Winning against Newcastle would have been like unwrapping the set to find it’s the Meccano Beach Buggy complete with a working engine and rubber tyres. A draw the big box with all the parts to make the JCB digger and a crane in it. But you can’t make them both just one or the other. I would have been satisfied but well aware that it just wasn’t top draw(er). Losing against Newcastle is like unwrapping the box to find it’s Maccaino. The Taiwanese version. None of the nuts fit the bolts and the base plate has holes too big for the bolts. And unsurprisingly none of the tools do what they are supposed to do.
We went into the game with Stephen Carr and Oba Martins both having a chance to hand their ex-employers a late Christmas present of their own. A win for the Blues would have seen us in 10th place and move the Magpies out of the top 10 for the first time in months.
Not to be. We lost 2 nil to a rejuvenated Newcastle. I don’t think that 2 nil was a fair reflection on the game but we didn’t deserve a point either.
Nolan, Barton and Enrique all looked a class above us. Still for large parts of the game we at least held our own. High balls at Ziggy still look the most effective form of attack and caused some consternation amongst the Newcastle defence. But then the variety of Newcastle’s attack made them more dangerous. I’m afraid dangerous isn’t a word that we could relate to our attack on the night.
Looking at the stats sheet makes interesting reading. Lovenkrands & Best sound more like a folk group than a potent scoring combination. While neither striker will have one of the big five rushing up the Tyne with a spare 40 million quid, they both took their goals well. Best could have had another but for the intervention of the Far Side. We had more possession and had more shots. But none of it looked dangerous; we were frankly more like danger mouse without Penfold!
To our chances; well we had a few that were well scattered. A fair result would have been two-one. But we are just missing that deadly striker who sticks it in the back of the net regularly. We often have matches where we squander chances that should be goals. I know that’s a decades old problem. Last year when we had a more miserly defence it meant we got draws out of games we are now losing and we were winning games we are now drawing.
The boss says we looked flat tonight. For me he is was right for parts of the game we looked like a block of flats. We started both halves flat and conceded within 5 minutes of both kick offs. But at times we looked like we were in charge.
I’m a Blues fan and optimism isn’t a natural space for me. But I thought that Martins showed enough potential. Fergie, Gardener, Bowyer and Bentley feeding Martins is going to result in cartwheels soon. I just hope it’s at Wembley in just over a weeks’ time.
This weekend. Can someone please explain to Ziggy that we are playing Wednesday on Saturday in the fifth round of the cup in case he thinks we are already in the final.