Steven Taylor vs The Bash Street Kid
I bet Steven Taylor was quaking in his boots when Rio Ferdinand, Peckham's most famous son after Del Boy and Rodney, squared up to him in the tunnel for having the audacity to send Cristiano Ronaldo tumbling to the turf. Either that or laughing!
Ok, so it wasn't a particularly pretty challenge on the Portuguese preener and Taylor did catch him high on the shoulder/face depending on whether you are speaking from a Newcastle or a Manchester United perspective, but did it really need plug face putting his ugly mug into things? In short, no it didn't.
Ronaldo made a meal out of the incident, trying to get Taylor sent off and Ferdinand joined in, sprinting after Taylor on the pitch, getting himself booked for abusing the referee and then continuing the spat in the tunnel.
Now here's a question for you. If Ferdinand had already been booked, and then chased Taylor down the tunnel, why wasn't he shown another yellow card for violent behaviour be referee Steve Bennett?
Mind you that may have also led to Taylor's dismissal, but here's another question to distract you from that scruple.
What would the ugliest man in football have had to say if Fabricio Coloccini had gone down clutching his face after Wayne Rooney swung a forearm into it as they battled for possession near the halfway line?
He would have sprinted over to accuse the Argentinean of play-acting and then bleated on about how disgraceful it was to see a fellow professional trying to get another sent off!
As for Rooney, wonderful player, but he gets away with so much in the Premier League and then cannot understand why, when he does the same thing in internationals, he gets booked or, worse, sent off. If Coloccini had gone down then, Rooney would have almost certainly been red carded if he had been playing for England.
I know Ferdinand is captain and has to look after his own, but the whole thing annoyed me long before I heard about the tussle in the tunnel. Or as Chris Hughton would have probably described it, handbags, even though I've never seen a footballer carry a handbag, and certainly not on a matchday in full kit!
At least Newcastle had a bit of fight about them against Manchester United. It was much better performance, but it begs another question, why could they put so much effort in against Manchester United and be so lacklustre against Bolton just three days earlier? No wonder managers lose the plot from time to time.
Ultimately, however, despite the encouraging signs from a team which is still struggling with injuries to key players, it was another defeat and another step closer to relegation.
I still believe Newcastle will be safe, but they are going to have to either win two away games on the trot against Hull City and Stoke, or they are going to have to beat either Arsenal or Chelsea at SJP.
Fail to do that and they may need three wins and a draw from their last five games and that is a big ask in such a high pressure situation.
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Luke Edwards - is Chief Sports Writer of The Journal and uses his blog to give a unique and entertaining insight into events at Newcastle United and Sunderland.
I just cannot see us picking up the points we need to stay up. Totally agree with your point about us under-performing in the games that matter. Losing to Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal at home isn't what's going to relegate us. It's all the dropped points to teams we should be battering - Stoke, Hull, Bolton, etc.
All the other sides scrapping for survival - with the possible exception of West Brom - have battling qualities and are capable of picking up a win every now and then. We're only picking up draws with a similar frequency.
Mike Ashley is about to learn that you reap what you sow. The writing was on the wall the minute Milner left, no-one came in and Keegan exposed the regime for the sham it is.
Unlike previous seasons, I expect us to go down. I think that too much has gone on at the club this season, and we don't even have a manager in charge.
If we do stay up, it will be more of the same, because Ashley will not fund the first team. Who will manage the club, seems to not matter as long as he doesn't spend money.
I have to agree with the negative prognosis above. I don't think we'll win any of the away fixtures we have left, and we're hardly putting poor teams to the sword at home. If we stay up, it'll be because three teams are somehow ever so slightly worse than us, not because well pull away under our own steam. And if we do manage to tip toe around trapdoor this year, the inexperienced, under qualified tat merchants and gamblers in the boardroom and the poor on a good day management staff will see to it that we'll face the same battle next season. But think yourselves lucky kids, because benevolent Uncle Mike has slashed season ticket prices! (Just don't think too hard about who put them up in the first place.)
Steven Taylor, eh? There was a time when I though he might develop into a good player. He might look half decent in the championship. Might.
(Bloody Hell, I'm struggling with the Claudio Ca-Captcha today)
Didn't we used to be the most ridiculously optimistic fans in the league? Mike Ashley has turned us all into pessimists now.
We are in with a shout of staying up, but not sure going down might not be the right option. Get rid of the ridiculous earners, and bring through some of these younger players - when will they get the opportunity otherwise?
Duff/Geremi/Viduka and Owen not being there will save 16 mill in wages a year alone