No defeat is good, but at least we once again showed improvement in terms of performance and actually looked threatening in attack with Hatem Ben Arfa causing the most problems for Fulham before his planned withdrawal due to lack of training on 65 minutes.
However ultimately it was mistakes in defence which cost us the game once more and it’s those mistakes that need to be eradicated if we are to start picking up the points required to drag us away from the relegation zone. I’m not worried yet, but with a tough run of fixtures to come there is a sense of danger around St James’ Park although if our performances match the level we saw at the start of the second half we’ll be fine and will avoid being drawn into a relegation battle.
The hosts started off brightly applying pressure and looking dangerous. Danny Simpson had to be on hand to clear an early cross whilst Alex Kacaniklic had tentative claims for an early penalty waved away by Lee Mason.
Another slow start proved costly in the 19th minute when Damien Duff played in Steve Sidwell who saw his shot at goal deflected past Tim Krul and into the back of the net via Mike Williamson and the crossbar. Krul would have saved it comfortably but such is the way things are going for us at the moment it proved costly and Fulham grabbed a deserved lead.
It could have been worse minutes later when Cheik Tiote gifted possession to Fulham forcing Tim Krul into a smart save from Dimitar Berbatov. It was one of a number of occasions where Tiote gave the ball away in dangerous areas by simply just not looking at what he was doing.
However United did start to offer a threat themselves as the half went on. Fabricio Coloccini saw his well worked header from a Hatem Ben Arfa corner cleared off the line by Sascha Riether before Demba Ba saw himself denied by the same player on the line after Mark Schwarzer flapped at a cross.
Half-time: Fulham 1-0 Newcastle
The threat intensified after the break as United turned the screws. With Hatem Ben Arfa proving ever more purposeful the away side had the bulk of the possession but were unable to find that killer ball. That was until the 54th minute when Ben Arfa unleashed a shot at goal which took a slight deflection off John Arne Riise before wildly dipping in off Mark Scwarzer’s crossbar to level the scores.
Further chances followed for Demba Ba, Vurnon Anita and Papiss Cisse and at this point it looked as though the away side might actually end a run of failing to win away from home.
However Fulham still offered a threat on the break and Hugo Rodallega could have put the hosts ahead once more but was unable to capitalise after breaking from the halfway line. However the former Wigan man wasn’t to be denied and after a needless foul was given away on the corner of our penalty area Rodallega found himself unmarked at the near post and in an ideal position to nod home Damien Duff’s cross. Two assists for Duff on the night, which equal the two he had for us during his entire spell at United.
Papiss Cisse hit the post, albeit from an offside position, while Fabricio Coloccini was unlucky not to restore parity after cutting in from the left and seeing his curling effort bounce back off the frame of the goal and while United continued to press they were unable to take advantage and couldn’t really muster anything but weak shots at Schwarzer’s goal.
At the other end Fulham could have extended the lead as Newcastle committed men forward but they were unable to capitalise and the closest they went was through substitute Mladen Petric who struck the frame of the United goal with a fierce effort.
Full-time: Fulham 2-1 Newcastle
I’ll probably get slated for saying this (I’m used to it by the way) but I was quite happy with the performance last night. It was another improvement after recent improvements against Stoke and Wigan and we certainly offered more threat going forward which I believe was one complaint voiced by a lot of fans not so long back?
We tried a different formation again, which was another complaint I recall from some fans, and apart from a slow start we played well enough to deserve at least a point in my view.
Thing is what you get and what you deserve can be completely different in football. If we are to start robbing points again we need to sort out our defensive side. How many goals in recent weeks have been because of defensive howlers? I don’t mean who made the last howler as quite often that player is trying to cover for another loose pass/loss of possession by another player. I mean as a unit we need to be more solid.
Manchester City at home next this Saturday. Not a good place to start either…
Fulham: Mark Schwarzer, Sascha Riether, Aaron Hughes, Brede Hangeland, John Arne Riise, Damien Duff, Steve Sidwell, Chris Baird, Alexander Kacaniklic, Dimitar Berbatov, Hugo Rodallega
Subs: Neil Etheridge, Kieran Richardson, Philippe Senderos, Giorgos Karagounis, Mahamadou Diarra, Ashkan Dejagah, Mladen Petric
Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Vurnon Anita, Cheik Tiote; Papiss Cisse, Hatem Ben Arfa, Jonas Gutierrez; Demba Ba
Subs: Steve Harper, Shane Ferguson, James Tavernier, James Perch, Gael Bigirimana, Sylvain Marveaux, Shola Ameobi
Attendance: 25,270
Aussie so whats you take on things then ?
Do you think we’re **** or do you have one of those good feelings that alls well and we’re going to go on an unbeaten run till the end of the season and get back into the top 6 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
Richie, I challenge you to find the last time I was ever wrong on this blog 😎
I am not too worried by Benny leaving… A: It would take a fair amount of coin. B: He is really enjoying his football here and C: I do believe that Pardew would fight hard to keep him. I don’t believe he would fight so hard with a number of his other players…
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Big Dave, I honestly believe that it’s a combination of things. We are playing without luck and we are playing poorly. I don’t believe that we will be in a relegation fight but I don’t think we will reach the top 6. We will come good, there is no magic formula other than hard work. We have the cattle to play well (we showed this last season) but it is just not happening at the moment. Look at Arsenal last season.. they were fecking terrible early on but they worked hard and as a result, worked through their form slump.
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie…Players are always happy at their current clubs until a) a bigger club comes in, b) another club offering more money comes in, c) a club who will let you play in your preferred position comes in…or all of the aforementioned 😉
Aussie…I only have to go quote one of your numerous “good feelings” to find when you were wrong
richietoon(Quote)
Arsenal weren’t even close to being as terrible at the start of last season as we have been this season imo…possibly by their standards if you want to take it as a wild stretch but they’ll have had way more points than us 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Aussie I think you might find that Ars were no where near as bad as we are.
So are you saying that we are just having a bit of bad luck etc and that will change and we will climb up the table no probs with the team we have ? Or have I took that the wrong way
Big Dave(Quote)
Troy – I’ve just come out of my SHOW cupboard 😳
Now put your pet lip away, you’re dribbling again.
You say ….. “You simply don’t sell your best goal scorer when your team is plummeting”
If its not in our hands tho, how do we stop it?
I dont think we should allow Benny or Tiote to leave either, should any offers come in. But I have no confidence that the board would think that way.
Besides we (NUFC) are so poor, its probably the only way to get reinforcements.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Richie, you leave my good feelings out of it mate 🙂
Disagree about Arsenal, I watchd a lot of their early games last season and they were poor to say the least.
Big Dave, you are taking my good luck comment too literaly. I am talking about opp strikers not taking chances, bad defensive errors from opp teams etc. You shouldn’t be relying on that kind of thing but it can give a struggling team a shot of confidence…
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie… We’re on 17 points after 16 games
Last season Arsenal we’re on 19 points in 11 games, after 16 games they were on 29 points, which incidentally is 5 more than they have now.
Sorry but there’s no comparison really, they had a better first third of the season last year than this. Also last year and this, they have a better team than us, a better squad than us and a better manager than us….imo of course 😉
…and you’re an Aussie, you have no feeling 😆
richietoon(Quote)
(THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)
Wow Bootsy. I didn’t realise I had a pet lip on I just thought I was correcting you for talking ****.
Is it not right that I should correct you for putting wrong words in my mouth.?
Still no apology. Well done, 😉
Get back in the show cupboard but don’t dare touch my UGG boots! 😛
@Aussie
I’ve got to give you a touch of support. Not too much as I don’t like to get too close to you 😉
I do believe hard work and unity will turn this round. Whether its a big dressing room bust up to clear the air or similar, cos the talent is there to get us out this mess.
However, a bust up can implode as well. I’m still confident we will turn things round enough to finish mid table’ish.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy… I agree about that with Aussie too(just not the Arsenal comparison)I think we’ll be ok, mind I was that lad who walked into a bar in Tenerife in 2009 to watch a match absolutely convinced we’d get the point we needed v Villa 😥
richietoon(Quote)
I think we will get into top 10 this season. We have had a bad start but we arent cut adrift ( yet ). I think the signs of a recovery have been in our recent performance’s and we have a good team. However if the effort isnt shown we could easily be dragged into real trouble.
Johno Toon(Quote)
Richie, Arsenal are generally a 12+ point better teams than us so it shows that they were just as poor 🙂 🙂 Arsenal were very poor compared to what they should have been. So there……… 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie…You’ve just said exactly why they are a bad comparison….and they are worse off this season nah nah nah nah nah
😉
richietoon(Quote)
And I do have feelings. I feel like a beer near on every night 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
“near” on every night??? and ya call yersel a man 😆
richietoon(Quote)
heres another,i quite like this lad,will be another of a thousand storeys
http://www.soccernews.com/moussa-sissoko-nearing-newcastle-switch/109278/?
icedog(Quote)
Well on the other nights I ‘need’ to have a beer!! 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Oh, and I didn’t say you had no “feelings”, I said you had no “feeling” i.e, you’re a numb fecker 😉 😆
Ice… Aye, he might be a canny signing.
richietoon(Quote)
Aussie 😆
richietoon(Quote)
Aussie you either fail to see you arewrong or just can’t admit your wrong. You try to shine light on our position by comparing our bad run as the same as ****, but when confronted you try to say it is the same and even when Richie produces the figures you still try to fob them off 😯 . You need to get your head outta the sand and smell the coffee.
Big Dave(Quote)
Richie. The local aboriginals here in Oz have a word for blokes like you.. ‘bullshitter’ 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie…in the UK we’ve got loads of names for people like you 😆
richietoon(Quote)
I thought the “Abo” word for people like me was Cuda 😐
richietoon(Quote)
Big Dave, what are you talking about mate? Compared to previous season Arsenal were poor last year…. I was merely talking about the fact that they turned their form around. If you want to call me out on Richies point tally, knock yourself out… At no stage did I say ‘compared to us’. You are one for telling other bloggers not to miss quote you mate, so please refrain from doing it to me…
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Ice at 241 , yeah I have a feeling he will be in to replace Tiote who be off to chelsea for £15 odd million. We bring in Remy a full back and centre back and go on and win the fa cup and finish 7th and the unwashed go down. Carlseberg dont do saving a season after a **** start but if they did…….. 😆
Johno Toon(Quote)
When your being nice it’s Cuda 🙂 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Ah yes another midfielder. Just what we need as a priority.
I wonder where the money will come from for that, being as we are almost constantly skint. 😕
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
So do we all think this Tiote to chelsea is finally going to happen then ?
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
JT 😆 😆 😆
icedog(Quote)
I’m always nice you c@nt 😆
richietoon(Quote)
BB… Not if they’ve been watching him lately it won’t be 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Aussie stop throwing your toys about 😆
And I think you’ll find you were comparing our slump with arsenals and its not just me thought that 😉 but you backtrack all you want 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Richie 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
BB anyone can go if jabba thinks its a good deal the club plan imo is to buy them young get a couple of seasons out of them then sell them on at a big profit it hasnt worked yet but thats the plan,ime pleased in a way that cabby out for a little while as i think him or tiote would be sold in this window to bring fresh blood in,yes i think tiote will go if they get a bid around the 15mil mark
icedog(Quote)
Big Dave, unfortunately you and Richie think alike……. which is not much at all 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Got to be honest id snap hands off for 15 millions in return for tiote. If it meant buying Remy, sissokho and a centre half
Alex(Quote)
We didn’t have to think much to discredit your comparison 😉
richietoon(Quote)
I for one do Boots – and in my opinion is the easiest to replace in terms of the ‘big’ players. As others have mentioned cabaye and HBA are the only creativity, but Bigi and Anita have shown they can deputise for Tiote, who is always going to miss every 4th game anyway! We prob need to sell one player for big money to fund another 3 players, I am happier for that to be Tiote than others. I would rather keep him, but if we need to then lets do it quick and get a RB, CB and CF we need in place early
Raffo(Quote)
So it came natural then 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
“So it came natural then”…Outsmarting an Aussie?, does that not come naturally to everything from an amoeba upwards….not to an Ameobi though 😆 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Big Dave, I hope you will cut me some slack next time I totally misinterpret one of your posts and make a foolish response like you did with mine 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
imo there will be quite a bit of movement this window if it goes the way the club want,3out ba,simpson,tiote and 4 in f/b,c/h,striker,m/f,it could also be willo out if they get that c/h,it could be my wishful thinking of coarse as its owlheed we are dealing with 😐
icedog(Quote)
Anyone think Newcastle playing **** makes everyone a bit tetchy? 😆
richietoon(Quote)
That hurt …..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Who’s tetchy? I’m fine, everyone else has serious problems tho…. 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
AMF could be you will have to wait to get a answer off dave age is catching up with him he cannot be bothered to even answer his emails,shame he used to have his buttons on 😆 😆 😆 and you cannot rely on richie hes owr busy eating 😀
icedog(Quote)
The way you assumed that was directed at you may lead me to assume, that you’re a bit “tetchy” 😆
Ice…nae need for that like 😥
richietoon(Quote)
Ice 🙂 I do like to cut Dave a little slack because he is so old.. Richie, well he does get a bit narky if he hasn’t eaten……………………….for 5 minutes. 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Not eating for 5 minutes??…it’ll never happen!
richietoon(Quote)
AMF richie gets mixed up sometimes,i heard he was on a sea-food diet now,thing is richie thought it meant you eat everything you “see” 😀
icedog(Quote)
Ice…you have a real nasty streak about you…even if what you say is true 😆
richietoon(Quote)
Fuk it is not going to get any better against City the weekend is it. Tough times…. hmmm
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
i see guthrie refused to travel with reading to play at scum land (cannot blame him going there lol) thats twice hes caused bother there,cannot remember him being any trouble at the toon,of coarse hes married since then strange how women can change you lol 😀
icedog(Quote)
Ice, take it easy on Richie mate… Imagine how many dieticians there would be looking for work if blokes like Richie weren’t around. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Ice, I thought Guthrie was odds on to make a go of it this season.. Sad to see it has gone south for him..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
AMF dont worry richie is keeping them at work,overtime even,he was on a diet but wasnt getting enough so now hes on two diets 😀
icedog(Quote)
Ben arfa is a doubt for City, there goes any glimmer of hope i had for that!
Alex(Quote)
Aussie – I agree with you regarding Benny. Don’t see him leaving in Jan unless Ashley gets a Carroll type offer. I don’t see Benny pushing for a move and I think if he sees us signing players like Remy or Sissoko then that will give him encouragement. If not, I think Pardew will give one of his infamous assurances ‘still in Jan and if we get relegated or you still want to leave at the end of the season we won’t stand in your way’.
I was thinking regarding Sakho, we could always look to loan him til the summer with an option to buy him then. It would maybe allow Pardew to have a proper look at him before committing a substantial fee for him.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Benny’s a doubt for Sat – guess what – a hamstring strain. Well done AP!
georgio(Quote)
why is that well done Pardew georgio?
Johno Toon(Quote)
Werent people complaining because he was taken off on Monday?! Maybe thats why? Shows you just cant win whatever you do eh?
Raffo(Quote)
Raffo…Indeed they were, if a manager takes your most influential player off the reason isn’t always obvious, it may well be that Benny asked to come off but hey, lets have ago at the manager surely we see more on tv than he can from pitchside 🙄 😉
richietoon(Quote)
My sarcastic ‘well done AP’ was for playing him too early in the first place!
georgio(Quote)
So Benny’s out for sat 🙄 God I’m pissed off. 👿
KIMTOON(Quote)
KIM divnt worry its just a ploy by pardew 😉 i hope
icedog(Quote)
Ice@290, I wish 🙄 . Glad I’ve been busy decorating the girls flat all week ,at least it’s taken my mind off our woes a little .
KIMTOON(Quote)
KIM take your time with it this will take a while imo 🙁
icedog(Quote)
Ice@290 I hope so too 😐
richietoon(Quote)
Disappointed to hear about Ben Arfa. But we should be thinking more about QPR. Those points are a must if we are to stay above the drop zone. I don’t like to write games off but Man City is too much for us right now. They will be desperate for the points. I hope we at least play well. This has turned into a strange season to say the least. Already worried about relegation. Already worried Ashley won’t spend in January. Already worried Ba or Ben Arfa or both might leave. Does anyone have some good news to share?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I have a day off tomorrow geordietwo which is the best news I have 😉
Johno Toon(Quote)
G2…I have no news, which is good news apparently 😉
richietoon(Quote)
It’s a start Johno and Richie. Hopefully we’ll have the good news that the mackems were beaten 6-0 by ManU on the weekend! 🙂 I wonder how Cabaye is doing with his recovery? We will need him asap the way things are going.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Geordie thought I read that Cabaye was due back mid Jan now. And I think I read Fergie been pissed off at Sunderland how the mackems celebrated them losing the league last season. Think utd r going to destroy the mackems this weekend and we will get a point off city 🙂
Johno Toon(Quote)
Another couple of thoughts about the rest of December. Pardew’s top priority (aside from getting some points) surely must be to help Cisse, Tiote, and Jonas to regain form. Those 3 have been a terrible drag on the team this season. The best thing might be to bench Jonas and replace him from the start of games with Anita. With a better playing partner this might lift Tiote’s game. As far as Cisse is concerned I would try him alone up front with Ba on one wing and possibly Marveaux on the other. A 4-5-1 formation at home isn’t exciting but it becomes 4-3-3 in attack. I know it didn’t work well against Fulham but they had 2 midfielders so we didn’t need 3 in the middle. We don’t have much choice right now at other positions. The back 4 probably has to stay the same. Could Fergie play in behind Ba on the left? It will be very difficult no matter what we do and I fear for Willo/Simpson who probably won’t be up to it.
GeordieTwo(Quote)