merlin

You never really know how much input a No 2 has until he's gone - back in the 70s, we had Keith Burkinshaw with Joe Harvey and I know he was highly rated by the players AND Harvey. We went downhill after he left for Spurs.. Against that we had Dinnis with Gordon Lee and the players almost mutinied to get him the job after Lee went to Everton, but look how THAT turned out...relegated the following season and he never had the board's support. Taylor was at least half responsible for Clough's success at Derby and Forest but was never as good as a No 1.... Wish Calderwood all the best, but I can't help thinking that part of his motivation in leaving was the thought that he might have been getting out while the going was good...he would also be likely to leave if Hughton took the rap for our bad form - maybe there IS some truth in the Mail's story about Hughton being fired if we had lost to Wigan... As for replacement, cannot see an obvious candidate unless Ashley, once again, takes the bargain basement option with Beardsley..wouldn't make me happy, he's found his role with the kids I reckon. Yet MORE disruption at a club famous for it.........

He is one-paced, slow, negative at times with his passing, unfit and a victim of his own stupidity.Will NEVER be the player he should have been. Would have sold him 2 years ago. The only decent PL m/fielder we have is Tiote and he is a defensive player.

Sadly, this boy cannot seem to learn by his stupid mistakes - has to go now, but then, half his colleagues should as well.

I stick with my 7.5 until November - if we have lost to WHU and Mackems I will uprate it...

Rooney did say, at the time, that he WOULD be prepared to sign for Newcastle.

Very true - all the midfield apart from Tiote(who is a DM anyway)are below PL standard ; Barton lacks pace and fitness; he is also prone to sideways passing...Nolan..least said, soonest mended...Guthrie - mediocre player who is useless unless played in CM...Jonas offers effort and runs at opposition but has no end product and Routledge has failed to impress at 2 other PL clubs. In short, we lack class and even Blackpool have a player(Adam)with more ability ; add that to weaknesses at RB and up front and you can see why we are going to struggle soon. A result against both WHU and Mackems is vital or the fun will start.

What people DIDN'T expect was sub-standard performances at home against mediocre sides, or that the sides who were promoted behind us would be playing better and more effective football... The only part of your post I agree with is the last bit.

That's actually more than 20% of the season....

Ever since this thing with the tart blew up and we found out that Man U have an 83m debt, I have been wondering whether they would cash in on him - both parties can make it look acceptable to the fans by claiming that Rooney and Colleen want to 'rebuild their marriage with a new life away from the UK' and that the club are doing 'the right thing' by letting him go...all sorts of questions about this business. Real Madrid are probably the most likely buyers. Time will tell, but I reckon this won't happen until at least Summer.

Yes, and I can think of at least 2 of the Newcastle side who aren't....isn't that right, Kevin and Joey..!

I don't make ANYTHING out of it - they are currently a better side than us and looking more likely to stay up with the type of football they play...what did YOU make out of it..??

He's becoming completely clueless, and not learning quickly enough. His 'learning curves' could cost us Premier League survival if we're not careful. My thinking as well. Comments show that he's now grasping at straws - this was a HOME game against a side whose town is more famous for Rugby, for goodness' sake...!

As far as our relegation chances going up when they do well I can agree with you but as far as the product they put on the field I would disagree. They play a good game of keeping the ball on the ground and passing it around nicely - very pleasing on the eye. That's partly what pisses me off. The fact they're so positive in the way they play whereas we get such crap despite wiping the floor with them last year. Wipe the floor with them? That's a laugh, we never beat them once and they dumped us 4-2 in the cup...they should have won at SJP in the league as well...

Why ? They've appointed a good manager and have some good players...

Carroll offers most threat physically and consistently - Shola has more goal threat, but only intermittently ; Carroll needs a better partner to become effective, but I reckon he will be sold before that happens...contracts simply mean that the club gets a bigger fee...

Nobody needs reminding that losing this game could make the Mackems' visit a make-or-break... Draw needed at the very least.

Problem is that neither Lovenkrands OR Routledge are PL players - Routledge has been moved on from at least 2 PL clubs and as for Loven...he's never even played for one apart from NUFC, and he's HOW old..? Face the facts - we have a squad of players in which the majority are CCC standard.

Derby games notoriously hard to predict, but odds def in their favour if it goes to form. Can see a sending off in this game...

That'll be the day - lazy and unfit...if it wasn't that we lack real class in MF(only Tiote good enough)Barton should be sold.

The answer to this question is another question; 'Do you believe that Hughton would be manager if another owner had taken over when Ashley put the club on the market?' Yes or No..? I believe the answer would be NO, but with the current ownership, Hughton is about as good as the club will get because nobody with a better record would work for Ashley'Llambias.

This was just not good enough - Wigan murdered us down the left, with N'Zog making Perch look a very poor fullback ; in addition even Williamson was left floundering by his jump for the first goal...Zog is hardly the tallest of players, but he DOES have genuine pace, which no NUFC forward has. As is usual, there was lots of attempted attacks down our left with Jonas and Enrique trying to play their 2-man band football - Wigan(and other teams will also have cottoned on to this)simply put extra men on that side and snuffed them out ; they were able to do this because they knew we have no attacking strength down our right, where Guthrie constantly drifted inside(and was ineffective anyway)and Perch was terrified of being caught upfield in case Zog left him for dead. Wigan were far more threatening in the first half(as were Blackpool when we played them at SJP)and deserved their lead - overall, they deserved the points but at least the team kept going and it paid off for Colo. Agree with Martinez' comment that he couldn't see us scoring from open play, and this has been the same in many games and I do not accept the theory that we are creating good chances, because we aren't.Only the cross from Jonas, met by Carroll and saved, looked like going in Difficult to see what can be done, but the team's performances are beginning to make the likes of WBA look like genuine PL sides(look at their results AND, more importantly, the performances)whilst we look increasingly like a relegation side...concede simple goals and fail to create good chances means relegation. HBA's injury has possibly tipped the club into a genuine relegation scrap because he is the one forward with real skill and a turn of pace. The next 2 games are even more crucial now and a defeat at home to the Mackems will have the alarm bells ringing right through the club...from top to bottom.

I don't see how accepting two defeats at home to relegation candidates can be labelled as being realistic unless you expect to go straight back down. Exactly --- what is the game all about...being 'realistic' about defeats at home to poor teams ?

Beating Blackpool rather than Villa would have given us a better chance of avoiding the bottom three though. This - and that's the point...

The players can be as determined as they like, but if they can't win home games they are not good enough - determination is great but without the necessary skills it is useless. Cream always rises to the top....

Defeats against Wigan and the Mackems will put the pressure on big-time...if it hadn't been for the fact that Ashley is unwilling to spend decent money, the results at home against Blackpool and Stoke would themselves have place any manager under some pressure. Only Ashley's knowledge that he will have great difficulty in getting a decent replacement will keep Hughton in a job beyond November if we lose the next 2 home games.