Three Steps To Salvation
As tough as it was to take at the time, has the defeat by Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend changed anything for Newcastle United and their chances of remaining in the Premier League?
On one level, of course it has. If Newcastle had taken all three points from their trip to White Hart Lane they would be just one point adrift in the relegation zone. Even if they had only taken a point, with a superior goal difference, they would have been just one win shy of overtaking Blackburn Rovers.
Then again, United's final three home games of the season were always likely to make or break their survival mission.. All defeat by Spurs has done is emphasise that even more sharply in the mind.
It's going to be a long week for the Magpies. While everyone else involved in the relegation shake up will play at the weekend, Newcastle have to wait until Monday to play Portsmouth because, if Newcastle are going down, Setanta want to try and milk another large television audience out of them before they do.
Given the lack of subscribers you can't really blame them, but it does put Newcastle at a slight disadvantage as far as I'm concerned. If results go against them - although you can't see Hull City beating Liverpool - they will be seven points behind the fourth from bottom side. Psychologically, that is a massive amount of baggage to carry around with them against Pompey.
Yet, Newcastle always knew they would have to win their home games so nothing has changed has it. There was always going to be a huge amount of pressure on the players in these games and they will have to deal with that. It's about time they dealt with something.
As for the Spurs game, yet another poor performance in the first half was made up for to an extent by what happened in the second. However, Newcastle are turning into the nearly men aren't they.
They nearly got something out of the game against Arsenal and Manchester United, they nearly beat Hull City, they nearly lost at Stoke, but managed to turn it into a point and they nearly got something out of the Tottenham game when Obafemi Martins nearly scored and Jonathan Woodgate nearly conceded a penalty.
Nearly, though, isn't good enough and the Shearer effect hasn't had the instant uplift we all hoped for has it. One point from three games is a pretty ordinary return, even if the games he has presided over have been tough ones on paper.
Mind you, given what is at stake, the Portsmouth game promises to be anything but ordinary, on or off the pitch. Newcastle literally cannot afford anything to be ordinary over the next five games. Ordinary equals disaster, extraordinary might just mean salvation.
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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'll now be amazed if we stay up. I honestly can't see this team winning one game let alone three. Yes we had some unlucky moments on Sunday, but there's only so far you can hide behind luck.
We persist with the beyond-past-it Nicky Butt which is completely crippling us. The number of times he needlessly wasted possession on Sunday was disgraceful for a Sunday league player, let alone a Premier League player. We need Joey Barton and Danny Guthrie back in there - at least they both give the impression they care about what's happening. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Barton will be returning in time for Portsmouth, so it might be too late. We have to go for it with a 4-3-3 on Monday and Butt should be dropped once and for all.
I said to a friend last week that if we can't beat Portsmouth, Boro and Fulham at home, then we don't deserve to stay up in any situation, and I'm sad to say, I don't think we do at this point...I'd be ecstatic to be proven wrong though.
(Luke, do you know if it's deliberate that the captcha always spits back the first attempt?)
Agreed with you Luke. We've been a nearly squad all season! Shearer needs to wake up these wasters that are a drain on our club's finances and all of our hearts. Newcastle United needs to finally play like Newcastle United at least in these final 3 home games, hopefully against Villa as well! Honestly, i won't even bother with the liverpool game. But we genuinely have a chance to win those 4 games as long as the players play as well as they truly can! We're a great team on paper! Let's show that on the pitch, PLEASE!
Sadly this is all too late. Well "all" is maybe the wrong word to use as "all" we have been this season is Crap! Shearer was on a hiding to nothing taking this shower over and I'd be completely amazed if we got two wins again this season. Can't see it happening, can you? As for next season, well I doubt Ashley will be in charge of the club, I think he'll cut his losses and run and leave us in total ruin financially and on the pitch. It's going to be a long, hard slog back and doing it at the first attempt is imperative. Failing that, I shudder to think of the consequences.
Hi Luke. Think you said it all. The real fault lies with Ashley -Why ever did this clown think he could run a premier league club-Having the London cronies around him was his biggest mistake and getting rid of KK equaled it. Since he came we have had a woeful and failed transfer policy -How on earth was the poison dwarf ever selected to manage our dealings -Director of football -my backside -he had no experience of such a high level appointment and it showed as we all know now he failed miserably. The truth is Ashley has failed us all had he not been so stubborn and pig headed and listened to the fans we might have survived with KK. Alan Shearer if he does manage to bring about a houdini act must be strong and tell Ashley in no uncertain words what must be put right- though again he will probably realise as KK did there is no saving this club with the rubbish we have as owner and chairman. GET REAL ASHLEY OR GET OUT.
There are winnable games and Hull and Boro have a tougher run in but the one thing Shearer has to do is to stop messing about with the formation. Players don't understand it when a manger chops and changes too much. Its no good confusing ourselves more than the opposition. Steve Maclaren did it with England but top managers don't go round playing three at the back, then switching to four in the same games.
I know the captcha thing is a little unpredictable but the best thing to do is copy the text I(ctrl and C) before you fill in the text and press submit. That way, if you lose the text, you can paste it back into the box and try again (Ctrl and P). Hope that helps. If only you could press a couple of buttons and Newcastle stay up!
A draw at stoke is a pretty good result this season. 1-0 at spurs isn't bad. we were playing a very inform team that had a very good injection of cash in Jan and their new manager has had plenty of time to turn things around.
We can get the results if they keep believeing. I'm not going to make predictions but i can see us picking up the points we need. like any good runner sprinter we have to keep going thru the finishing line.. then we can look up when we're done and check out position.
theres nothing good about losing 1-0 at spurs we needed those points more than them yet they looked more up for it from the start. what a bunch of losers they deserve to go down.
If Toon beat one of Portsmout and Fulham and beat Boro that could be enough. Not beating Boro will undoubtedly mean they both go down. Watching the last few games I'd agree Shearer brought in some fight versus Stoke but the new boss thing was wearing off with Spurs.