Michael Owen Brings Newcastle To Its Knees
I've said it so often I've sounded like a stuck record. Michael Owen's goals will keep Newcastle in the Premier League. Now it looks as though I was wrong after all, perhaps it will be Owen's missed chances which will send them into the Championship.
When I saw the ball had fallen at the feet of England's once greatest playing goalscorer I thought that was it, all the missed opportunities wouldn't matter after all, and once again Little Mo would silence his critics in unanswerable fashion by scoring the winning goal in the biggest of games.
Instead, the former England international - well can you see him earning a recall under Fabio Capello at the moment? - did something I've never seen before, he panicked, didn't look up and sent a poor shot straight at David James.
As he fell to his knees, you could see the belief and energy drain out of the Newcastle side. He was the one player you wanted that sort of chance to fall to and he had failed to put it away.
Newcastle knew then that Pompey were not going to be beaten and perhaps we should just be thankful United didn't end up losing the game because the visitors had chances of their own after that.
Of course, Owen was not the only one. Obafemi Martins' chance, when seven or eight yards from goal in the first half, was an even worse miss and Mark Viduka also failed to take the sort of opportunities he would normally tuck away as a matter of course.
Going back to Martins, he has missed wonderful opportunities in so many games now it is scary. Against Bolton, Hull and Tottenham away, as well as that missed penalty against Arsenal. Not good enough, although he is not the only one by any stretch of the imagination.
Symbolically, though, Owen was the one which said the most. Newcastle United fans have always expected rather more than they have received from the £16.5m signing from Real Madrid.
So where does this leave Newcastle's hopes of avoiding relegation? Well, things have taken yet another turn for the worse but there is no point anyone giving up just yet is there?!
With a better goal difference than Hull, they are still just one win away from overtaking them, but this really is drink up time in the last chance saloon.
The problem is, it's all well and good saying just six more points might be enough to keep them up, but Newcastle simply cannot win a game of football. It's one in 18 games now and that says everything.
Must-win games haven't been won all season, under Joe Kinnear, Chris Hughton and now Alan Shearer. And if Portsmouth can come to St James's Park, defend in numbers and look persistently dangerous on the break, then of course Middlesbrough and Fulham can do the same.
In fact, they will be confident of doing just that given the shattering of confidence that could be heard across Tyneside on Monday night.
As for the trip to Anfield on Sunday, it doesn't bare thinking about at the moment....
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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.
£12 mil for milner, 6 for the zog and 6.5 for Given, not too clever when you havent rerceived a penny yet, and it looks like were going to the fizzy pop league.
Thanks Mike , hope your having as much fun taking us into the wilderness as we are having!!
Never mind though, we`l still be fans when you`ve lost 200mil on your "hobby" you are by far the worst owner in prem league history and will be hated forever .
Hope your still having fun though...........
Hi Luke,
About right, no point in giving up just yet with Hull especially looking as bad or worse than us!
I think 37 points is the minimum and probably our maximum as I cannot see us getting anything at Anfield.
However,Villa who have to play Boro and Hull have gone off the boil and don't seem to be able to win, not sure if that's a good or bad thing!
3 good chances to score and 3 misses, the only positive was we created 3 chances much more than in most recent games!
Cheers
Mike
Sadly, I fear we are doomed. Our hope must now be that Shearer stays with it, even in the Championship, and rebuilds the squad.
One absentee will be the fabled Michael Owen.
Yes, he missed that chance against Portsmouth. If he was still the player he used to be, he MIGHT have scored. Or he might have been aware of Oba Martins in a better position a body's width away and left it to the Nigerian.
For the final four games, there should be one name absent from the starting line up, - OWEN!
Let's be honest. Why should he care. He doesn't face championship football next season. Miss one here, wander about there. He's a waste of space and doesn't deserve our support. He's milked the club financially and should be consigned to the bench for depserate measures. Let Oba, Carroll and Viduka try their hand at the job. They might not succeed, but Owen will deinitely fail.
Hah. That feels better!
Drop owen - drop butt - drop harper - drop viduka . Why these players are even allowed to wear the shirt is beyond me.
Owen with his misses, butt with his lack of ability to pick out a pass, harper the fat goalie and his fat freind viduka, christ shearer can probably put in a better performance than that pie eating waste of space.
Drop those players and replace them with reserves like ranger, show you have a pair shearer!!!!
The Boro game will definitely be where we can pick up at least one win! They'll be needing 3 points that day as well, so it will be a very open game. I predict a good amount of goals, with most of them for NUFC!
Howay the lads!!