunday it was embarassing.

I really disagree with that. Owen has never been a technically gifted player. His touch on the ball and his passing isn't particularly good at all. In the past, he's relied on his athleticism, but now that he's lost the edge off his pace, the reality is he's just an average Premiership striker. I keep hearing about 'the service' being poor, but it didn't seem to stop Martins getting on the end of a few chances. I don't think he's a particularly wonderful player but when he had the ball he used it a damn sight better than Nolan. If we are going to leave Owen out then we have to choose someone who will offer more in his place. The passing improved 100% once the midfield of Nolan and Butt was broken up on Sunday, and that's because those two can't pass or move.

According to physioroom he is still out with no come back date set You can't live or die by physioroom man. He's probably not going to play again but he is back in full training, at least. He's about as likely to feature in the next six matches as Xisco.

We can't rely on other results at the end of the season, by the last couple of games plenty of teams will be playing reserves and juniors if they've got nothing to play for. Just win the three home games and the rest will take care of itself.

I think if you replaced the 2nd rate/clapped out players with better quality ones you could play any formation you want. As it is, it's like playing with eight men.

Nailed.

The key word there is WHEN. When Owen doesn't have the ball he is next to useless. When he does get a sniff he can be a killer. 14 games now though and he has been relatively invisible. Hence why KK moved him deeper and made him the central cog in a very effective machine towards the back end of last season. He obviously saw enough in Owen to build the team around him in that way and I'm assuming Shearer does too. That's enough for me, personally. He is wasted in a 4-4-2/3-5-2 in this team though, and has been since Shearer retired, we are simply not good enough. I agree with everything you say Rich, I'm not a big fan of Owen as I'm sure previous posts have made clear, but it was clear that he was technically light years ahead of half our team on Sunday. He was playing deep and made far better use of the ball than our midfielders. Drop Nolan instead and give owen the attacking midfielder role which he played successfully under Keegan.

We'd lost 5 on the trot and were in a relegation place with 2 games left. The game was heading for a draw when Kelly hit a belter into the Gallowgate goal with time running out. That took us to 49 points and results on the final day meant that we stayed up (regardless of our last result) as 48 points went down. As it happens we won at Leicester which was a game in itself after blowing a lead and then getting the winner almost on the final whistle. We already knew by the time the winner went in that we were safe due to other results. The Pompey game was do or die and we very nearly died. Had we not won that it would have been unlikely that we would have beaten Leicester and we would have gone. Those 5 defeats on the spin followed a 1-0 win against the mackems(kelly scored that one as well), those last 3 games of that season are probably 3 of my top 5 all time games ever, the 4-1 defeat away to Derby was one of the most unbelievable atmospheres i've encountered, think the kick off had already been delayed due to a bomb scare(could've been the following season tho) and inside 2 mins we were down to 10 men and 1 nil down, lost another player and Terry mac sent off the bench, Kelly and Gavin Peacock then produced 2 displays that would put the current team to shame as they ran themselves into the ground as our fans got louder and louder as the match and Derby's goals went in.....a case of well if we're going down, we'll go down in style, although was lairy as well as seats were ripped out and thrown!! Then came the famous Portsmouth home game, defeat would have virtually sealed our relegation to the 3rd division and possible extintion, according to Sir John Hall we would've went under as the Halls/Shepherd and Keegan would've went. What we got was a capacity crowd of just under 26000 and the best atmosphere i've known at SJP, think Barcelona and the ManU 5-0 added together and still probably doesn't do it justice, the pictures of the Gallowgate going nuts when Kelly scores are fantastic. Then off we went still not certain of staying up, luckily results went our way but we won anyway, just! Peacock opened the scoring, they equalised in the 90th minute causing a pitch invasion by 1000's of Leicester fans, think a draw took them up, once the pitch was cleared, they didn't get the fans back in the stands, they stood on the side of the pitch!! But one long punt from Tommy Wright was missed by there centre half and Peacock was thru again and poked the ball past the keeper into the net, still when i watch it i think one of there fans standing on the line is going to run on and kick it clear!! Then it went ballistic, there fans stormed the pitch again, we went crackers, some of our lot invaded the pitch wanting to fight them, odds of 500-1!! Kelly had to dive into our end for his own safety and it was like world war 3 outside the ground!!! Then again it was pretty wild inside Filbert st, we were penned in the corner, get seats, coins and alsorts thrown at us, think a Newcastle fan actually got blinded in one eye after been hit by a missile, as well as been attacked from all sides we also got battered by the Leicester riot police if we tried to get away from the missiles!!!! Cheers, never thought we'd be going down that road again, but here we are...I wonder if there's a Ned Kelly among the current lot? Mind both Kelly and Peacock were better athletes than some in our current team http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/nechronical/jun2008/5/5/5D67DAC0-CCD2-C388-A91960C27577DB42.jpg

If we can add in the factor that St James should be jumping then we have to believe we can still do it. Whether the players believe it we'll find out on Monday night.

Why is he still training here, does he like the Tyneside weather (which is admittedly pretty good right now)?

Did anyone really expect Barton, Martins and Viduka to be missing so many games back then?

Ryan Taylor? Does he qualify as young talent? Were any other significant clubs chasing his signature? I was thinking more the Giles Barnes or Gareth Bales types. Not that either would be gret signings but at least they were highly thought of at some point.

One of the biggest mistakes this season was not bringing in the promising young English players that Kinnear was mouthing off about when slagging Enrique and Xisco. Not that I'm fussed if they are English but I was expecting us to go for young, hungry talent, not players like Nolan who are clapped out at 26. I don't know if he smokes 40 cigs a day or drinks 8 cans a night but he runs like it.

There is just no way to make a call on this yet. No one can accuse him of lacking bottle in any case, 8 games to turn things round was always going to be a challenge.

The criticism Shearer is getting is unwarranted IMO. There's only so much you can do with a hamstrung squad. If Lippi or Mourinho had played 3-5-2 i'd criticise them for it, too. it's madness. I could see an argument for using it against stoke - forwards and wingers with relatively limited mobility who will launch it forward and then win headers - it gives us an extra man to pounce on knock-downs. but it didnt even work against them. trying to play it against a side like spurs who have such good movement upfront and out wide is suicide. had we set ourselves out more sensibly in the two games i honestly think we would've came away with more than a measly 1 point. Owen was already providing an extra midfielder as he was playing deep and in theory, Duff and Ryan should have pushed up to bolster the midfield further. Liverpool used to play the system very effectively but you need the players to make it work and not stand frozen like frightened rabbits. I feel for Shearer because the lack of a left back or right winger means the wing back option was a tempting one even if it didn't work out.

The criticism Shearer is getting is unwarranted IMO. There's only so much you can do with a hamstrung squad.

Those three strikers being fit to start is the last throw of the dice for me. If they play we can win and set the ball rolling.

How about "must fight for our lives and sweat blood for 90 mins?" If they can't bloody well do it in this match they might as well be sent to the knackers yard a month earlier than planned.

the alternative to playing owen please? given we've no midfield worth a turd 4-4-2 with wingers that either can't cross or take people on as far as i can see Given how shite the team is in terms of keeping possession and playing it around I'd like to see us switch to the Bolton and Stoke tactics rather than trying to play a game that we don't have players or time for. Carroll/Viduka/Ameobi up front and just keep pumping as many long balls, crosses and long throws as possible and that way put them under pressure and generate at least some chances. That tactic has to pay off more than keeping Owen there and hope he'd get that one perfect chance and put it away. Put the four hard-tacklers Butt, Smith, Jonas and Barton in midfield and we'd have fair chances of winning the 50-50 balls. . i can't agree those systems work with players who are used to it and geared for it, ours are not having seen martins and viduka in the last 30 yesterday i honestly think that finishing team (minus duff & butt) is the one we should play...viduka seems to thrive on playing with martins and if they're causing havoc then i would personally back owen to exploit the space we have to play this at home, jesus, 'boro & pompey will be having wet dreams about us hoying balls up in the air at them rather than trying to play long ball has done nothing for us all season, why would it work now? Pumping long balls towards midget strikers isn't a good idea, but if we put in a couple of big strikers with midfielders willing to make supporting runs I can see what bsl is getting at. But our best bet is to try and replicate last season's 4-3-3 with Martins and Viduka playing a role I agree. We must ditch the cloggers in midfield for it to work though.