A weekend of nothing?

The Bolton game meant nothing of note.
In some ways you could look at this last weekend as a missed opportunity to progress up the league.

A win against Bolton on Saturday would have left us sitting pretty in seventh place in the table, and we would have only been one point off of sixth place such is the way that results fell. It wasn’t to be though, although I do feel that if Ryan Taylor didn’t balls up then we could have pushed on and claimed all three points against The Trotters.

However, you could look at it another way and say that rather than last weekend being a missed opportunity it could just as easily leave us with our foot wedged in the door with regard to progression up the Premier League table.

No ground was lost on those teams directly above us. Bolton stayed the same distance away, whilst we actually managed to gain ground on both Sunderland and Liverpool due to their defeats to Everton and West Ham respectively.

Of course qualifying for Europe will be harder now than it was before due to Birmingham winning the League Cup yesterday, that’s even if Europe was on the agenda for us in the first place to be fair, but it’s still not all lost. The aim from here onwards should be to aim to finish as high as we possibly can.

With Premier League survival all but guaranteed it is perhaps a bit of an anti-climax that we don’t really have much to aim for. Top six is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but there is no reason why we shouldn’t be aiming for it.

It’s important that the team tries to keep their season alive. It would be an awful shame if, after having such a good season so far, the performances were to dilute and we found ourselves just coasting towards the end of the season.

It seems a bit strange talking of top six finishes whilst our Premier League safety is yet to be guaranteed, but aiming for the top six is certainly a better goal to aim for than just survival. The fact that I can write that with ten games left still is testament to how well the team have done and just how crazy this season has been.

The weird thing is that it could have been even better as well!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

40 thoughts on “A weekend of nothing?

  1. Could have been better?

    Should have been I reckon, I am still gutted about throwing points away at the unwashed and spurs. I have mentioned it a few times and just cant get over conceding that late twice in a row.

      (Quote)

  2. Aye it wouldnt have happened if Pardew could find his **** in the dark, He never needed to use Tiote at Stevenage.

    With him in the team we would never let the scum and spurs back in…

      (Quote)

  3. I was actually thinking about the losses at home at the start of the season to be fair. Those matches far outweigh the two where we dropped points against Sunderland and Tottenham.

      (Quote)

  4. stoke, Blackpool, Blackburn- grrrrr!
    man city away game boils my **** more than any just for how bad the ref was and how we deserved at least a draw

      (Quote)

  5. JAY JAY aye maybe m8,but what can you do when others are screwing you around,get nee peace,man cannot get odd drink and gan to match

      (Quote)

  6. aye, at the time I said the Blackpool, Stoke, Blackburn games were 6 pointers as we would be around each other come the end of the season, boils my insides that we got nothing from those games.

    On a positive note, a couple of seasons ago we would have completely capitulated on Saturday, and not for the first time we dug in and ground out a result.

    Looking at the bigger picture i’m over the moon how the season’s gone, need to re-focus now for the last 10 games though. But really, with a little more luck, we could have had more points on the board.

      (Quote)

  7. only 3 points behind 6th with a better GD than those above us, very possible although it seems Rooney will be allowed to forearm smash any of our players with our players getting sent off for potentially hurting rooneys elbow

    Can’t believe he got off with that, F.A is a complete joke and so is Clattenberg for letting him get away with it …. credibility = 0

      (Quote)

  8. To be fair to Spurs, they were probably worth a draw. What grated was that we’d denied them until the 93rd minute or whatever.

    In a similar vein, I was at the Arsenal game at the Emirates and came away from that thinking we were fairly lucky to get all 3 points.

      (Quote)

  9. Should have beaten Blackburn, Sunderland and put a hatful past Bolton in first half, thought we deserved the win (just) against Spurs
    Win away to **** was tough on them but hey ho – goal was to stay up and now we’re wondering if we can manage 6th….. happy days

      (Quote)

  10. I know this is off topic but i hear Ireland could be playing for Everton and even starting if Barton doesn’t make it. I hope this doesn’t mean he gets put right midfield as i feel we won’t see the best of him and fans will start to get on his back. Maybe him and Lovenkrands could swap during the game?

      (Quote)

  11. dan4toon
    i agree, u will see the best of irland playing just of the striker in a cam role, most of his goals came from that area for man city, maybe we shud play 4 5 1 lovenkrands out left nolan and ireland just off best 😛

      (Quote)

  12. David – Yeah i agree, even though on paper it says 4-5-1 it’s really 4-2-3-1 with 3 getting in support of Best/Shola and then the support will be even greater when Ben Arfa’s back.

      (Quote)

  13. dan4toon- yeah it will be good to see a talented player for us out wide (ben arfa), not that Gutierrez isn’t, its the consistency that is the problem and his frailty to actually run towards players.

      (Quote)

  14. ireland has not played a game since dec,not think he will be off the pace a bit,comeing on for last 20min would seem the way to go for me like,but if needs must 😐

      (Quote)

  15. a weekend of nothing ? speak for ya’sel toonsy – i thoroughly enjoyed watching the heed give the scum a footballing lesson in the fa trophy & am looking foward to watching us dump darlington oot in the semis.

    wembley – here we come !!!!

    heeeeeeeeeeddddd aaarrrrmmmmmmmmmmmyyy.

      (Quote)

  16. He’s become lazy because he knows he’s going to be in the team every week, his best few games were when Ben Arfa was fit and he competition.

      (Quote)

  17. Ice – Yeah that’s what I’d prefer but if he’s taking Bartons place then I’d assume he’s going to start right midfield which isn’t his position at all.

      (Quote)

  18. Apart from Rooney twatting the lad on the head, the footie has been nothing special this weekend but what about the Rugby, great wins against France and Leeds, and the cricket yesterday had a great finish.
    Have to say, watching the Rugby doesnt half put to shame some of the gaylords playing football.

      (Quote)

  19. The football was boring yesterday- I lost interest and switched to NASCAR and golf- but I just can’t get into match play when there are only 2 players on the course…

      (Quote)

  20. if i wasn’t banned on there you wouldn’t have to suffer me on here.

    cue – the hammer 😯

      (Quote)

  21. Going back to the original thread: we’re in danger of ‘doing an Arsenal’ and whining about what’s not fair, rather than focusing on the overall progress and position. Of course we’ve seen unfairness and frustrating games and moments; so does every team in every season.

    Personally, I’m really enjoying this season because it’s so unpredictable, and because we have a squad that is the opposite of two years ago. They just don’t know how to give up. Saturday was set for being another fascinating encounter but the Raylor brain-fart put paid to that. But even then we had plenty of good play and could have nicked it. AP showed he knows how to switch tactics and see out a match too.

    The other results were probably the best thing about the weekend.

    Oh, and beating the frogs at rugby. Roll on the World Cup :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  22. I would be happy with finishing in the top half and above the mackems. That seems a more realistic target to me than top 6.

      (Quote)

  23. The Midfield for Everton without Barton:

    Lovenkrands Jonas

    Nolan Ireland

    Tiote
    It would be a 4-5-1 (with Best up front) but with Nolan and Ireland it would be an attacking one. Anyone??

      (Quote)

  24. I doubt Ireland will start. He hasn’t played for months so it would be risky just throwing him in straight away.

    Two up top in home games for me. If Barton is going to be missing I’d put Lovo on the left, Jonas on the right and play Best and Ranger up top.

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *