Newcastle 4-2 Southampton // Post-Match Reaction

[70's Mike]

Nothing has changed still going to last game imo

[dubai_phil]

Never saw that coming. No sireeee.

[ART]

Huge error 1: Team selection leaving Pucheon out and leaving Clyne exposed.

Hugh error 2: Taking the Captain's armband off Ricky who's been sensational in the role.

Huge error 3: Tying up Lallana with the captains role who's too young for the role and leads to him playing like a headless chicken and exposing Shaw.

Huge error 4" Bringing on Fox. allowing the defense to fall apart and letting them score.

 

Not making changes at halftime by bringing on Puncheon was the killer blow.

 

Maybe Pochettino had beginners luck till now, and has exhausted the players at this coldest period of winter. Today we played like we were playing back before when Adam got injured. Adam is not putting in the type of serious play that the others have of late.

 

A huge step backwards and Harry must be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of taking all three points off us next week.

[.comsaint]

Pardew did his homework on us - that's for sure.

 

As for the result ; take away Fox's handball (for the penalty) & Fox's woeful attempt at trying to clear the ball (off Jos's chest for the OG) - and 2-2 it would have been!

 

Can't grumble at that. Well done Sir Rickie btw. Welcome to the 100 Club. Legend.

[solentstars]

I'm concerned how we have started making the mistakes we had at the start of the season in defence.hopefully its just a one off after looking solid in that area the last few months.

 

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[dubai_phil]

Scoreline flattered Newcastle, but they probably edged it and deserved the win.

 

Introduction of Fox turned the game in the hosts' favour - no complaints about the penalty but Hooiveld own goal was shocking.

 

Referee Chris Foy was poor, no major decisions wrong but very picky and gave needless free-kicks/bookings.

Overall, an OK performance but disappointed not to come away with a point.

 

QPR is huge now - still believe we'll be alright.

 

Keep the faith.

 

You MUST be having a laugh.

 

Their 2nd goal foul on Saints player clearly shown on the tv coverage here and discussed, they hit the long ball, clear foul on Shaw, barged off the ball their player not even looking at the ball - 2nd bad decision in the build up.

 

Then the Ripper - Sissoko was OFFSIDE when the ball was played, nobody else touched the ball until he hit it into the net = Oh dear, the ref has got that wrong on the commentary.

 

Fox was ball to hand but then he was an idiot for leaving his arm out like that as he ran up to the player.

[Shroppie]

Huge error 1: Team selection leaving Pucheon out and leaving Clyne exposed.

Hugh error 2: Taking the Captain's armband off Ricky who's been sensational in the role.

Huge error 3: Tying up Lallana with the captains role who's too young for the role and leads to him playing like a headless chicken and exposing Shaw.

Huge error 4" Bringing on Fox. allowing the defense to fall apart and letting them score.

 

Not making changes at halftime by bringing on Puncheon was the killer blow.

 

Maybe Pochettino had beginners luck till now, and has exhausted the players at this coldest period of winter. Today we played like we were playing back before when Adam got injured. Adam is not putting in the type of serious play that the others have of late.

 

A huge step backwards and Harry must be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of taking all three points off us next week.

 

Agree there were some strange decisions today, particularly no Puncheon.

 

We will now see what Pochettino can do in adversity.

[JustMike]

Huge error 1: Team selection leaving Pucheon out and leaving Clyne exposed.

Hugh error 2: Taking the Captain's armband off Ricky who's been sensational in the role.

Huge error 3: Tying up Lallana with the captains role who's too young for the role and leads to him playing like a headless chicken and exposing Shaw.

Huge error 4" Bringing on Fox. allowing the defense to fall apart and letting them score.

 

Not making changes at halftime by bringing on Puncheon was the killer blow.

 

Maybe Pochettino had beginners luck till now, and has exhausted the players at this coldest period of winter. Today we played like we were playing back before when Adam got injured. Adam is not putting in the type of serious play that the others have of late.

 

A huge step backwards and Harry must be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of taking all three points off us next week.

 

I doubt it somehow, he is probably too busy worrying about getting his own house in order.

[bpsaint]

Didn't expect much today to be honest, don't understand why we always seem to be poor when the squad have had a break. Defending really was awful at time, and like others have said the decisions to a) drop Punch and b) weigh Lallana down with the burden of captaincy assisted in our downfall today.

 

Seriously though we are not as good as some of our fans think we are. We're in the position we are because we deserve to be, and we are in a relegation battle, talk of finishing 10th etc is plain ridiculous.

[pingwing]

Dissapointed by the ref, infuriated by fox, pleased on the most part we looked ok especially with Lallana back.

 

On a different day that could have been ours but thankfully that shouldn't cost us a place on this league

[dubai_phil]

On a lighter note...

 

At HT 3 TSW members reach for their smartfones to post on the Match Thread, look at each other and say...

 

Nah, we'd only get upset, let's watch the chicks coming off the beach instead....

 

Only decent decision made all day.

 

Dear Eric, you did the right thing playing with your airplanes, it really was that sh1t

[ToreSF]

You MUST be having a laugh.

 

Their 2nd goal foul on Saints player clearly shown on the tv coverage here and discussed, they hit the long ball, clear foul on Shaw, barged off the ball their player not even looking at the ball - 2nd bad decision in the build up.

 

Then the Ripper - Sissoko was OFFSIDE when the ball was played, nobody else touched the ball until he hit it into the net = Oh dear, the ref has got that wrong on the commentary.

 

Fox was ball to hand but then he was an idiot for leaving his arm out like that as he ran up to the player.

 

Spot on.

[LostBoys]

Huge error 1: Team selection leaving Pucheon out and leaving Clyne exposed.

Hugh error 2: Taking the Captain's armband off Ricky who's been sensational in the role.

Huge error 3: Tying up Lallana with the captains role who's too young for the role and leads to him playing like a headless chicken and exposing Shaw.

Huge error 4" Bringing on Fox. allowing the defense to fall apart and letting them score.

 

Not making changes at halftime by bringing on Puncheon was the killer blow.

 

 

Maybe Pochettino had beginners luck till now, and has exhausted the players at this coldest period of winter. Today we played like we were playing back before when Adam got injured. Adam is not putting in the type of serious play that the others have of late.

 

A huge step backwards and Harry must be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of taking all three points off us next week.

 

Agree with all this apart from players being exhausted - Lallana did not deserve being brought back in and showed it and you are always going to be exposed with Fox. To me it started to go sideways when he took Davis off.

[sotonjoe]

We would never be in the s h I t we are in if we had stood by Atkins. This team are going down.

[UpweySaint]

We were unlucky, the ref wasn't great, they scored a wonder goal but still ... we didn't keep the ball well enough, didn't make the right changes and were undone by some poor defending again.

 

Let's hope we learn from this going into the qpr game and take the positives from the three points against city!

[70's Mike]

We would never be in the s h I t we are in if we had stood by Atkins. This team are going down.

 

So what other games would we have won

[saints_is_the_south]

All 4 goals were quite unfortunate, although Man City could say the same about the 3 we scored against them.

 

1st ricochets off the inside of Boruc's leg and diverts straight to Sissoko. On another day it goes out for a corner.

 

Will have to see the build up to the free kick that led to the 2nd goal again to be sure, but it looked like the free kick should have been give to us, not Newcastle. Then Ciise comes back from an offside position, Shaw is fouled, no one touches the ball before it gets to Ciise.

 

3rd is a penalty for me, but I do wonder had it been down the other end would it have been given? Answer is probably not.

 

No words needed for the 4th.

 

As for the game general, started both halfs very well. It was inevitable after scoring so early that we were going to face a bit of a Newcastle onslaught, but we should have kept the ball a lot better than we did when we did have it. After Rickie equalised and the had that headed chance to make it 3-2, it looked like we would be the team to go on and win it. And the disaster strikes with the penalty and 4th goal.

 

No need for any knee jerk reactions though, today was a game that we could quite conceivably lose and we have done. No biggie for me, still 3 points above the drop zone as we were before the weekend started. Decent performance, two good goals, but can improve too.

[Viking Warrior]

Payout cannot blame hooveld for the owngoal he didn know much about it . Fox was trying to clear the ball and it hit hooveld and end up in the net . Hooveld looked pretty ****ed of with it staring at fox

[Suomi Saint]

I only saw the second half, but it seems to me that MP made a big tactical error in taking both Shaw and Davis off. Fox was absolute pants as he usually is, and consequently the defence fell apart like it did at West Ham away. Saints played some good stuff in the first 10-15 minutes of the second period, but faded badly after that. Newcastle didn't have a lot of chances - Fox just gifted them 2 goals. It was a stonewall penalty in my opinion. MP got it wrong today and he has 11 games to save his job. I don't think QPR will be that easy, and we are certainly still very much in danger of making the dreaded drop. Giving away 4 goals was pretty poor, and it should be noted that Adkins had us playing much tighter than this before he was sacked. I'm astonished that a lot of people on here have been heralding MP as some sort of tactical genius. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen much evidence of this so far. W1 D2 L2. Not really good enough is it?

[Saint Without a Halo]

Pardew pretty fair and gracious in his post match interview said it was a great win not because of their position but because Saints were one of the best teams they have played and started brilliantly in each half. He also said without the new signings Newcastle of a few weeks ago would never have beaten a good team like Saints!

[forever a red and white]

Pardew got his tactics spot on today. They used the long ball effectively to turn us around and often played the ball long, towards two players on one of our full-backs. Fox wasn't great when he came on but Shaw was not much better other than a few crosses. Even though we got two goals today never really looked like we were going to win and did not press as much as we have in past games.

 

Today we just looked very average I thought and Newcastle are a better team than us, played better and had better tactics on the day! Still we can and must be positive towards next week!

[forever a red and white]

and we had plenty of luck v City last week. I thought the ref was quite good actually as well...

[Saint Without a Halo]

Interesting random fact!

Our own goal today involved 3 ex celtic players Fox off Hoivelled and past Boruc!

[Saint Without a Halo]

Abu Dhabi local commentator in Arabic blames Fox as the one factor that changed the game! A little harsh me thinks!

[ericofarabia]

We must stop scoring away from home after 3 minutes!!

 

It didn't work at Old Trafford and it didn't work today.

 

Didn't we score early doors at Everton as well?

[Graffito]

I only saw the second half, but it seems to me that MP made a big tactical error in taking both Shaw and Davis off. Fox was absolute pants as he usually is, and consequently the defence fell apart like it did at West Ham away. Saints played some good stuff in the first 10-15 minutes of the second period, but faded badly after that. Newcastle didn't have a lot of chances - Fox just gifted them 2 goals. It was a stonewall penalty in my opinion. MP got it wrong today and he has 11 games to save his job. I don't think QPR will be that easy, and we are certainly still very much in danger of making the dreaded drop. Giving away 4 goals was pretty poor, and it should be noted that Adkins had us playing much tighter than this before he was sacked. I'm astonished that a lot of people on here have been heralding MP as some sort of tactical genius. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen much evidence of this so far. W1 D2 L2. Not really good enough is it?

 

The only thing I almost agree with is the point about tactics. I saw no significant change in tactics during the match, only changes in personnel but I think you cannot make that into a general criticism of Pochettino's tactical ability. Someone who reads the game better than I will no doubt put me straight.

As for the rest of your comments, just one observation, Yoshida played left back against West Ham.

[stknowle]

Danny fox was ther difference between Newcastle and Saints today. Unfortunately he played for us.

 

I'm afraid this basically is correct, given Fox was responsible for 2 goals and we lost by 2 goals (accepted he was unlucky for the pen). Fox reminds me in appearance slightly of a young Cliff Richard. I never saw Sir Cliff play but chhdajfu as better cover for Shaw?

[Graffito]

Abu Dhabi local commentator in Arabic blames Fox as the one factor that changed the game! A little harsh me thinks!

 

That's why he's a local commentator in Abu Dhabi.

[Chewy]

Huge error 1: Team selection leaving Pucheon out and leaving Clyne exposed.

Hugh error 2: Taking the Captain's armband off Ricky who's been sensational in the role.

Huge error 3: Tying up Lallana with the captains role who's too young for the role and leads to him playing like a headless chicken and exposing Shaw.

Huge error 4" Bringing on Fox. allowing the defense to fall apart and letting them score.

 

Not making changes at halftime by bringing on Puncheon was the killer blow.

 

Maybe Pochettino had beginners luck till now, and has exhausted the players at this coldest period of winter. Today we played like we were playing back before when Adam got injured. Adam is not putting in the type of serious play that the others have of late.

 

A huge step backwards and Harry must be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of taking all three points off us next week.

 

And the award for the biggest over-reaction ....

 

We lost to a decent and improving Newcastle (away) due to to a combination of bad luck, bad refereeing, and a performance below the high standards we've reached of late. Of course we'll lose to qpr, it's a dead cert now. As is our impending relegation according to sotonjoe. FFS, some people really need to get a grip.

[Roger]

And the award for the biggest over-reaction ....

 

We lost to a decent and improving Newcastle (away) due to to a combination of bad luck, bad refereeing, and a performance below the high standards we've reached of late. Of course we'll lose to qpr, it's a dead cert now. As is our impending relegation according to sotonjoe. FFS, some people really need to get a grip.

 

I dont always agree with art but hes spot on in that post. with his huge errors bit.

[Legod Third Coming]

This season Morgan has scored four goals.

 

We have won none of the games in which he has scored.

 

There, sir, is not a scapegoat. There is facts. Don't let him score again.

[Chewy]

I dont always agree with art but hes spot on in that post. with his huge errors bit.

 

He may have some valid points (though at 2 - 2 I didn't see too much complaining) but its the 'beginners luck' and 'Harry rubbing his hands' comments that annoy me. One below par performance in 5,against a good side, after our best performance in (quite literally) years, which was partly reliant on bad luck and bad refereeing, and suddenly we have a sh1t manager and are going to lose at home to qpr? Really? Hence ...over-reaction!!! Get a grip.

[Lighthouse]

Harry wont be rubbing his hands over anything for quite a while, even if he beats us next week. 38 points is a fairly realistic points target for safety. QPR are 21 points off that so they need 7 wins out of their last 11 games.

 

As bad as we were today, QPR were garbage against Man Utd. There was nothing in their performance to make them confident of getting a result at St Marys. Yes I know it was Man Utd but they weren't even in it. We made them work for it at OT a few weeks ago and deserved a point. QPR just didn't turn up at home and Utd cruised to victory in 2nd gear.

[Lallana's Left Peg]

Just back from a game - a few musings:

 

1. Today we saw the negative side of the new tactic - when the defensive line sits so high and the midfield 5 do not press the ball enough someone with quality will just dink balls over the top to turn our defenders and then the chaos starts. We won't always come up against midfielders with the passing range of Cabaye, but he had far too much time on the ball today and as a result the defence was placed under a lot of pressure.

 

2. Too many players not at the races today, as a team - despite a dream start - I saw a bit too much apprehension and nowhere near enough decisiveness and conviction when passing the ball. When we did win the ball back in good areas the attack was slow and ineffective which then meant any advantage of pressing high and winning the ball back was all but eliminated.

 

3. That said we still scored twice and looked dangerous - definite goal threat in the team but also a fragile confidence level. When confidence is high we're a match for most. When confidence is low we can look terrible.

 

Would like Puncheon and Lallana to start next week with Ramirez in the middle behind Lambert. Lets go with the team that has the best quality on the ball and give them the opportunity to take on the worst team on the division.

 

Lastly, Chris Foy put on one of the most unprofessional Refereeing displays I have ever seen. It shouldn't overshadow what I thought was a below average performance from the team, but it was a genuine 1/10 effort from him today. This is a summary of his performance from my perspective:

 

1. Got many decisions he had a clear view of wrong

2. After he had made decisions he was then clearly influenced by players on the pitch - in particular the Jay-Rod yellow card came a good 10 seconds after the free kick was given and then a Newcastle player had a word in his ear. Just awful.

3. Clearly he had seen the mistakes he made at HT (especially for Newcastles second goal) and he came out all guns blazing in the second half and went through a 5min spell of giving us everything no matter what - it doesn't work like that, just do your ****ing job properly in the first place you stupid ****.

 

And the biggest crime of all:

 

4. Inconsistency in his decision making - we got some Yellow cards for professional fouls in areas of the park that aren't dangerous. Then with 3mins to go Sissoko trips Lambert when he is ploughing his way towards the penalty area and only a free kick is given with no yellow card? Why? How can it be a free kick and not a yellow card given the previous decisions he made. It's baffling and inexcusable considering he gets paid to do this job. Then during the game in general some things were fouls then 5mins later they weren't. How can players on either side play on that basis?

[mitch01]

I just don't get the Danny Fox vitriol. Not a good player at this level, but I never see any reason to question his effort/application which is the only reason why these comments should ever get this personal.

 

I also though Ramirez looked good when he came on. Despite being slightly disappointed with his contribution so far this season, I'm still pretty confident he will turn out to be an excellent investment.

 

Lallana looked good on the right.

 

Jack Cork is a much better player without the ball than with it, which suits our system just fine.

 

Rodriguez was pretty well dealt with by both full-backs he faced.

 

 

Overall I can't complain about the result, but I really thought that we looked the more likely before the penalty incident. On to the next one.

[Frank's cousin]

Just got back from the Match... some of you must have been watching a different game on the stream.. we were OK and excellent for our goals - far better when we actually went at them at pace. However, dont think these breaks help us - we need continuity as we looked rusty again, passing not quite clicking as it did in all games recently, in part as after the first 10, pards got his side to press us and we lost our shape a bit, how we manage that when pressed is something to work on.

 

St James' never a happy hunting ground for us, but on another day Cisse is off side or hits row Z and Rickies freekick flies in and the ball ricochets off Jos for a corner... They had us under pressure at times as you wpuld expect form a home side, and Shaw going off for a knock weakened us a a threat going forward, but all in all we aint gone backwards, just lost a bit of edge through sitting it out for 15 days IMHO.

 

As for the comment above from Skatejoe

 

If you want to make inane and totally feckwit comments, try this one: in the corresponding fictures to the 5 games under MP, Adkins managed 3 points, against a poor Newcastle. MP has 5 to date... pointless argument, pointless comment and as about insightful as your 'epic'.... IF we go down, they will BOTH be to blame, just as if we stay up, they will BOTH deserve credit...

Edited 24 February, 2013 by Frank's cousin

[shurlock]

All 4 goals were quite unfortunate, although Man City could say the same about the 3 we scored against them.

 

1st ricochets off the inside of Boruc's leg and diverts straight to Sissoko. On another day it goes out for a corner.

 

Will have to see the build up to the free kick that led to the 2nd goal again to be sure, but it looked like the free kick should have been give to us, not Newcastle. Then Ciise comes back from an offside position, Shaw is fouled, no one touches the ball before it gets to Ciise.

 

3rd is a penalty for me, but I do wonder had it been down the other end would it have been given? Answer is probably not.

 

No words needed for the 4th.

 

As for the game general, started both halfs very well. It was inevitable after scoring so early that we were going to face a bit of a Newcastle onslaught, but we should have kept the ball a lot better than we did when we did have it. After Rickie equalised and the had that headed chance to make it 3-2, it looked like we would be the team to go on and win it. And the disaster strikes with the penalty and 4th goal.

 

No need for any knee jerk reactions though, today was a game that we could quite conceivably lose and we have done. No biggie for me, still 3 points above the drop zone as we were before the weekend started. Decent performance, two good goals, but can improve too.

 

 

Just back from the game after East Coast trains f**ked up (again) but that's how I pretty much saw it. The 2nd should have blown in our favour and the flick from a punt was offside. Thought the third was slightly harsh (resulting from another punt we didn't deal with) (so did geordie fans i spoke to) but seen them given plenty of times before.

 

Thought Foy was shockingly inconsistent -not even a yellow for the foul on Lambert as he was moving into the box at the end. We were quite route one at times but still played the more composed football especially in the 2nd half when LAmbert suddenly started getting more joy and at 2-2 we looked the better team. But Newcastle showed greater intensity and ruthlessness (they looked like they were ones with the pressing game), aided and abetted by the ref's own laissez faire tribute to French day. Apart from picking the goals out of the net, Boruc didn't have a save to make.

 

Motm was probably Sissoko - for us, Lambert, Yoshi and Morgan were good. Davis and Jayrod were ineffectual and Hooiveld was going off the boil before the OG. Interestingly I detected quite a bit of frustration towards Gaston from the other players.

 

Today reminded why I was happy to see Pardew go - his football is pretty pedestrian and predictable, however good the players he has at his disposal. We were undone by pace and punts down the channels -the full backs weren't given enough protection- and we only have ourselves to blame for not dealing with and adapting to it.

Edited 25 February, 2013 by shurlock

[Ed Rooney]

No knee jerk reaction at all to result, we pressed as well as we have done in other games under MP, But got hit on counter, which will happen in other games as a result of our pressing tactics(which I love), quite simply though lallana is not a captain !! RL is an influential figure that can drive others forward, Adam is not

[havasack]

My (NUFC) point of view.

 

Both teams cancelled each other out for large parts leading to keepers not really being tested. You lot found space in front of our defensive line which looked more dangerous than it turned out to be. We looked more dangerous on the break (again looked more dangerous than we actually were).

 

Seemed like we (NUFC) were out thought but had the better players, while I have to say I like the way you lot played today and think you play much better since the change of manager, hope you stay up (at the expense of QPR and hopefully West Ham), it'll be inetresting to see how you react to this defeat.

[Charlie Wayman]

Huge error 1: Team selection leaving Pucheon out and leaving Clyne exposed.

Hugh error 2: Taking the Captain's armband off Ricky who's been sensational in the role.

Huge error 3: Tying up Lallana with the captains role who's too young for the role and leads to him playing like a headless chicken and exposing Shaw.

Huge error 4" Bringing on Fox. allowing the defense to fall apart and letting them score.

 

Not making changes at halftime by bringing on Puncheon was the killer blow.

 

Maybe Pochettino had beginners luck till now, and has exhausted the players at this coldest period of winter. Today we played like we were playing back before when Adam got injured. Adam is not putting in the type of serious play that the others have of late.

 

A huge step backwards and Harry must be rubbing his hands with glee at the prospect of taking all three points off us next week.

 

I agree with most of this. This was a poor, poor performance and probably the worst since the Sunderland fiasco. No sign today of the fast passing and moving football that Adders had pretty much perfected and that had bamboozled ManUre & ManC. Very odd team selection and taking off Luke Shaw was a monumental mistake and will have ****ed off the lad for sure - as well as me. Leaving out Puncheon was congenital madness.

 

We seemed today to have stepped backwards, looking fragmented, hapless and uncertain at times. I hope this is not a sign of a wind-down from the Adkins era with nothing to replace it?

 

One game of course but with a 12 pointer next up this is not the time for us to come unstuck and start a period of decline.

[Barry the Badger]

With the free kick for their second. Looked like our player (JRod? My stream was not good) grabbed at the ball as he was going down and the free kick was given for handball against him? It was a foul on him but play to the whistle. Lucky it wasn't Fox grabbing at the ball when no foul had been given.

[Lighthouse]

First goal, not a lot we could do. Unlucky rebound Clyne should probably have been better possitioned to stop the first shot.

 

Second goal. Shouldn't have been a free kick, was offside but a wonder strike none the less. Nothing we could do about that, Shaw beaten for the header though.

 

Third goal. Stupid from fox, why he had his arm up there I don't know.

 

Fourth goal. Again stupid, no awareness from Fox at all, he could easily have let it go or turned away from the goal but hoofs it into Jos' chest instead.

[DrZuess1979 the 2nd]

Well Shearer just got his match analyses completely wrong!!!

 

They won buy hitting our full backs early, hence were all their goals came from

[havasack]

My (NUFC) point of view.

 

Both teams cancelled each other out for large parts leading to keepers not really being tested. You lot found space in front of our defensive line which looked more dangerous than it turned out to be. We looked more dangerous on the break (again looked more dangerous than we actually were).

 

Seemed like we (NUFC) were out thought but had the better players, while I have to say I like the way you lot played today and think you play much better since the change of manager, hope you stay up (at the expense of QPR and hopefully West Ham), it'll be inetresting to see how you react to this defeat.

[Appy]

My (NUFC) point of view.

 

Both teams cancelled each other out for large parts leading to keepers not really being tested. You lot found space in front of our defensive line which looked more dangerous than it turned out to be. We looked more dangerous on the break (again looked more dangerous than we actually were).

 

Seemed like we (NUFC) were out thought but had the better players, while I have to say I like the way you lot played today and think you play much better since the change of manager, hope you stay up (at the expense of QPR and hopefully West Ham), it'll be inetresting to see how you react to this defeat.

 

We get it.

[Graffito]

So Shearer invents a new offside rule. It's called "technically offside" which isn't offside as we all know it because although a player may be offside, he scores with a great shot and he scores for Newcastle Utd so the linesman would be imprisoned in the changing room if he gives it so the goal should stand. Glad that ones cleared up because it was bothering me a bit.

[havasack]

We get it.

 

Yeah, you look away for a while, return and it's still in the quote box and think "d'oh, I mustn't have have posted it"

 

Anyway, hope all your lot who were up here enjoyed their weekend (many out shopping with other halves yesterday in the metrocentre I saw) despite the result.

[Saintjersey]

Shaw had to come off. He had been ripped apart all game and was on a yellow, Pochettino was forced into making the substitution. J-Rod and Davis were awful and both needed to be replaced, just a shame that Fox and Ramirez were such awful replacements.

 

Anyway 3 points against QPR and everything will be looking good again.

[rick1976.4.38]

wet spam and the mackems are still in the dogfight

keep calm,eleven to go and twitchy and his lot next

we will be fine but it will be close

[SuperMikey]

Just back from the game now (it's a long old poke). It's easy to trot this out now after the game, but Newcastle have massively under-achieved this season and deserve to be a lot higher up the table. They made some really impressive signings in January with Sissoko, Gouffran and Yanga M'Biwa, and they've got a squad now that's good enough to be challenging for the Top 8. They were very effective and picked out the weaknesses in our side (mainly a lack of strength, which they have in abundance) and exploited them well. A few notes though.

 

- We didn't play badly. On another day we could've easily picked up a point or possibly all 3 if we'd capitalised a bit more on our chances in the second half.

- The referee was absolute dogsh!te, as were his officials. Completely inept and his mistakes cost us 2 goals (Cisse goal which wasn't a free-kick and was offside, and the penalty which was apparently dubious according to my mate watching at home).

- Newcastle hit us on the counter with a ball over the top time and time again, and their strong, quick and tall players bossed our titchy defence about.

- Full backs were dreadfully exposed and bossed physically.

- Clear that we need better options off the bench.