The bandwagon rolls on with Ipswich Town arriving at St James Park. Whilst no-one wants their team to lose, the Tractor Boys will take comfort from Newcastle keeping Norwich off the top of the table with a victory. Not quite a ‘win-win’ situation but as close as football gets to it.
The last two wins have answered the question of whether momentum would be lost by the international break. And now with Newcastle’s Championship title odds crashing to 4/6 or lower, the answer is emphatically not; Brentford was a good performance, expansive football against a team which wanted to play.
Barnsley saw how Brentford were beaten and decided to play compactly. They hassled, harried, niggled and narked but the lads were patient, kept their heads and when the moments came, took their chances. In all honesty, it was probably a better win for the squad than Saturday’s; one which gives them belief that they can overcome all obstacles and obduracy.
Ipswich, especially with Mick McCarthy at the helm, will follow Barnsley’s lead and set their stall out to defend. Their 2 – 0 win over Burton in midweek was the first win in seven. They hadn’t scored for 5½ games before Luke Chambers got their first whilst Freddie Sears got his first in 38 games. McCarthy said afterwards, “I said I’ve watched three seasons of ‘Scandal’ since he last scored. It was probably four actually!”
Rafa has a busy few weeks before the next international break and Matt Ritchie’s return from illness was welcome at Oakwell. The Scot has been in scintillating form this season with his absence emphasising his importance to the team.
The key word there is ‘team’ and I think that’s been the most impressive feature on the current run of good form: teamwork. Some players are important and drive the form forward – Lascelles, Shelvey, Ritchie, Gayle – but the rest of the squad is responding to that, improving their performance levels as well.
Darlow, for example, has come in and performed consistently and it’s that kind of response which will please Rafa more than having a specific player being more responsible for the points than others.
A win against Ipswich puts real pressure on not just Norwich but also Brighton; they have to win to stop a little gap opening but crucially with the pair meeting next weekend, a little gap could become a big one quite quickly if they take less than three points from the two games.
We can take a grip on this division if things go our way, the most important of which is for us to win our games. Do that and the rest will take care of itself.
the goals
http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/10628353/newcastle-3-0-ipswich
icedog(Quote)
Oh God. West Ham scored after 93.48 with only 4 minutes of injury time. Mackems only had to hold on for 12 more seconds 🙂 🙂 🙂 Was a **** goal as well 🙂 🙂 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Think it was a top goal mesel 😡 😆
Icedog(Quote)
Comments about the ref and the pen, need to see it again when I’m home, but Gayle looked well off side to me, so when keeper took him out, think ref waved play on as should have been stopped and free kick to them anyway, either way, bad refereeing I suppose
Simon(Quote)
Hands up and being honest, I thought Rafa should have went with Mitrovic over Perez – before kick off.
I expected Ipswich to be a very physical side, particularly in defence ….. it took all of 60secs to be proven wrong ?.
I thought we played well today – Best nearly got one but we stayed solid & yet another clean sheet ??.
Sham – you were right mate ?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy the years of neglect was always going to leave a lingering sense of dread no matter what new leaf we appear to havw turned over. Thankfully the club is showing the beginning of a sustained effort to perform consistently well both on and off the pitch.
However well we do this season though, it’s when we are back in the PL that we really see if the owner is a new man. Rafa can do the business for us, but he will need the tools to do the job over a long period of time – not just a flash in the pan gesture over one season. Time will tell but I’m hopeful. We finally look like we have a team of grafters again for the most part, with actual relative quality squad depth..
Shamrock(Quote)
Great result yesterday that sounded relatively comfortable.
Next week should be interesting against Preston who will have completed back to back games against the top four.
So far they have 7 points from 9 against norwich, huddersfield and brighton, which is impressive.
As we play them down there would a draw be a good result?
GlosMag(Quote)
Some wonderful play yesterday especially in the first half. Passing and movement great so it was hard to believe that in the first half we only had one shot on target. At least it was a goal. Really difficult to pick a man of the match because we are playing as a team. Well done Rafa.
Groucho(Quote)
Glos – it wouldn’t be a bad result but the way we’re going just a little blip. I expect us to win.
georgio(Quote)
Preston are good going forward and having a run of form at the moment. Huddersfield had only lost by one goal before that game and they put three past them. I thought Ipswich might frustrate us but they proved cannon fodder in the end, probably the goal after 60 seconds ruined their game plan. Preston will be the real test. I’m going on Tuesday night in the Gallowgate. I hope to see a fairly strong side as we should respect Preston NE and this is a great chance for a cup run with the draws being kind to us so far.
DJG(Quote)
DJG good luck look forward to your winning report 😆
icedog(Quote)
Perez apart i think Yedlin had a top game from the bits ive seen the boys got some pace
icedog(Quote)
The difference between Bristol City (6th) and Ipswich (17th) is only six points. I know it’s still early but I think this is quite a good competitive league. In the Prem there is already an eight point gap between Everton and ‘Boro, and that league has had 5 less games played.
DJG(Quote)
I’d be happier about the mackems plight if Hull, Swansea & Middlesbrough could actually win a few games. They are all nearly as bad unfortunately. 😕
DJG(Quote)
DJG: I wouldn’t worry mate. The Mackems are much worse than the teams you mention. Boro gave Arsenal all they could handle yesterday and Cech played a blinder. The Mackems have 6 goals from 9 games. We all know Defoe saved them last year but perhaps time is catching up with him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
aye true mate and theres three teams go down,dont think the Jan window will help them as other teams will spend to try and stay in PL,imo scum are so bad there is no way they will get back up 😆 😆
icedog(Quote)
I know it doesn’t work like this, but I can dream: if you extrapolate Sunderland’s current points total for a full season they would have 9 points. Easily the worst in PL history.
The Chicago Cubs just got to the “World” Series for the first time since 1945. They haven’t won it since 1908. They are the only other sports team I support (I had season tickets). Maybe my luck is changing and NUFC will also come good.
Anyway, even though we are in a lower division it is so good to have a team that knows what they are doing, works hard and wins games. I am under no illusions that the PL will be much harder but team spirit and hard work can get you a long way there as well.
I got sick of bitching about managers that didn’t know what they were doing or were arrogant ******, so this is such a pleasant change for me.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If you think that NUFC are cursed, there was an actual curse placed on the Chicago Cubs. In 1945, the owner of a local Tavern called the Billy Goat was kicked out of the game because he took his pet goat to the game and sat by the then owner PK Wrigley, of chewing gum fame. He cursed the Cubs and said they would never get to the World Series again in his lifetime. He died 30 years ago but the curse lived on, until yesterday.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
If Mourinho’s face normally looks like a slapped **** what will he look like after this. And if England intend to build the team around Man U players (minus Wayne) what does that say? Smalling is having a mare.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Man U players who are likely to be picked for England:
Smalling
Phil Jones
Luke Shaw
Rashford
Lingard
According to Troy we will probably win the World Cup having already won the Euros if you believed his prediction.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Mourinho looks short of ideas this days. That was terrible today. Poor all over the pitch from ManU. Not sure where there going to finish the season but not in the top six unless they do something drastic. As for Sunderland they are as good as gone already. The whole structure of their club is rotten and needs a complete rebuild. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? 😳
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Morning folks – a hectic weekend in Germany with work has meant I’m only just watching the highlights now!
A new thread by our GeordieTwo going up in a bit….
Andy Magpie(Quote)
I don’t know about suffolkated, they were certainly suffolked.
Brisvegas(Quote)