merlin

it's such a stupid concept. If we'd lost those 2 games we'd be 3rd Agree completely - rather lose this and win at Brighton than the other way around for example. We've already lost 5 games at SJP and to sides that weren't classed as promotion contenders - Fulham are now classed as such because they have a decent chance of the play-offs. Yes, we needed to win the Brighton game(and actually deserved to)but that DOESN'T mean its OK to lose to Fulham at SJP AND get played off the park as well because the fans want to see decent performances at home.

Not.A.PL.Defender. End-Of.

P45Due can't lose...he always manages to look good in his first season or so as a manager then it goes to Rats--t....if he gets them near the play-offs this season and has a decent run next, he will probably be sacked the following year and walk away with the last year of a 3 year contract paid to him for nowt....

This lad has thoroughly earned his place up front....he offers more physical threat than any other striker incl Gayle and he worries opposition defences. Top marks to him for his attitude and he has no little skill either.

So if we go into playoffs you are at a 10? Good luck with that You beat me to it..!!

Totally agree - I don't attach much blame to Rafa because we lack quality in m/f especially. As you say, Diame and Perez have both been anonymous for much of the season and Perez' goal at Brighton may well turn out to be his major contribution to the promotion effort. Diame has been very poor, esp since the ACN and it is easy for the opposition to isolate Shelvey because the others do not offer any alternative threat. As for Colback, well its hard to imagine this guy still here if promotion is achieved because he will be a liability in the PL. Rafa wanted to address this weakness but Ashley & Co said no ...

Nowt new there. Everyone knows we needed strengthening in a couple of positions in January. That's nowt to do with the negative tactics at home though We've scored 38 goals in 18 league home games, like, and have some of the highest possession & shots. I'd hardly say we're negative. Inefficient & inconsistent, definitely. Stats can hide a multitude of sins. According to the stats we should have got battered at Huddersfield last week. Exactly - they had far more possession than us and if they had had a decent striker we would have lost. That's bollocks, they barely had a shot from inside our penalty area because we didn't let them create anything apart from efforts from miles out. Their striker didn't miss any sitters because we prevented any service to him. No it isn't - sorry. Time to face reality, we didn't do much to stop Fulham yesterday.....

Nowt new there. Everyone knows we needed strengthening in a couple of positions in January. That's nowt to do with the negative tactics at home though We've scored 38 goals in 18 league home games, like, and have some of the highest possession & shots. I'd hardly say we're negative. Inefficient & inconsistent, definitely. Stats can hide a multitude of sins. According to the stats we should have got battered at Huddersfield last week. Exactly - they had far more possession than us and if they had had a decent striker we would have lost.

or you could say all the good work at huddrsfield and brighton allows us to have 2 or 3 games like today without derailing promotion. Tell that to the majority of fans who watched yesterday's game...and the 5 others that have been home defeats this season..and remind me how Brighton and Huddersfield have done since we played them..? A long way to go yet, esp if you can't win home matches and we have more home than away for the rest of the season..

Every time there is a poor performance at home it negates all the good work done in scrapping for away results...its all very well beating Brighton and then Huddersfield on their own grounds(and we def looked second best against Huddersfield who were by far the better footballing side whether people like it or not)and then getting taken apart at SJP by Fulham. I have not been able to see the game so cannot really pass comment on individuals but the remarks others have made about Diame and our m/f(as well as defensive errors)align with what we have seen on several occasions this season. The fans at SJP have seen several poor performances this season and some of these have not been what would be expected from a side expected to be promoted. By what I have read on here today, Fulham were by far the better side and basically pulled our defenders and m/f all over the place...if true this is not good enough. The fans want promotion of course and they are prepared to suffer pragmatic performances, even at SJP, if the results are there...performances AND results at SJP have too often NOT been there this season and there are too many players who should be looking at themselves about that. This team is not good enough to do even half-well in the PL and there will have to be a great deal of money spent if and when promotion is finally achieved. Although I raised my promotion assessment to 9 after last week, I will be dropping that like a stone if this team fall into the play-offs....esp with teams like Fulham, Sheff Weds and Leeds likely to be among the candidates.... Very, very disappointing result and doesn't bode well for the run-in.

No surprise here - Rafa is telling it like it is. He won't commit himself to a long stay at the club because he has doubts about Ashley and his cohorts being as committed to success as he is. I hope he doesn't go in summer but unless he receives cast-iron budget/assurances about the extent of his control over signings etc I fear he will be off...and who could blame him because he would be the fall guy if we start struggling in the PL after his hands were tied over team strengthening. Big, big problems for Ashley if this happens but I reckon he is likely to try for someone like Wagner if Rafa walks...Wagner would see NUFC as a step up from Huddersfield(albeit a temporary one)whilst Ashley would bank on his comparative success there being able to appease fans angry at Rafa's exit. Ashley's dream option is an approach for Rafa from another top club, he then gets the compo from that and gives Huddersfield a lesser amount to get Wagner....it would suit him down to the ground and you can see it happening - or something similar.

Of course, everything depends on Rafa basically. If he stays a few years and his happy, it's possible the club could really have decided on a different course. Otherwise we're back to square one. I think we're at the enjoy it while it lasts stage, i dread Rafa being messed around and walking away because as you just put it very well 'we'll be back to square one'. That's the thing of being a Newcastle fan for me (especially under Ashley), you're scared to enjoy it because you just fear the next move. It will always be the same until he sells...and that is a few years away unless he gives Rafa a decent budget and we win something because he said he would sell after that....

I think both Wenger and many fans know that his time is coming to an end as their manager...he has done over 20 years for heaven's sake and not many get that amount in at one club. Even Joe Harvey only lasted about 13 at NUFC and he was almost a fixture. Wenger has done a good job but the club need a new approach if they are to be more successful but the problem is that the board probably are in a comfort zone with him as ours were with Harvey and will be reluctant to make change although I think Wenger will do it for them at the end of the season. Its a tough job for anyone as I don't think they have the really big money to compete with Man C and Chelsea although they will invest far more in the squad than will Ashley here....I reckon qualification for CL is their aim for every season and they will want that.

Pleased with the point coming after tough games at Brighton & Huddersfield so no complaints about the points haul from the 3 games. Did not see the game so cannot comment but will take everyone's word that it was dull. I understand why Rafa is having to play Colback in Hayden's absence but we cannot persist with this player once back in the PL. Strangely enough, I have the creepy feeling that he WILL still be in the squad next season, especially if Rafa has gone - he has managed to survive 3 managers since he arrived....probably keeps his mouth shut so suits Ashley & Charnley. Win needed v Fulham now..

Fulham are on form and won't be easy. Need to get back to winning ways. We need to win this match for a number of reasons ; 1.They beat us in the first game of the season and we never got going 2.The side need to start giving the home crowd some good results 3.A bad result will have other teams thinking we are definitely weak at SJP 4.A victory will take the wind well and truly out of our rivals' sails. You are correct - it WON'T be easy and I would be delighted by a 1-0 win.

Yes, this is right....who on earth would we get to replace Rafa that is anything like in the same quality as a manager..? Guardiola, Mancini, Mourinho...?? Not a chance and as a club that has often fallen at the last hurdle because of a LACK of a plan and pattern, NUFC need that approach for now. I have had enough losing 4-3 games to last me a lifetime and if Rafa's methods bring success at last, so be it. Revie's Leeds team on the 60s/70s had an initial reputation of being joyless to watch, mechanical and dirty but they won stuff and eventually became better to watch as well. Its if Rafa's methods DON'T lead to success that people start asking questions about style of play and we always have to bear in mind that he has Ashley and Penfold to deal with when it comes to signings.....

As I have said before, David Kelly scored 27 goals in our promotion of 92/93 but KK still sold him to Wolves in the summer afterwards because he brought Beardsley in who was PL proven. I don't know what Rafa would do about Gayle but we DO need another CF or No 10.

We all have ideas on which positions need attention for the PL...ideally, we need 4 players to be comfortable, CB, CM, CF/No 10 and LB are priorities for me and we badly need an injection of pace throughout the side. Leaving Ashley and Co out of the equation for now(wouldn't we like to always..)I am sure Rafa knows just who he needs and who he wants - the same applies to outgoing players. Then we come back to Ashley and Co.....

Right on..too true.

Couldn't read the temperature gauge as his eyes are too close together and squinty due to convict genes. Hardly that - by the look of his name his family is probably Dutch and we weren't in the business of taking Holland's convicts to Australia as well as ours..!

This - I agree. They ARE a good side and they play quick incisive football. As you say, we could have been in trouble if they possessed a decent striker as they had lots of the ball and they put it into the box quite a few times during second half. We would NOT get away with conceding so much possession in the PL.... Nevertheless we stuck at the plan really well and rarely looked in too much danger. Shelvey had a poor game by his standards and conceding the pen just topped it off. Atsu was a shadow of the player that gave Brighton so much trouble and they were on to him quickly early on in the game. Diame gave the ball away relentlessly on several occasions and the m/f generally were outfought, spending most of the time shoring up the defence. Murphy did brilliantly for his goal, their keeper not grabbing the ball cleanly and Murph was fully entitled to challenge for it - our pen was as soft as the one Brighton got on Tuesday so things evened out...theirs had more substance but only just. The third goal was a joke and a typical example of a keeper over-estimating his ability to judge long balls..! No matter how its been done, the last 2 results have set us up and it would take a shocking collapse to blow promotion now - probably even the Championship title...well done to all the squad an management.

Up to a 9 now after these 2 crucial games against our closest rivals - if they throw it away now they want shooting.

Becoming a bit of a cult hero like Kilcline was in KKs early teams...big strong guys both and both better players than they seemed by their stance. Murphy has done a great job whenever he has been put in the side and he unsettled Brighton defenders as well as scoring a crucial goal at Huddersfield. Glad for him as he will hopefully now gain a Championship winners medal at the end of the season and probably take that with him as a memento of his time at NUFC because I cannot see him being around after this season because of his age. A great buy by Rafa.

Agreed - that ship has sailed and the very fact that Carrick is not interested in NUFC rules him out anyway...we need younger and hungrier players that will add to the squad in the PL.

Brighton did ease off tbf, had they maintained their intensity after scoring they probably would have went on to win comfortably. I don't buy this - look at how much 'intensity' we had back in 1996 when we played Man U at SJP...we didn't just dominate them for 20 mins, we ran rings round them for the whole first half. Even in the second half we were the better side but we still lost. Brighton were on top for about the first 15-20 mins and they couldn't make it count. As soon as Shelvey & co began to find Atsu on a regular basis, he started using his pace against their LB and they couldn't handle it. They probably weren't expecting Atsu to play anyway and he upset their team plan. We were the better side for around 60% of the whole game, which was also reflected in the possession stats. I have been only too ready to criticize the team for poor and negative play this season but they did play better football - and attacked more - than has been the case. A game lasts 90+ mins - if a team loses it isn't just because they lacked intensity after 20 mins...it is also down to how the other side plays. they never eased off, we upped our game and they were rocking, and shitting themselves for most of the second half. Exactly