afar

Bad enough on it's own, but then to have Smith as a success is priceless. Did you read the comment I put against Smith. What value did he have before this season, Zero, now at least he's a saleable asset. Do I think he's good enough for us for next season ? Absolutely f***ing not. The success story here as my comment said is that we might be able to shift the guy. So you wouldn't say the same about Nolan? Scroll up

Bad enough on it's own, but then to have Smith as a success is priceless. Did you read the comment I put against Smith. What value did he have before this season, Zero, now at least he's a saleable asset. Do I think he's good enough for us for next season ? Absolutely f***ing not. The success story here as my comment said is that we might be able to shift the guy. So you wouldn't say the same about Nolan? i don't even think smith was particularly good at the strart of the season. the press said it all the time, they still do. it was only when a few people squawked about the emperor being in the altogether that he started to be seen for what he was. As long as the perception is that he still has it that's all that matters, when you are trying to shift him.

That's true, I agree, Nolan had no value prior to this season, now there would be more than a couple of teams stupid teams willing to part with a good fee for the guy. I could quite easily, put Nolan in both categories, for different reasons.

Bad enough on it's own, but then to have Smith as a success is priceless. Did you read the comment I put against Smith. What value did he have before this season, Zero, now at least he's a saleable asset. Do I think he's good enough for us for next season ? Absolutely fucking not. The success story here as my comment said is that we might be able to shift the guy.

That's actually a good point, we expected Lua Lua to have his breakout season, that didn't really happen, would you class Ranger, Tozer or Vucic in the same light ?

Like I said, I think probably failure is too harsh a word for it. But personally I expect that he would go out there and show he's a class above the rest of the midfielders in this league, outside of his goals, he's not done that at all. His goals have been vital for us, but has he proved that he'll be an asset for us next season ? I don't think he has.

He's been a failure (or rather disappointment) to me that despite the goals, he'sshown so little else, if he was of a level that we need at the club, he should be dominating the midfield units we've come up against this season. All he's done for me this season is proved that he's a good Championship level goalsocring midfielder, and that's a disappointmnet for me because I think we need more than that. I do agree though, that he's been nowhere near the disappointment that the likes of Butt, Barton or shola have.

Now we are nearing the end of the season, in regards to individuals, who's made a success of the drop in status and who's been a bit of a disappointment ? Here's mine: Success Carroll - Really emerged this year, needs to get his head sorted but starting to reach that potential. Kadar - Never lets us down when asked to do a job, a lot of potential. Colo - Terrific bounce back season for him, yes at a lower level, just hope he can continue it next year. Jose Enrique - Overall the whole season, our best player, imo. Harper - Consistent and never let us down. Krul - When called upon, showed that he can handle it, needs more playing time and to develop his maturity a bit. Smith - Maybe a surprise to some, but I thought he was decent early season and if nothing else put value on his head where he had none before. Routledge - A great signing and hopefully he's matured enough to be able to rise to the next level, next season. Williamson - Another great signing, looks like a really solid pick up. Lovelyhands - What a fantastic free signing he's been, the partnership with Carroll has been the key to our success since the turn of the year. Guthrie - Probably been our best player of late when played in his natural position. Hughton - Surprised me how well he's done this year, I'm still no fan of his but he's proved to me that he's not the complete disaster I thought he was. Failure Barton - Can this bloke stay fit, hardly set the world alight on the brief time , he's made it to the field. Nolan - Despite all his goals, he's just proved to me that this is his level, not good enough for the PL. Butt - I expected that he would at least be able to hold his own at this level, not even been able to do that, thank god it's his last year in black and white. Shola - Started off great then injury, not even sure what's up with him now, this should have been his year to excel, he's missed the opportunity. Best - What a disaster. If I was to give an award to who has been the biggest success this season that would go to: Andy Carroll based on where he came from to where he is now. The biggest disappointment ? probably Shola, since this should have been his year, although the same could be said about Barton.

If we fail to win we'll have not beaten either of two promotion rivals all season. I can't see that happening, when they beat us early season, I thought they were pretty poor and rather fortunate to hang on in the snd half when we battered them. They've also been pretty awful away from home of late, in fact all season, they've only won 4 games away from home. I think we'll win this one, and with it we'll be as good as up.

People kept talking about how quick this league was and that we didn't have the pace neccesary I thought it was a s*** league and that most teams lacked any pace or quality at all. The standard of finishing is what has surprised me, it's f***ing terrible. This is what worries me about our defence when/if we return to the Prem. Defensive msitakes in this league often go unpunished because the strikers aren't clinical enough, whereas 90% of the teams in the premier league have at least one striker who will pounce on the slightest defensive error and bury the ball in the net. In this league our defence looks solid but how will it fare against Rooney, Defoe, Bellamy, Drogba etc. next season. That's a very good point and is why teams often pay a premium for the top strikers. In the season we went down, we were guilty of way too many un forced errors, we have to learn from that next year.

kk didn't have to make many tough decisions. kelly wasn't good enough and peacock left on compassion. Not one Newcastle fan thought Kelly wasn't good enough to at least be given a chance in the PL, the lad had just banged in 28 goals or something, including a hattrick in his last appearance. That was a brave and tough decision by KK. The line we got from the club was that Peacock was sold because of some birth defect with his new born, not sure that was the real reason, doesn't seem too much logic in it, why the need to move to London ? Both he and his wife were grown adults and had no need to be around their family for support, it's not as if his wife would have had to work to make ends meet. He was sold for football reasons, and again a brave decision as Peacock had been one of our best players but the signing of Cole had signalled his departure. KK also got rid of the likes of Sheedy, Killer and Micky Quinn, all whom had seen their better days but he was ruthless in jetisoning them. There are many clubs that are happy to reward the bulk of their playing staff who got them up with the chance to prove they can perform at the top level, KK did not take any passengers with him as he brought the club up. We have to do the same again.

I don't want to sound like "I told you so", but I said all along that there was nothing in this league and we would stroll to promotion. I certainly never bought into that crap about it being a tough division. Having said that, the ownership, management and squad of players deserve a lot of credit in getting the job done (assuming no last minute capitulations of course). I'm not a fan of Ashley and have never been a supporter of Hughton as manager but I have to say it would been extremely hard on him and probably very wrong to replace him in the summer, he deserves the chance to manage the team next year, whether he last the full season though will be open to debate. Our squad though is nowhere near close to being of a level that will compete for mid table obscurity (which realistically is the best we can hope for) next year. Some tough decisions will need to be made, as KK did when we went up last time.

Got to say I'm surprised with the win, but delighted, especially with Forest winning also, looks like they've found their form again, as have Brom, so we are going to have to keep on performing and grinding out results like this.

Have to agree with this. Doncaster away is just the type of fixture we have not been winning, coupled with off the field issues and dissapointing away form of late. A draw is about the best we can expect.

You don't get it do you ? No one is saying that it is morally the right thing to do to just give him the max fine and a slap on the wrists. It is morrally correct to permenantly suspend him or sack him, IF and it's still a big IF, the version we have been told is correct. Call me irresponsible but I care more about Newcastle getting promotion and then being competitive next season than I do about us showing the we've done the "right thing". Suspending or sacking Carroll will have an determental effect on both the team on pitch and our finances, we are as low as we have been in recent years, we simply can not afford this.

Nice moral stance, but when he signs for free for Wigan or Wolves or someone, bangs in a hattrick against us and they sell him for 10 million to Spuds at least we'll know we were morally right. You can't afford to take the high ground in football these days, other clubs don't do it, why should we ?

Damn just read about this. This is just the sort of thing we don't need right now. Why the fuck do we always self distruct ? Gotta worry about Carrol's stability if this is true, a huge shame because he's easily are brightest young star.

Just got back, just checked the scores, got to be somewhat happy with a point in the end but really that's not good enough, our away form and our home form are so contrasting it's unreal, we should be rolling through teams like Bristol at their place. Brom are getting closer every game now, just 2 points behind, our game in hand is another away game, against a resurgent Reading, I've personally got that one down as a loss. We have to pick it up away from home, otherwise we could get a bit nervous come the end, we're fortunate in many ways that Forest have should even worse form away from home lately.

Don't, just don't. Not yet... I think Midds is right, the others all have the games in hand and Liverpool are still behind. Think it's a 3 way battle between Villa, Spuds and Man Shitty, I don't want any of those teams to get it, lol. At the bottom, if only Hull and Wolves could win a bloody game or two, the mackems might be in real danger, unfortunately, their goal difference may save them.

Liverpool look awful, they really do, Wigan deserve the lead.

Zoggy playing great, would you take him back, would he come back ?

You very well might on current form. Need to pick it up a bit.

Forest will have to play much better than they have been to beat us at SJP.

I can see Manure, winning the title again, but I can't see Burnely and Pompey not going down. Pompey, Burnley, and Hull for me relegated. I think we will win the championship and I think Forest may actually join us now, West Brom are faltering badly atm. For the playoffs it's a crapshoot, but probably fancy Liecester too to make it. League 1, I would piss myself laughing if Leeds didn't make it, after the Beckford thing, but they'll probably sneak in behind Norwich.

If forest had have been held today, I would have been pretty confident to say we're as good as up. But there's still a chance we could f*** it up, we are Newcastle after all, it's not like we have a history of doing things the easy way. I'm still confident though, 3 more wins may just be enough.