***newcastle v city official match thread***

[sheblue]

it looks nasri will be out for a while, but milner can come in for him, even bigger concern is yaya cause we don't have any real cover for him.

[zabbadabbado]

Good cool headed win in the end. But a few points in the cold light of day. Course they fuckin kicked, they'd just had a perfectly good goal disallowed so worked out the ref wouldn't send one off as he will have known at halftime.He has been shit from day 1 that ref and often loses control through his incompetence. Second point. We got outmuscled in midfield with Ya Ya clearly not fit and Dinho largely going missing, what does Milner have to do to get on the pitch at a sensible time? Maybe we're about to see now it looks like Samir will be out for a while.Edin was the man in form on the day, not Neg who has often been poor away as he was again today.Unlucky to get pulled. Still need a tougher CM. Overall, relief as well as satisfaction. Good pass from Garcia for the second goal.Hart superb.

Negredo is the better footballer when you need a bit more ball retention because your under the cosh a bit,he holds up play better,and his distribution is better.Edin is a good player,but horses for courses and all that.We won 2-0.

I agree about Milner, i thought at the time that putting Garcia on was inviting them on to us.But maybe Pellers felt it was like for like.

[twosips]

Credit where it's due, Garcia did well when he came on. Thought we'd totally capitulate but he was good.

[zabbadabbado]

Credit where it's due, Garcia did well when he came on. Thought we'd totally capitulate but he was good.

I agree he did well.

I just think we drop a bit to deep when he is on the pitch and risk coming unstuck one day.

[Bianchi on Ice]

Devils advocate:
Newcastle win 2-0
We have goal disallowed
Nasri kicks mbiwa out of the game and gets away with it

Would talksport/sky be talking about the goal that wasnt or the foul?

[shawzy]

Credit where it's due, Garcia did well when he came on. Thought we'd totally capitulate but he was good.

You are spot on with that...He has deserved stick most of the time he has been with us but no complaints from me today.
I still hate his floating slow run though :-)

[Spurge]

Looks like we're sticking with Dzeko-negredo, for better or worse.

Well, it's turning out to be a decent partnership to be fair so I'm assuming you're worried about playing 2 up top away from home instead of a solid midfield?

Yes would rather see 5 in the middle.

What I've noticed, and as SheBlue mentions, one of them usually drops to either right or left midfield when we've not got the ball, giving the midfield extra cover. Also, note the defensive positions they both got into in the last couple of games. Both of them were clearing/picking up balls near our penalty area and to be specific, Dzeko's challenge that led to Yaya's 70 yard run and goal.

They both look happy at the moment and to keep that going they both need to play. Pellers isn't going to change his attitude anytime soon though, so not really a talking point mate.

Both have already scored at St James Park this season and made a difference in extra time as an attacking force.

deja vu in terms of the scorers and the result but fucking horribly different circumstances. Cabaye should have gone - he gave the ref two chances to send him off and inexplicably the ref chose not to on either occasion. As for the assault on Nasri, disgraceful, I hope Pellers has a bit to say on it. It was the sort of needless challenge that can snap an acl, hope that's not the case otherwise it's season over for Nasri. Not surprisingly that took the heat out of some of their challenges thereafter but at what cost?

How Tiotte got mom is a mystery, he was fortunate to remain on the pitch FFS.

I thought we coped well after Nasri went off. We carried a real threat and for the large part defended well. Joe looks back on form and Demi and Vinnie looked solid together. Navas was always a good option on the break whilst Garcia and Milner gave us balance and worked very hard.

I hope folk give Garcia a bit of a break - he seems to me to be doing whats asked of him and whilst he's very much a no frills player he has been effective in suring us up when needed in recent games.

[Ted Hughes]

Credit where it's due, Garcia did well when he came on. Thought we'd totally capitulate but he was good.

You are spot on with that...He has deserved stick most of the time he has been with us but no complaints from me today.
I still hate his floating slow run though :-)

Last two games he has looked more like the player he did before he came to us.

[zuricity]

You are spot on with that...He has deserved stick most of the time he has been with us but no complaints from me today.
I still hate his floating slow run though :-)

Couldn't give a toss about talksport.They just want to ride the wave and make money out of people. Their opinions are worthless.

[blues2win]

It could be bruised ligaments rather than torn ligaments. Still bloody painful but maybe 4-6 weeks rather than several months. Fingers crossed.

[trout man]

I have to say (maybe against the run of the thread) that was one if the best games I have watched in a while. It's not that I enjoy being on the edge of my seat, but these are the season defining games, these battles are what we are going to face in Europe and more so in the premiership in years to come. I hate to say it, but it reminded me of some of the clashes between the scum and arse. It was a classic battle and the Geordie fans were incredibly tribal and that is what hardcore football matches are about. The low point was Nasri, though a casualty seemed inevitable, it was a sickening and horrendous tackle.
Well done to the lads for the toughest performance in quite some time, a fantastic result.

[ant london]

Last two games he has looked more like the player he did before he came to us.

To be fair if Pellers can get him playing like I hear he did for Benfica I will take my hat off to our man from Santiago

[shawzy]

You are spot on with that...He has deserved stick most of the time he has been with us but no complaints from me today.
I still hate his floating slow run though :-)

Couldn't give a toss about talksport.They just want to ride the wave and make money out of people. Their opinions are worthless.

I banned my ears from them along time ago mate.

[Bleed_Blue]

I think no other team played as disgracefully as NewCastle

Both Mbiwa and Cabaye should have been sent off. Hate newcastle mentality, the team is as basterdous as its manager

[Ted Hughes]

Last two games he has looked more like the player he did before he came to us.

To be fair if Pellers can get him playing like I hear he did for Benfica I will take my hat off to our man from Santiago

Well he's managed to improve almost everyone else, so you never know.

[shawzy]

Last two games he has looked more like the player he did before he came to us.

To be fair if Pellers can get him playing like I hear he did for Benfica I will take my hat off to our man from Santiago

Its a strong possibility Ant.
His short quick passing is good...Heading is great to...What i dont like is his tackling ability. Considering he's in a more holding role it should be better. Plus some of his tracking back at times is shite.
Overall, Pellers has dont a great job with Kollers and Nasri so maybe he can bring out the best in Garcia to.

[Slim]

He's the sort of player who could benefit greatly from a Stephen Ireland style off-season fitness regime. However with the WC in the Summer there is little chance of that.

[aaron bond]

That was an EXCELLENT win for us.

Newcastle played with intensity but the reality was we restricted them to very few good chances. The only time they really cut us open was when Kompany/Zab got themselves muddled up, but the rest of their chances were primarily long shots. We defended very well today and Newcastle created hardly any chances inside the box (the stats back this up).

On the other hand, we created some excellent chances and were clinical when it mattered. I do have some sympathy for Newcastle for their disallowed 'goal' as in today's game referees pretty much never give offside unless the player touches the ball. Under the laws of the game the player is offside if he is 'interfering with an opponent', but even then I'm not sure that was the case today. If the same scenario happened to us, we would all be fuming (and anyone who says differently is lying). Despite all of that though, we still went on to score a second and Newcastle didn't cause us many problems in our penalty area.

Our away form has been improving steadily and today we had to dig deep for the win. We won't win 6-0 every week but wins like today will win us championships. I was so impressed with us today that despite Newcastle's pressure, I was confident we would hold firm and probably score a second. I think that's the first time I've felt like that in an away game this season. The players should all be delighted with their efforts today, and I imagine our title rivals will be quite disheartened.

[Goaters 103]

A vital win slightly overshadowed by our concern for Samir who's been superb this year for us.

Kolarov superb throughout, whilst Demichelis had his best game for us I thought. We manned up in the face of the fire, and now we can only hope Samir's injury isnt the dreaded cruciate. Thought Garcia did just the job when he came on and Im no Garcia fan. If Samir is crocked for the season we likely need to reinforce.

Pardew an utter cunt throughout - classless. I wish nothing but the shits to him & the arseholes in their stadium for insinuating Nasri was play acting.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

Yeah great win but losing nasri will hurt our ambitions. I like milner and navas but they are just not as good a replacements for what he does for us.

Also worries about yaya. Back injuries can linger if thats what it is.

This is the time Jovetic stands up to be counted.