The Pain of Underachievement

After the well-earned victory against a Champions League place chasing Spurs side, the Toon came up against the surprise package of the season in the shape of Wigan Athletic. To say we want to smear their jerseys with blood is an understatement considering the miscarriage of justice at the JJB Stadium earlier this season. First a Shearer header was wrongly ruled out and Souness of course had egg on his face when he lost abjectly to a reserve Wigan team in the League Cup and to think that the team actually reached the final when they were roasted by a rampant Man U.
Again I did not watch the match because of the promise I made to my better half to wean myself off watching the Magpies because they have really sucked big time this entire season. So again I had to turn to Soccernet Gamecast for solace. When I logged in and saw 1-0 to Wigan at 25 minutes, my heart sank like a piece of lead. But for the first time in a gazillion years, the Magpies showed the kind of resilience to come back from a goal down. Shearer got a brace and even Calamity Titus showed the misfiring strikers how to score a good headed goal. Even though there were a few scares from Paul Jewell’s men, the Toon showed their class in the end as Given made a few inspired stops to keep maintain our strong home record… only if our away record is as good.
Having crushed the promotion pretenders, the Toon maintained their late charge into Europe on Easter Monday with a trip to the arch rivals Stadium of Plight. This name, so aptly given by Niall and Biffa on NUFC.com really sums up the pathetic plight of the Mackems. Only two wins out of 34 games, with no wins at home, with the lowest number of goals scored, the list for the unmitigated disaster goes on. When I got home to watch the Chelsea dress rehearsal against Everton, my eyes were glued on the screen for any update from the Stadium of Plight and my wife actually screeched when she saw Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0 after 32 minutes. I was totally flabbergasted. How can this even happen? A team which is struggling to score goals to save itself actually scored first. I could not believe it and logged on to see what on earth was going on.
From what I read on Gamecast, the Magpies were really put on the backfoot by quite a rampant Mackem side and they could easily be finished by the end of the first half if not for some wayward finishing. Whatever Roeder said at half time must have worked because the Magpies slowly worked themselves into the game. Replacing Lee Clark with Chopra after 59 minutes, the young striker took only 13 seconds to score his first EPL goal. Barely a minute later, Justin Hoyte, on loan from Arsenal, who scored the opener, hauled down N’Zogbia and conceded a penalty which was gleefully dispatched by big Al for his 206th Newcastle goal and 409 in all competitions. 6 minutes later, it was game over as N’Zogbia skipped past 3 Mackem defenders and scored from 12 yards. By then, the Mackems were totally demoralised. 3 goals in 7 minutes sapped their determination. More salt was rubbed into their gaping wounds when Albert Luque, who could prove a bigger flop than that poor Gallic excuse for a defender finally broke his duck with a well-taken goal. It has taken him almost 9 months to score his first goal for us… what a return for 9.5 million pounds. However, the win was marred by a knee injury to Shearer and fears are real that he might have played his last game for the club. Oh dear oh dear.
A day that threatened to end with eggs on the faces saw a reversal and upturn of fortunes. At least we are better than Manure in one aspect… we put 4 past the Mackems. We are now up to 7th place with 51 points and Europe is still a realistic target. Howay the Lads.

Sorry I have away for quite a while, been very busy with work. The last post focused on the end of the mini revival of the Toon which really went off the rails at Stamford Bridge when John Terry’s 4th minute goal kicked us out of the FA Cup. Maybe it was divine retribution since Kluivert’s goal at the same time kicked them out of the Cup last season. Sigh, more than 16 goals conceded at the Bridge now with no reply.
Capital punishment for the Toon continued with another 3-1 reverse at Charlton but the only saving grace with Scott Parker’s thunderbolt, but alas glandular fever was to claim him for the rest of the season within a week.
Last weekend, Champions League hopefuls Tottenham was at St. James’ Park. Roeder and Shearer needed to lift the team while Martin Jol looked forward to consolidating fourth spot. My colleague who is a Spurs fan told me ‘May the better team win.’ I was filled more with hope than expectation. What unravelled on Saturday within the first half hour was one of the best performances put up by the team in months. Maybe it was helped by the fact that the Gallic waster was not in the centre of defence. Moore and Ramage did a commendable job and Given did not have to dirty his gloves very much. Lee Bowyer really must take the plaudits for a superb all round display. He scored after a minute and was involved in the next two goals converted by Shola Ameobi and Shearer which was a penalty. Truly Spurs were totally overrun in the first half. The most delightful scene must be the constant jeering from the terraces at Jermaine Jenas who called Newcastle a goldfish bowl. And he was also responsible for the miss of the season when he missed an open goal in the second half. I could not help laughing. Hopefully the team can build on this when they travel to Smogland on Sunday and put those UEFA Cup pretenders in their place.