Newcastle promoted to the Premier League - now, LET'S PARTY!

[johnnypd]

http://imgur.com/LgvL9.jpg

 

I love this picture.  

 

It's a good year to be a toon fan!

 

my cousin's off to afghanistan tomorrow, good way to spend his last day home!

[Neil]

But aye, welcome back and here's to an inevitable draw at your place.

[bulivye]

[Nobody]

When would you guys say the turning point was, at which you seriously thought you were going back up?

 

And yes, I know technically it was 10 past 7 this evening. 

Beating Boro just before Christmas. Things were looking good up until then, but to go 10 points clear was when it was really starting to sink in. Saying that though, even at that point I was just waiting for us to crumble, or to sell the likes of Enrique and Colo. Quite the opposite happened, in that we strengthened in the areas we needed to strengthen and we've only lost one league game since then.

[Peppe]

YAAAAAHOOOOO!!!  :celb: :clap: :frantic: :smitten:   :cheesy:

[midds]

Turning point was Donny at home. Should have lost that game really (would have been 3 losses off the belt and they missed a pen at 1-1 with 15 mins to go) but won it with 10 men in the last minute. That was the start of the unbeaten run that got us top.

[thorin]

I MISSED PREMIER LEAGUE!!!!!!

[Chrisjraby]

7 points from the remaining games to win the league, howay!

[Guest firetotheworks]

When would you guys say the turning point was, at which you seriously thought you were going back up?

 

And yes, I know technically it was 10 past 7 this evening.

 

When we beat Cardiff 5-1 at home for me. But the game that confirmed it for me was when we were absolutely diabolical against Swansea (easily the worst Ive ever seen us play), and we got a point. From then I never expected us to lose. And we haven't.

[johnnypd]

also i'd say forest losing shorey was a big moment, it took them out of their stride.

[M4]

7 points from the remaining games to win the league, howay!

 

And that's if West Brom are flawless!

[JH]

What a day to be a NUFC supporter 

 

The finger was pointed at them when we went down in embarassing fashion, and so the praise goes their way for pulling us back around and putting us straight back in the top league.

 

Donny at home was definitely the turning point - we've never looked back. It may not have always been spectacular, but we got the points and have sealed it with weeks still to go.

 

Well done to the players and well done to Chris Hughton for creating positive back page headlines. Finally, a Newcastle side that we (for a few months at least!) we can be proud of.

 

Howay the Lads

[Beren]

Part of me can't wait to start again in the Premier League, and wishes we didn't have any more Championship games left, and the new season would start next week...

 

...the side of me with a brain is enjoying the (false) hope that we will have until we begin, and appreciates the rest/(hopefully) investment that is forthcoming.

[Cronky]

The turning point that I was expecting never happened - ie some loss of concentration caused by pressure or over-confidence leading to a bad sequence of results, then more pressure etc. Instead, we've just kept going, meeting the challenge of each game as it came along, regardless of what's happened the previous week.

 

We've not played great football, but mentally the team has been very strong.

[Mistle17]

I am bloody well thrilled! Knocking out the Tiger Beers as we speak! 

 

Well done Chris and the lads, it would have been easy to give up with so many excuses at stake but they all pulled together and have restored a large amount of pride back into our black & white stripes.

 

HOWAY THE LADS!!! 

[binnsy]

Might have already been said but we can all but win the league on Saturday, if we beat Blackpool and Donny beat WBA then we are 9 points clear of WBA with a much better goal diff and they will only have 3 games left.

[madras]

The turning point that I was expecting never happened - ie some loss of concentration caused by pressure or over-confidence leading to a bad sequence of results, then more pressure etc. Instead, we've just kept going, meeting the challenge of each game as it came along, regardless of what's happened the previous week.

 

We've not played great football, but mentally the team has been very strong.

true about not playing great football but latterly at home it's been a case of how many we'd get (coventry,barnsly,cardiff etc)and we've been dominating away from home (watford,donny,posh)

[bovineblue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWzt_qO1qU4

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

Honestly, I'm stunned at how smoothly and easily this has gone. Credit to everyone involved. We had a goal in August and we reached that goal in an efficient and swift manner. This has not been the Newcastle way over the years, but it is certainly a style I can get used to.

[madras]

Honestly, I'm stunned at how smoothly and easily this has gone. Credit to everyone involved. We had a goal in August and we reached that goal in an efficient and swift manner. This has not been the Newcastle way over the years, but it is certainly a style I can get used to.

believe me, it wont last.

[merlin]

Many congratulations to all at the club - esp to Hughton and the players who have given everything to bring the club back to the Prem in a much shorter time than most of us expected.

Nobody could have wished for more than this achievement and all connected with the club should enjoy these happy times which go a long way towards wiping out the memories of last season(and the ones preceding it).

 

I hope they go on to win the title and put the icing on the cake - then the owner, board and manager must sit down immediately and set up a list of sensible targets aimed at keeping the club where it should always be, which is the FIRST target....a proper policy of steady rebuilding will eventually pay dividends, so all must ensure that the bad old days of panic expensive buys unsuited to the club, never return.

 

Very well done lads.

[Ronaldo]

Indeed, they can be collectively very proud. Let's hope that the title is more or less secured by 4 points from the next 2 games.

[madras]

Indeed, they can be collectively very proud. Let's hope that the title is more or less secured by 4 points from the next 2 games.

reading will be tricky, they are in form at the mo.

 

 

 

[Ronaldo]

We're good at drawing away from home.

[Ketsbaia]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/robkelly/100006838/welcome-back-to-the-premier-league-newcastle-how-we-have-missed-you/

 

Welcome back to the Premier League, Newcastle – how we have missed you

On May 24, 2009, the death knell had seemingly sounded for Newcastle United. Facing an Aston Villa side with nothing to play for, the Toon’s 16-year stay in the Premier League ended in the tamest of fashions with a 1-0 defeat at Villa Park on the final day of a terrible season. Newcastle’s players were a disgrace, showing no fight and no passion for the black and white shirt that so may have worn with distinction down the years. The dark clouds hovering over St James’ Park had finally burst, and the club was expected to be washed away in a flood of anger, hostility and civil war.

 

But less than 12 months later, pride has been restored to Tyneside. Not only have Newcastle regained their Premier League status, but they have done so with a swagger. Shaped under the careful eye of Chris Hughton, the beginnings of a tentative rebuilding operation is taking place at St James’ Park. Stage one is complete, now to see if the North East’s most colourful and dramatic club can retain their place at English football’s top table. Talk of owner Mike Ashley suddenly opening his chequebook to lavish a £60million war chest on Hughton is naive, but with sensible investment (anathema in Tynecastle in recent years) in the right areas, the club should be optimistic of reestablishing themselves in the Premier League once again.

 

Despite the widespread schadenfreude towards Newcastle last season, football fans should be welcoming the club back into the elite with open arms. Whatever you may think of their passionate fans, at least they fill their ground and make a noise. Matches at St James’ Park (average attendance this season is 42,335, in the Championship) are an event to be cherished. Better that than playing games in front of half empty stadiums at the likes of Wigan (average attendance 17,840).

 

What better club to add more colour, more frisson to an already entertaining Premier League than Newcastle? Whether they are engaged in open civil war with their owner, conducting 20-man brawls involving coaches and players or losing 6-1 in a pre-season friendly to Leyton Orient (and that’s just this season), Newcastle provide drama, and tonnes of it. Like them or loathe them, they provide endless talking points, both on the pitch and off it, and for that they should be celebrated.

 

We may be pleasantly surprised by them on the pitch, too. Hughton, derided by some because he is a quiet, thoughtful man who simply does not play the media game, has Newcastle playing attractive, passing football with a edge of steel. It is no mean feat to get out of the Championship at the first time of asking with so much time to spare, and it is all the more impressive when you consider that for much of the early part of the season the ownership crisis threatened to overwhelm the club. Hughton, a man previously seen as a perennial No 2, has proved himself a shrewd, calm manager able to unify a shattered club. Given a summer of planning and an enhanced transfer budget, he now has the opportunity to take Newcastle a further step forward.

 

But that can wait for now, until the celebrations in the North East die down. Newcastle have had plenty of dark days in their recent past, it is time to let them enjoy their day in the sun. Welcome back Newcastle, the Premier League has missed you.

 

Damn right you've missed us