acrossthepond

There is a lot of blame to be thrown around this season, and you place much of it on the shoulders of Fat Fred and the Board. But so much of it owes to the "big club" mentality that pervades our club and rots it from the inside, on and off the pitch. These overpaid clowns have got to realize that nothing comes for free. All of them expect to be able to sit back on the pitch and win - against Charlton for example, and even Zulte-Waregem - because we are NEWCASTLE UNITED and we are too big to lose to the likes of Charlton. They don't work. They don't hustle. I don't know what goes on at the training ground, but they don't seem to do too much of that either since Taylor still can't tackle for his life. Nothing convinced me of this more than watching our UEFA cup-tie - both rounds - against AZ Alkmaar. As we so often do, we came out to a roaring start and put 2 great goals past the stunned Dutch team, conceding a good goal from their side before going 4-1 up. Geordies worldwide were celebrating. I was sitting at my computer, watching an internet stream of the game, asking myself, "So how will we throw this one away?" Lo and behold, it was Mr. Taylor's completely unnecessary challenge that produced a penalty for AZ to score from - the goal that would put them through. I could already feel a grand Newcastle Collapse (TM.) coming on. "4-2", wor lads were saying, "that's enough to go through on." The same old bollocks every year. The same old assumption that the better, bigger, etc. club will go through. The same old NUFC resting on their laurels, making millions of pounds, playing like shite. And so it came to pass that we lost at AZ. I swear, I could hear the players' thoughts like on a megaphone. "We're 2 goals up," they said, "we'll just pass it around a bit for 90 minutes and go through, nae bother." After AZ scored - the same thing. "We're still 1 up," they said, "if we just don't let them score..." And they did of course, and the rest is history. The history of NUFC, in fact, both ancient and recent. More than any other sin, we commit that of taking it for granted. We're still convinced that because 55000 Geordies show up to our matches, that we're a top six club. And so we score early goals and give up draws, lose matches we could win with a modicum of effort. The rot isn't just in our board. It's in our players. The exceptions only prove the rule - take Edgar's amazing strike at St. James's against Man U. Taking what was probably his first senior shot for NUFC, he drilled a goal to bring us a well-deserved draw. But I can't shake the feeling that he was only able to do it because he is so new - he "hadn't got the memo", so to speak. The memo that NUFC doesn't come from behind. We go behind and stay there, hoping for divine intervention - in the form of an angry God in black and white, drinking Newcastle broon, to smite our opponents and give us an empty net for our superstars to tap-in. Solano. Parker. N'Zogbia. Given. Martins. Hang on to those five and chuck the rest of the undeserving who aren't fit to wear the black and white out on their overpaid arses. (From an email I sent to Marc Duffy, who represents NUFC on soccernet.com. As always open to opinions.)

Unacceptable miss by Martins. As usual NUFC has turned off in the second half.

Oh, howay Solano, howay Martins! 4-1 the Toon!

Why is Carr playing? This really pains me. No reason for that goal to have happened.

MARTIIIIINS! Let the rout continue! Toon 3-0!

HOWAAAAY! Dyer 2-0!

Martins must have had that. Should've been 2-0. Excellent cross by Solano.

We've made the breakthrough! OG Steinsson.

Disgraceful. Honourable bow-out for Celtic, nasty cheating win for Milan. The usual fare, in other words. The ref will watch whatever passes for MOTD in his country tonight and see the penalty that he failed to give, and he'll know his own failure cost the deserving team the match.

Come on the Bhoys! Knock these cheaters out of Europe! Show the world that Scottish football can't be ignored forever.

Gotta say I'm with the scousers tonight. Barcelona aren't the juggernaut they're made out to be. Everyone likes to see a big club go down hard, and I wouldn't be surprised if this loss splintered their club and began a decline for them.

He's not the man for the job. There's only so long you can placate the fans with "steadying the ship." As to who to replace him with, hypothetically, I think the two best managers in the Premiership right now are Wenger and Steve Coppell. Wenger because although the Arse won't win anything this year, he is clearly planning for the future, something that doesn't often happen on Tyneside. Coppell is my top pick for Newcastle manager. His skills are obvious to the point of being glaring. He knows how to finish top six without an all-star squad, which (since we don't look like buying an all-star squad) we need to learn how to do. I don't want to jump on the Reading bandwagon, but Coppell is quality.

Nice to see West Ham lose and stare their upcoming relegation in the face, but I was definitely cheering them on at half-time. As has been said, nothing to celebrate in a Spurs win. Tevez, Upson, Neill, Ferdinand, and their keeper, forget his name (he's pretty good tbf, can't blame him for giving up goals behind a back four that might as well not even be on the pitch sometimes) will jump ship. Upson might find a place here, but I have my doubts. He's injury-prone, expensive, and already turned traitor on Birmingham in the middle of their promotion fight, and if he swaps London for Newcastle, I don't think he'll have any qualms about swapping Newcastle for somewhere else if things get rough. What's the hate for Warnock about? Scrappy manager, a bit loudmouthed but gets things done. Few people predicted Sheffield would stay up, but they've managed it in large part thanks to him. PS: Berbatov is shit, seeing him play in our games vs. Spurs was like watching a blooper reel.

I'm still not sure why they would sing it at a Reading game though. We don't sing Mackem songs at Blackburn games (well, I guess sometimes we do. But they're our rivals. We aren't Man U's rivals.) Sounds like terminal obsession with a player they only wish they'd had.

We look like crap - form-wise and looks-wise. Do our strips look somehow different today, or am I losing it?

After that "article" on villatalk.com I'll throw my lot in with Stevie. No kind of respectable site could have tripe like that posted as a match preview. That must've been some mighty good humble pie the author enjoyed after we sank two in the opening 6-7 minutes. However, Stevie is going a bit overboard in this thread. There was no reason for that attack on Sima. Try to keep calm and remember we're all on the same side, aye?

Had to be a penalty. Nevertheless Taylor definitely laid on the theatrics, which is not something we want from NUFC players. Onyewu looked like a professional today, I will say.

SOLANO GET IN! Toon 2-1 Liverpool on an obvious foul on Parker in the box, Solano converts. Howay the Toon!

Baba looks truly horrid. I've seen nothing from him but backpasses and godawful tackles that would've meant penalties had they connected. EDIT: And now a horrendous header that nearly meant a goal. Please, Glenn, stop playing our horrible players and just play the bad ones ok?

MARTINS GET IN! Horrible defensive play by Liverpool but we don't mind.

It was. I can't remember why I ever called Peter Ramage shit after seeing these two morons return from injury.

Bad backpass by Baba, Harper screws up the clear, shot goes through Bramble's legs. Welcome to NUFC.

Selling the ground as well are we ? Roeder's number is up. I defended him against all comers, but the match v. Fulham was the last straw. It's all right to complain about an injury-wrecked squad, but selecting Bramble/Carr over Solano/Edgar/Hunts is more than shocking tbh. Roeder falls back on terrible players when he has real talent on the books, just like with Ameobi. Nae doubt as soon as Baba recovers he'll be hobbling onto the pitch while Taylor has a seat or some such shite. Players won't change the Toon's fate now. We need a regime change. Sack Roeder and ship him back to West Ham (because Lord knows Curbs is going to need the help) and bring in someone of real quality who has a vision for this club, and not just another stop-gap. Leazes is right.

Last season was just a flash in the pan for Spurs. They're tripe and have always been. Man U look more and more like champions every game. Be nice to see Mourinho get the door as he richly deserves at the end of the season.

This clown can't think of anything more substantial to say than to question the color of our strip, but he still has it in him to mock "middle-of-the-standings" Newcastle. What a clown. The whole site is decorated with Fulham gear and info - perhaps remind this bloke when the last time Fulham FC won shit all was?