The toon were always going to beat boro though it would still be worrying for me how shocking you looked defensively against one of the poorest attacking sides in the Prem. Until the sub's i thought it was boro's game tbh, they looked much the more likely to score with nearly every attack, and with some better final balls and finishing they could/should have been 3 or 4 up themselves by the time Oba got Newcastle's 2nd. You's arent safe by a long way yet, though neither are we tbh though i do fancy us to get something at Pompey next week if we can match the way we played on Sat.
WAAAAT! They looked promising now & again on the break, nothing more. Equally we should have been at least 5 up, Viduka hit the post & Taylor skied it on the rebound early on. Defensively were terrible, I think it's took Shearer a few games to jingle the squad, but it seemed we had a bunch that were up for the fight finally last night, the players were winning every lost ball & closing Boro down earlier on instead of watching them play which is good to see, just hope we dont take the foot off the pedal in true Newcastle fashion.
That's not quite true like. There were loads of occasions we just sat back and let them approach the box without getting a tackle in. We'd end u with the ball more because Boro are equally shit and would just walk into a group of three players, ball pops out and we boot it up to Viduka.
1st half, newcastle had lots more opportunities on goal but the few times boro got thru - they looked much more dangerous and newcastle were all over the shop. ooo get me with my football talk!!
Id slightly disagree, for the 1st time this season we seemed to be knocking the ball around the park & actually playing football, supporting each other when 1 had the ball & working it up field, at times however your right, we were blasting up field for Viduka to hold it up until the midfield got in their box but no fucker can take away the fact we were the more overall dominant side despite how weak we looked when they broke on the counter on occasions.
What I seen of the game it was far from that like. I watched the first half and boro did some decent plays and should of scored atleast 1.Boro were better first half imo. I didn't see all of the second half but sounds like you's out played them for the last 30mins or so.
We've played good football in fits and starts and spells of games all season, we just haven't got the quality and haven't been good enough in the final third to take advantage of it. Thats been the difference this season. Even when we were doing well for years the defence has always been dodgy, just look at the results when we were top 4 under Bobby. 3-2's, 4-3's all over the shop because we were always capable of scoring goals. Another point to make is the centre midfield. Games are won and lost and nicky butt has had the full responsibility of keeping it together this season, unfortunately he's too old for it and he can't do it all himself. Theres been fuck all protection for the defence which means they've been dragged out of position more often than not, hence our defence's sieve like carry on.
Aye you were dominant possession wise, though the times boro went forward they looked the more likely to score as you always seemed to be totally exposed at the back. For the England U-21 international captain Taylor seemed to get done time and time again in the first half especially? Not trying to take anything away from the win, you deserved it on the overall balance of play and possession, territorial advantage etc.. it was just a good job that Emnes couldnt finish to save his life (or his club)
