nodrick 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 So with one game left for the 2008/09 season, what better way than to look back at the season so far for the Toon Army (if this season has left you saddened and disappointed, please look away now) AUGUST A new season started brilliantly for the Toon as we went to Old Trafford and came away with a point thanks to Oba Martins cracking first half header. New signing's Jonas Gutierrez and Fabricio Coloccini were given special praise by boss Kevin Keegan after making great debut's (how long ago does this seem by the way!!). Things looked even brighter for us after a home win the following week against Bolton thanks to super sub Michael Owen's goal. After a midweek win over Coventry in the Carling Cup after extra time, the boys looked liked they may even get something away at Arsenal to round off an excellent August. Sadly we lost 3-0 but the game was remembered more for Mike Ashley's drinking exploits!! (Which will not be the first mention of him in this review) Premier League Played 3 Points 4 Position 9th (If only we had finished there!!) August in a word - Promising SEPTEMBER Due to the transfer window being extended by 24 hours, we were expecting some decent final day transfers. So who would it be?? Arshavin was mentioned, maybe even Berbatov. Oh no!! We get Xisco and Nacho Gonzalez!! Huge like!! But if Keegan chose these players then they must be good eh? But there lies the problem. Keegan didn't choose them, little Dennis "Nookie Bear" Wise did. This make Keegan unhappy. And what does Keegan do whan he's upset. Yip that's right. He walks away. Just like he did in 1997. But this was to have much more of a fallout. Protests, sit-in's and demonstrations are planned. Mike Ashley is the most hated person in Tyneside with Nookie Bear not far behind. Hull are our opponents for the next game, which I had the pleasure of attending!! Of course we were going to lose and we did 2-1. Ashley then says he's going to sell up. Good riddance says the Gallowgate. After Hull it's away to West Ham to get gubbed 3-1 in a game where they could have scored a lot more. Then Spurs go and knock us out the Carling Cup in front of only 20,000 at St James'. Surely Mike is getting the answer now that we want him and his Cockney Mafia out. But unfortunately he can't get rid of the club. His asking price is too high so no sale looks likely. So he's staying and he has to appoint a new manager as Chris Hughton just isn't good enough. Dennis Wise is linked but no, he's not good enough for us. We get Joe Kinnear instead!! "JOE KINNEAR!! I thought he was dead!!" was my response. But he can't help us avoid a 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn. Where do we go from here?? Played 6 Points 4 Position 19th September in a word - Disaster!! OCTOBER Surely it couldn't get any worse. Well luckily October was a little bit better. A 2-2 draw at Everton when we were 2-0 down was followed by a 2-2 draw by now mega-rich Man City after Habib Beye was red carded for "fouling " Robinho in the box. But then October became another bad month. Sunderland beat us 2-1 at the Stadium of Shite and we remained second bottom going into the home game against West Brom. Luckily for us a certain Joey Barton was back for us and produced a great performance to help us beat West Brom and produce our first victory for 8 games. Played 10 Points 9 Position 15th October in a word - Average NOVEMBER We actually started November with a win, a fine 2-0 victory over Aston Villa with Oba Martins grabbing a brace. Sadly this was as good as it got as we lost 2-1 away at Fulham, got screwed by Titus Bramble to give us only a point against Wigan, then produced two boring nil nil draws against Chelsea (which was actually a good point) and Boro (which wasn't) away from home. By this point Joe had signed up for a little longer and the club was no nearer being sold. Happy days eh!! Played 15 Points 15 Position 17th November in a word - Decent DECEMBER Would Santa be a Geordie this year and give us some pre-Christmas joy. Well kinda. Although another ex-Geordie stopped us getting another 3 points, this time Faye of Stoke, we followed that up with a great 3-0 win away at Pompey and then sunk Harry's Spurs with a last minute goal from Duff from Viduka's back heel and all was looking rosy again. That was until the team didn't turn up against Wigan and we lost 2-1 and then Liverpool bulldozed us at home by 5 goals to 1. Not a good end to a not very good year. Played 20 Points 22 Position 13th December in a word - Strange JANUARY A new year and a new start for the Toon as Mike Ashley announced he wouldn't be selling up as he was a greedy bastard and wouldn't sell for less than he wanted. So surely he would give us some money to buy some players to avoid any further humiliation this season. No we thought wrong again. In came Kevin Nolan, Ryan Taylor and Peter Lovenkrands for a combined total of about £5 million. Out though went Shay Given and Charles N'Zogbia for a lot more and it was almost game over from here on in. A draw against West Ham at home was the best part of the month as Hull put us out of the cup, we lost to Blackburn (and new manager Sam Allardyce) and we lost also to Man City. Played 23 Points 23 Position 16th January in a word - Shoddy FEBRUARY February started with a 1-1 draw with the Mackems as Shola scored a penalty which saved us from getting the pain of a Sunderland double over us. The month also brought the return of Chris Hughton as manger as Joe had a return of his dodgy heart problems. This actually helped us to a 3-2 win over West Brom so we thought we may do ok without Joe in charge. How wrong could we be?? A 0-0 draw with Everton followed although could have been much worse after Nolan's silly red card. Played 26 Points 28 Position 14th February in a word - Unhealthy MARCH One of the worst months results wise this season as we only claimed one point (away to Hull). Defeats by Bolton, Man Utd and Arsenal dragged us back into the relegation zone for the first time since November. But surely we would get out of this mess?? Someone would come and save us wouldn't they. We only had to wait until April 1st to find out who!! Played 30 Points 29 Position 18th March in a word - Shocking APRIL And so on April Fools Day we had our 4th manager. And what an appointment. Alan Shearer was back in toon and was set to S.O.S. (Save Our Season) with 8 games to go. At least that was what the script was said to have said. Defeat to Chelsea, point at Stoke, defeat to Spurs and point against Pompey was all we had to show and we remained 3rd bottom with 4 games to go. Relegation remained a distinct possibility going into May. But if anyone could do it Shearer could!! Played 34 Points 31 Position 18th April in a word - Anti-Climax (ok its two but it's necessary) MAY Liverpool was a game to forget, no points and Joey Barton sent off and later suspended. But that wasn't the game to get excited by. It was the Boro game which was the big one. And what a game. 1 down after 3 minutes, level but with only 30 minutes remaining. So what did Shearer have up his sleeve. Yes that old one. Take off your mate and bring on someone unfit to start the match. And what a trick. 55 seconds later St James' erupted into the night and come 10pm we win 3-1 and are out of the bottom 3. We won't be there again!! That's us safe now!! Isn't it. Well sadly no. Defeat to Fulham and Hull getting a point means we are not safe, not by a long shot. We remain in grave danger off playing in the Championship next season. We must better Hull's score next weekend. Defeat and we are down. How will the season end?? Come 6pm next Sunday the final part of this review will end. Sad or happy end?? It's too close to call Played 37 Points 34 Position 18th May in a word - Undecided (until Sunday) MORE LIKE THIS AT TOONTOONBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GafferTape 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Sorry, not wishing to pick holes, but if memory serves, we don't have to better what Hull do, a win for us, and a draw or worse for the mackems and we stay up irrespective of what Hull do Correct me if i'm wrong though, been too depressed to look at the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nodrick 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Author Share Posted May 21, 2009 yes you are correct, i wrote this for my blog before the Sunderland and Pompey match so yes, if the mackems lose or draw and we and hull win then they would go down. sorry for this mistake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TicTacWoe 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 We were pretty much shocking all season apart from the early promise. Now and again, we'd catch another team on an off day and look half decent but in reality it was downhill since Keegan left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GafferTape 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 For me, the Faye Stoke equaliser was when i stopped and actually thought that we'll be going down. Everything else after that point was looking at points West Brom and the like were picking up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyff 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 The Faye equaliser as well as the Bramble one vs. Wigan (I think) cost us 6 valuable points. We would kill for them now, and it would have to be two of our old defenders who denied us them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 13866 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 The sad thing is you just knew the goals were coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smoggeordie 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 If we'd beaten Hull at home we'd now be 5 points clear of relegation like. Some good that protest did Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Onion 0 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 I read the August and September analysis and stopped there. What a fucking spacker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 19828 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 I read the August and September analysis and stopped there. What a fucking spacker. harsh but funny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 I read the August and September analysis and stopped there. What a fucking spacker. I got up to "new signing's", snob that I am Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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