trooper

Yeah I agree Wyki our Christmas schedule could be 4 games in 12 days if the FA Cup game is played on the 7th as expected. So trying to rest a few would be a good idea our Christmas schedule looks like this. 26th Dec Sheffield Wednesday (h) 30th Dec Nottingham Forest (h) 2nd Jan Blackburn Rovers (a) 7th Jan Birmingham City FA Cup (a)

A scrappy 1-0 to us.

Although i'd love us to have a go at this (the fa cup) the past few seasons has dampened my enthusiasm let's see what happens.

Robert the Horse

Surely you want more the mere survival though i'd imagine Rafa being outraged at the thought. He's not come here to get us promoted & make up the numbers i'd imagine the first season Rafa will be looking at a mid table finish minimum.

I agree Alex when we get promoted we're going to have to buy Premiership quality players this squad won't be good enough. I can't see Rafa keeping many of the current squad for the Premiership. Hopefully Ashley will have seen the error of his ways & give Rafa ALL of the promotion money to rebuild a proper Premiership squad. If Ashley decides to be a clever cnut & try & give Rafa less I can see us having a big problem.

You should be embarrassed for your team who were unable to finish off a 9 man team easily a scrappy goal & an own goal ffs. Then the celebration at the end was beyond belief you'd think you'd won the FA Cup. Embarrassing I can't wait for you's to get to SJP December 30th just under 4 weeks time I hope we put 5 or 6 past you that day.

Embarrassed for them & their fans hope we frash them when they come to SJP.

That front line-up looks canny I just hope they've got the legs for it.

No bother mate tbh i'd never seen him until he came on the other night. Then seeing winger in his profile I just though he could do a job but I agree any of your suggestions could do the job also.

Daryl Michael Murphy is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a striker or "winger" for Newcastle United. That's from his "wiki" profile that's why I suggested him

Happy Birthday Tom hope your having a great day

I guess we'll find out soon enough. As you pointed out one of their weaknesses is attacking them down the wings so we must try & capitalise on that.

I'm not saying he's the solution long term but he might be worth a run out.

Daryl Michael Murphy is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a striker or "winger" for Newcastle United. Might be worth giving him a go.

It's a shame Aarons is injured

I suppose the other big question is will Sels start ? Is Krul not ready yet ?

Rafa's press conference - the key lines Rafa Benitez’s press conference was at 1pm. Here are the key points. No approach for Ian Cathro from Hearts yet. “Ian’s a great coach but we haven’t had any official approach yet. He is doing well. He has the qualities to coach,” Benitez said. Benitez was a bit more upbeat about the Hull loss than he had been on Tuesday. “The defeat on penalties was hard to take, but at least we didn’t get any injuries. We played well & learned a lot,” he said. Rafa has repeated his point about game management letting Newcastle down. “We played vs a PL team & we played very well for long periods. But when we score, we must manage it a lot better,” he said. Benitez confirms changes for the Forest game. “Obviously we have to change players, how many? We have to decide,” he said.Forest are a danger, says Rafa. “The Championship is always difficult but Forest are scoring goals and are difficult,” he said.Rafa wants to see NUFC get back to “good habits”. He said: “After so many wins in a row, people weren’t expecting defeat against Blackburn. Now we have to be sure we get back to good habits.”No fresh injuries to worry about.

I'd like to see Mitrovic start this one him & Gayle up front could be a good partnership. I know some will probably question the Mitrovic choice I know he's not a prolific finisher. But nobody can question his commitment use him for what he is a target man to provide knock downs for Gayle.

Rafa's going to have to get them back on track for the job in hand namely promotion. 2 defeats in 4 days with a game on Friday I'd imagine morales pretty low despite our position in the Championship.

@ Dickie sorry like but the penalties were an embarrassment. It's a massive target the goalposts are 8 yards apart & 8 foot high & you shoot from 12 yards away you might miss the occasional one but to miss 3 out 4 is rubbish

Any news on why Mitrovic & Perez weren't in the squad ? I think either or both on the pitch could have made a big difference to the result.

As we know they're professional footballers paid thousands of £'s a week to miss 3 out of 4 penalties as badly as they did is an embarrassment.

Howay lads any moving pictures anywhere ?

Early reports saying the ground is nearly empty