Golfmag

At the game. Don't think I've ever seen worse distribution y a Permiership player than Enrique in the frist 25 minutes. And WHY is Zog so highly rated on theis Board? EVERY time he gets the ball, you know he is going to lose it. Will hopefully score the winner now. Jonas pure class and Martins looks the matchwinner to me. I think we look very comfortable but if we lose a goal, it will either come via Downing or via an Enrique mistake.

You don't think Keegan would have amassed more than 1 point against Sunderland, Fulham and a ten-man Wigan? Gerraway man. No, I don't. That's the plain truth. Keegan was also guilty of losing winnable games and playing players that shouldn't have played etc. But since he's the messiah we're not allowed to criticise him, right? Get to f*** with that f***ing attitude man. Sick of reading that sort of s****. Are we not allowed to have a debate about Keegan with that same old line being shovelled? For what it's worth, i blame Keegan as much as i blame Ashley for the state we're in at the moment. Not that that's of any relevance to this particular discussion; i just feel more comfortable assuring you of that - so we can kick off the argument on an even keel. Anyhow, Keegan's tenure started absolutely s****... but such is the tenacity and ambition of the man was that he did something risky to change our fortunes. It was risky yet executed with absolute precision. I'm on about the formation change, obviously. In the space of two games, we went from being 4-4-2, slogging it out, no shape, no determination, no confidence, no nowt. No specific player roles, no corner routines, no set piece routines. No identification in terms of where to cross, when to cross, when wing-backs should push up, when wingers should drop deep, where strikers should be, etc etc. There was the Liverpool 0-3 at Anfield, then the transition at Birmingham, then the explosion of quality at Spurs. all of a sudden, we've got a dynamic strike-force, a combative and versatile midfield, and wing-backs that could attack and assist. Keegan started slowly but he had what it took to make a big decision and do it right. He had the motivation aswell, from kick-off n'all - not a half-time "you're all s***, get better". Keegan knew exactly what he was doing and we would not be down here if he was still manager. Well presumably if he was still manager, the fans wouldn't have protested, the owner wouldn't be selling, and we'd be excited at the best squad we've had for a few good years. Absolutely, mate. At the end of the day, there are just some things you can't explain. And the KK-Toon connection is one of those. It just clicks. There is something about putting Keegan in the hotseat that works at Newcastle, and you could see it at the back end of last season when we really shone. He gave them belief and instilled passion back into the side (Not like Kinnear at all, who instils a fear passion, forces the team to pull their finger out rather than them actually wanting to). Keegan loved the club, the players loved Keegan, therefore they would play for the club. You could see they were starting to enjoy football again, as were the fans. I can say with absolute certainty that with KK in charge, we wouldn't be where we are now. Then again, I can also say with absolute certainty that with another good manager in charge, we wouldn't be where we are now too. I'm sorry, but the one thing you can say with certainty is that you absolutely cannot say those two things with certainty..... I guess however that with a good manager, Wimbledon would have won the title every year, rather than just staying in the top flight season after season on crowds of 3,000.... Every manager makes descisions that can be questioned - I don't understand why JK took off Jonas yesterday - but I take my hat off to the man. I think that he has done an excellent job in very trying circumstances.

Agree 100%. And Duff played well Hear hear. And Duff played well yesterday FFS

Duff played well today. I can't see how anyone could objectively argue with that.

Given 5 Enrique 3 Colo 6 Bassong 6 Beye 6 Butt 5 Barton n/a Guthrie 5 Jonas 7 Duff 7 Ameobi 5 Martins 6.5 Owen 6 scored one, missed two good chances Charlie 5

watched a diffrent match to me. Aye am supprised at a few of those ratings. Given- 7 Nothing to do but one very good save. - 6 should not have come out for the ball on their goal was never going to get there Beye- 7 One of our best players, good night- cannot argue with that Coloccini- 7 Another good game - 6 hmm got turned, maybe could have got to the ball for their goal Taylor- 6 Looked uncomfortable all night IMO - 5 as he always does Enrique- 7 Looked strong on the ball, good to see him being picked. - 5 go's on the wander all the time NO FAITH IN HIM Jonas- 6.5 Had a couple of great runs in the first half but faded in the second - 7 made the difference to us not match fit did really well Barton- 8 It will have been said already - 7 played well not fit Guthrie- 6 Worked hard, never grabbed the game by the scruff like Barton- 7 does his job no complaints Duff- 7 Not MOM but still better than last season, needs get in behind more often- 6 needs the ball more and a little bit more bottle Martins- 7 Got his goal and was caused problems with his pace. Inconsistant passing - worked hard al night, getting fitter Ameobi- 7 Won the pen, won headers, gave fouls away and was offside too much - 5 worked hard but is cluless Given had no choice but to come out, as a keeper being one on one there is nothing else you can do but try and narrow the angle, otherwise the striker has the whole goal to aim at

A bit of bloody sense at last. Kinnear deserves a lot of praise IMO for what he's achieved here, not contempt.

God, I wonder how long some of you have been watching the Toon for. I could name you 200 more "shambolic disgraces" than tonight over the last 20 years.

Sadly missed the match cos in Majorca (have a house in the same street that Xisco lived I found out tonight!!). When we left the bar where we had watched the game, the bar owner said "you know the sad thing is that you used to be good...." Not very profound but very true..

Just in tems of Jiminez, he was in touch this morning and talked about "we" when describing how s**** that decision was on Monday night. I suspect he is the wrong target in all of this - he didn't create the structure after all.

Just very, very aggressively attacked Graham Poll who was trying to defend the indefensible (that the Man City City penalty was a foul). Not since Keegan's rant all those years ago have I heard a football person come off the fence like that. God, I really hated him as well!

And I absolutely hated him before tonight. Total respect now though a) he was right and b) he has just made Graham Poll look an absolute t...t.

I hate Nicky Butt but I will never forget the effort he put in tonight. Monumental.

On a Blackberry, so spelling might be a bit off: Given 7 poor sod Taylor 5 didn't deserve the dog's abuse mind Colo 5 Capaca 6 Bassong 5 Geremi 5 Charlie 5 Butt 6 Duff 8 Owen 7 Xisco 1 not his fault mind

I suspect that I'd be more inclined to believe golfmag... I guess that the structure of the deal might also an issue as Trevor East might not have known that (or it might not have been an issue at that stage - 2pm) but the the fan reaction was/is clearly a major problem, even if not the only one. Apart from anything else I seriously doubt that TV would have had any interest in speaking to a complete stranger like me in the middle of his lunch if he didn't want to hear what I thought re the likely reaction.

Just had lunch at the Belfry (British Masters Golf) with Trevor East, Head of Sports for Setanta (yes I told him what we think of them) and ex Sky. He is also one of Venables' best mates. He told me that the ONLY doubt in Terry's mind re taking the job is that he is scared of being seen by us as part of the cockney mafia and therefore slated from the beginning us. I said that in my mind, yes there was hatred towards the current London mafia but I personally thought that we (the fans) wouldn't categorise him in the same way and would accept him, particulalry given the current plight. BTW, I don't know if that is true as haven't read the main Venables thread yet but it's what I believe. So he phoned Venables there and then and let me tell him what I thought!! TV just said thanks and that he appreciated the reassurance. Trevor then told me that that TV was having lunch (around 2pm) with his wife in order to make a decision. He stressed again that it was only fear about our reaction that was the stumbling block. Please feel free to merge this into another thread and forgive the name dropping but I thought that you would all want to know.

Walked past D O Dreary at the Ryder Cup yesterday so hopefully that means he's nothing else on his mind.....

Just heard the Roeder comments again and they are absolutely awesome. The Manager's job eventually became too much for him but he is ultimately one of us and always will be IMO.

Just heard Roeder on 5 Live. He was absolutely superb actually, not bitter, very dignified, said the Newcastle job was one of the best jobs in football, because of the fans. I think that says a lot for him, given the abuse he eventually received.

Just explaining to my daughter about when he walked out the first time. It's scarily similar, looking at it from the outside.

That doesn't sound at all like the Tony Jiminez that I know. Ok, I don't know him so I don't know whether it is true. Just wrote it to see if anyone wanted to make a comment. Not saying it's not true at all just that it would seem very out of character. And I do know for a fact that at 10.30pm everyone at the club was very relaxed and not expecting any more business to be done last night, barring something dramatic.

That doesn't sound at all like the Tony Jiminez that I know.

yep. i'll feel worse when it's official, i'm still clinging on to that tiny bit of hope atm Me too. I can't see where I we go from here and I don't even want to. I don't want anyone else in charge. Given the rumour about Poyet both you and I may yet feel even worse! He's probably the one person who could stop me going back. I don't despise anyone more in football than that c***. Why is it that you despise him? 2000 FA Cup semi final. FYP Oh aye, f***ing hell. What he said. What did he say?

How did we not get a corner at the end of the game? Even the useless commentators said comfortable save, but no comment on how we didn't get a corner...

I once played golf with Andy Gray and Richard Keys. It was only the last two holes, and I reckon they'd been drinking but they were both absolute tossers. Every second word was f..k. I was really diasppointed at the time because it was when we had not been in the Premiership for long and I'd thought they were both really pro-Newcastle way back then