Leon Best’s Irish eyes.

In a week which will see the Irish, both real and plastic, celebrate St Patrick’s Day it seems appropriate that our very own plastic Irish striker will be celebrating another call up for the Republic of Ireland.

Ordinarily I’d have been something like ‘meh whatever’ upon hearing the news of Leon Best’s impending call to international arms, but this time it’s different. This time I winced when I heard the the news and I sincerely hope that Best can come through the double header against Macedonia and Uruguay unscathed.

Bare bones is a term that is rather applicable to Newcastle at the moment and we are hardly blessed with striking options. Currently we have Nile Ranger who looks to be struggling to get out of bed in the morning to go and kick a ball and run around for a bit, Shefki Kuqi who looks as though he has been up all night serving kebab’s and turfing pissheads out of his shop, Shola Ameobi who only really technically has half a face at the moment, although rumour has it that he trips over the other half of it, Peter Lovenkrands who erm….. exactly, and Leon Best who is the in-form man of the moment. Staggering.

These four misfits are charged with scoring the goals to finish our season strongly. It’s hardly ideal, in fact it’s far from ideal, but it is what it is and it’s these lads that we must put some faith in from now until the end of the season.

Something else that is far from ideal is our, ahem, star striker disappearing off for international duty. Don’t get me wrong, fair play to the guy as his goals and performances certainly deserve a recall into the international fold, but from a purely selfish view through black and white eyes I shudder to think what would happen if he were to pick up an injury.

Now I expect some comments along the lines how ‘it’s pathetic that we are relying on Best’ or how ‘weak our squad is’. Well deal with it as no amount of moaning and grizzling is going to change it between now and the end of the season.

It’s backs against the wall time and it’s time to get behind the lads that we have left from now until the end of the season. We need a wall of noise at St James’ Park, we need to make the opposition fear it and get on their backs at every opportunity. The players we have are waning after what has been a tough season, so we need to try and help drag them across the finishing line.

I’ll be doing just that at Stoke, as will Marktoon, Jay Jay, Dan4toon, davidtoon4life, shrewsmag and many many others that I will have missed. I’ll be drunk, and I’ll be rowdy, but I’ll be right behind the lads from the moment I step off the train!

Now is the time to be Newcastle – United!

P.S. I’ve not plugged the discussion forum for quite some time, but just in case you didn’t already know I’d like to make you aware that NUFCblog.co.uk has it’s own discussion forum where you can toddle off and create your own debate. I like to think of it as a chill out room where you can get away from me being gobby and relax a little!

If you fancy giving it a bash you can access the NUFC Forum by clicking here.