Winless run continues! Stoke 2-1 Newcastle

Cisse’s strike was not enough
Newcastle United succumbed to their fourth defeat n the spin last night at Stoke City ran out 2-1 winners at the Britannia Stadium.

Another defeat it may be, but I actually feel better about this one than I have about previous losses. The result will take the headlines but it was the performance that heartens me as we saw a much improved showing from United.

With not much action to really write about in the first-half,aside from Peter Crouch having some teeth knocked out, the game kind of came alive in the second when Papiss Cisse reacted first to a parried Demba Ba shot and fired past Asmir Begovic via the post to give the away side a 47thminute lead.

Further chances followed for Demba Ba and Cisse once more but Begovic was equal to their efforts and kept his side in the game. Indeed the away side may have been unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty after what looked to be a handball by Ryan Shawcross but Howard Webb was unconvinced and waved the claims away. Maybe because we weren’t playing in Manchester United red perhaps?

However Stoke are a tough nut to crack at the Britannia and they pushed for an equaliser only to find blind alleys and blocked paths. Indeed Tim Krul hadn’t really had much to do on the night having just one effort to comfortably contend with.

That changed nine minutes from time however when Stoke equalised. Jonas Gutierrez allowed Cameron Jerome to cross for Jonathan Walters to head the hosts level.

Parity didn’t last long however and the home side were soon 2-1 up after Cameron Jerome got on the end of a knock-down from Kenwyne Jones to give Stoke an 85th minute lead which United couldn’t recover from.

The game against Wigan on Monday now is huge. We need a win at any cost although I can’t help wondering just how hard the defeat last night will have hit the players. They actually did enough to get something from the game in my eyes, perhaps not the win some may say, but almost certainly enough for a point and to have that taken away from them at the death could hit confidence further.

Howay the lads!

Stoke: Asmir Begovic, Geoff Cameron, Robert Huth, Ryan Shawcross, Ryan Shotton, Glenn Whelan, Steven Nzonzi, Charlie Adam, Matthew Etherington, Jonathan Walters, Peter Crouch

Subs: Thomas Sorensen, Matthew Upson, Wilson Palacios, Dean Whitehead, Michael Kightly, Cameron Jerome, Kenwyne Jones

Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson, Davide Santon, James Perch, Vurnon Anita, Jonas Gutierrez, Cheik Tiote, Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse

Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, James Tavernier, Gael Bigirimana, Sylvain Marveaux, Sammy Ameobi, Gael Bigirimana

Attendance: 26,793

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.

195 thoughts on “Winless run continues! Stoke 2-1 Newcastle

  1. (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)

    I’m a bit lost when people believe things would be better without Owlheed.

    Surely Owlheed is just following Mikeys instructions and game plan.

    Can someone tell me why they believe differently?

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  2. Sharpy-In all honesty, I don’t even buy into the idea that we have much of a “plan” exactly. It’s changed around so much. I mean, how can a club which wants to develop youth players into premiership class players and at some point sell them on for a profit then come to the conclusion that it shouldn’t buy players under the age of 18? 😕

    It would take years to get a truly great academy up and running…and it’s not like we’ll ever compete with Manure and Liverpool who have such mass appeal and can bring out youngsters on a whim. Man city with their massive infrastructure spending will become a powerhouse as well…

    We say we won’t buy players over the age of 27 but I think it’s more that we won’t look into them so much, but if anything is avaliable at the right price-aka cheap as chips-we’ll probably go for it.

    Like the look of that team and agree we need 2 defensive reinforcements for me, good competition if not outright starters.

    G2-Yeah I know what you mean. It just annoys me that they get anywhere near that sum just for being ******…

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  3. Troy-you may be right, but I do believe Derrick has a bit of a fetish for penny pinching which, and if removed and replaced with a “football man” it might see Ashley brought round to believing he has to invest a bit more if he wants to see a real return.

    Also, ideally anyone replacing him wouldn’t be a slimey c*nt that comes out with soundbites that make us look like twats to the rest of the footballing world and undoubtedly make business harder for us in future, especially if we rub clubs’ faces in the fact we took their assets on the cheap. They should also be able to lend more support to either Pardew-or his replacement if it happens.

    I remember when hoots got the sack and Pards was appointed-all the questions were directed to him and Derrick just fannied around in the background and hardly helped at all.

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  4. Sharpy I have said that many times Lambastad might have been able to talk to poor gamblers that ran up a tab at the casino or his staff like ****, but you can’t treat multi millionaire footballers and staff the same way,

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  5. I think that, despite what many believe, Ashley has a bit more laid back approach to the club assume. They believe he is micromanaging every aspect(maybe he is?) but I really doubt it, too busy looking for other business opportunities and enjoying himself imo.

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  6. I would say it’s obviously a combination of the two pinheads Troy. Ashley calls the shots but Llambias is even poor as a yes-man. He is only there because apparently Ashley likes how he looks naked and he makes a great drinking pal who doesn’t object to doing what sycophants do, that is anything the boss wants. But how do we get rid of both? An impossible task I’m afraid so get ready for more sad-sack football.

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  7. Troy I whole heartily believe that Lambastad causes the **** because he is an arrogant ***** that treats people like **** and rubs people up the wrong way. but Jabba probably trusts him because he was good for him in his Casino’s so Jabba has probably thought he is doing a good enough job because up to now we have done better than expected so in Jabba’s eyes he Lambastad is doing a good job, and he keeps a tight hold of his purse strings, remember Jabba doesn’t know much about running a football club either and he probably hasn’t had too much to do with Pro players and what they’re like, Lambastad could be telling him that transfers broke down for all sorts of reasons rather than say that he pissed them off because it was his way or the high way 😉

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  8. Good comments Big Dave@157. We’ll never know the details of the discussions Llambias has had with other clubs but it’s results that count and he did next to nothing in the summer despite repeated comments from Pardew that he needed players. There is no excuse for where we find ourselves now. If we go down I won’t feel a thing for Ashley because he is a fool keeping Llambias around but what a blow for the supporters! This is a load of bollocks plain and simple.

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  9. Football is a results first business especially in the Prem and you can bet this season has come as a shock to Ashley. You can’t stand pat and stay in the top 6 in this league but that is what Ashley has done through Llambias. Spend nothing and slide down the table. That is the simple equation when you are competing with the likes of Spurs, and Arsenal (I won’t even mention Man City, ManU, and Chelsea) for a top 6 position. And we werent even smart enough strengthen within our means.What can we expect from Ashley? More of the same. He doesn’t understand football so he thinks he can have a managing director who doesn’t understand football either, and it worked for one season. Now let’s see what happens. Can a leopard change its spots? I doubt it.

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  10. If I were the owner I would do the following:
    1. Sack Llambias and hire a football man immediately. Tell him the resources will be finite but money will be available within reason (15M to start in Jan because virtually nothing spent last summer).
    2. Contact Pardew directly and offer him support ie. “Alan you are our manager and will continue to be until the end of the season unless we slip into the relegation zone. I’m being honest with you Alan because I respect you and the other coaches and staff. We must turn this around however and that is why I’m making funds available in January.”
    3. Show more direct interest in the club and the city. Show up at the ground with the new managing director. Explain to the press why a change was needed and let the new managing director explain his vision for the club. Show some spirit and desire to see us climb the table by being in touch with the club as much as possible.
    Is that too much to ask from a responsible owner?

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  11. Troy – To be fair, none of us know for sure, but the impression I get is that it is down to Pardew and Carr to find the players they want, Owlhead to do the negotiation and Cashley to pay for them.
    I think Cashley says ‘there you go boys, you have X amount of pounds to spend this window’.
    I’m purely basing my opinion off last Jan window when seemed Pardew was given about £10m, and once Pardew had decided to go for Cisse, Ashley gives it ‘when you gonna buy a CB’ or similar comment.
    I think Ashley sets an amount and the Owlhead tries to get the player for as little as possible to make that amount go as far as he can make it, which isn’t a bad thing. But I think in trying to do that he pisses opposing chairpersons off and forgets that it is better to get one or two in rather than trying to squeeze that hard for the third and ending up with none.
    I hope that makes sense.

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  12. So what do you think was the X amount for last summer Sharpy? And what do you think Ashley said to Llambias if he didn’t spend it because he fell out with various negotiators from other teams? Probably something like: ” Well what happened Derek? I thought we were going to get a CB and an RB in? What happened there?” and Derek’s answer (whether it is true or not) would be: “Mike I tried my best but those clubs were extremely unreasonable in their dealings with us. At any rate Pards says we will be perfectly fine with the players we already have. I personally know we have 11 first team purples and several outstanding fill-ins so what could possibly go wrong?”

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  13. @GeordieTwo

    . Sack Llambias and hire a football man immediately. Tell him the resources will be finite but money will be available within reason (15M to start in Jan because virtually nothing spent last summer.

    I would have to add – hire the RIGHT football man. He tried having a football man in Dennis Wise and look where that got him. I thinks that why he ultimately went with Dekka in the end. I get the feeling that Dekka has played a big part in Ashley’s fortunes and that’s why he’s in now and that’s why I don’t think he’d ever sack the bloke – but it doesn’t stop him moving to another role within the Ashley empire.

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  14. GeordieTwo – I reckon it was somewhere in the region of £15m (plus whatever we generated from sales). Based off the £10-12m bid for LDJ, 4-5m for Douglas, £4-5m for Debuchy and then the money we spent on Anita of course.
    Being totally honest, I don’t suppose he had to tell Cashley much. The pair probably sat in the board room with a bottle of scotch, shrugged their shoulders and said ‘**** it, you ring Rangers and ill ring Wonga’.
    I think Mike wouldnt have been too bothered at the start coz Pardew is still coming out with ‘we’re a top 4 team’ *****. However now – well now he’s probably looking at it thinking ‘not a(fucking)gain man!’, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Ashley has had words with both of them – at least I hope he has!.

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  15. (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)

    @Sharpy

    You make a good point. I’m just not so sure Deggsy doesn’t consult Mikey on an hourly basis when it comes to transfers.

    Who knows but it makes me think Chris Mort left for those reasons.

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  16. Well it’s perfectly clear what has happened. Our success in the transfer window in the last 18 months is coming back to haunt us. Clubs are realising that if NUFC are wanting their players they must be good. However we won’t pay anymore than what we believe the price should be. It’s almost like no negotiation, just there’s our offer, take it or leave it. Bizarre way of doing things – especially when our need for squad improvements is much more than their need to sell players.

    I would love to think that Ashley and Llambias are sat there saying fcking hell, we fcked up in the summer didn’t we? We’re in a relegation fight due to our stupidness and we must do something about it in January. But you know what? They’ll be sat there saying we did the right thing – we saved a fortune and we won’t get relegated so its great!! The balance sheet is in fantastic shape.

    My view is that we didn’t deserve any luck with regards to injuries this season after our **** poor effort in squad strengthening. We are getting what we deserve.

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  17. (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)

    Life has a strange way of slapping you in the face.
    It was only last season when some of us had to eat humble pie.

    I was one of them. I predicted last season would be like this season.

    I just couldn’t see the players we were buying would be good enough.

    Last season saw 6 outstanding players perform way above what I expected.

    Ba, Cisse, Barfa, Colo, Tiote and Krul.

    I think the rest of our squad were average.

    Only Barfa and Ba are hitting the same heights for me.

    That makes an awful lot of average players, again in my opinion.

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  18. Evening all ,just reading a few post and imo ,Jabba will strengthen in jan .I think he’s getting an almighty scare at the moment and if we drop down anymore and not look like getting out he’ll move to rectify it one way or another ,he’ll of learnt that bringing in a new guy isn’t enough from last time so I think he get his wallet out instead. Put it this way ,if he doesn’t he deserves to be landed with an unsalable club .I believe he’s making us as big an attraction as possible to buyers so he can ultimately get shot and make profit and dropping down a league is not in his best interest if this is what he wants ,so I think he may well speculate to accumilate.

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  19. Troy – I’m not suggesting that Dekka has a completely free rein when it comes to transfers, but I think he’s trusted a lot more than Mort was.
    I seem to remember last Jan started very slow coz Dekka was still on his jollies for the 1st week of the window and they wouldn’t start doing business til he was back. I think Ashley is pretty dependant or should I say values Dekkaz input a great deal.

    Stu – I understand your frustration mate, but to say we are getting what we deserve is abit unfair I think mate. I don’t think it’s what Pardew, the players or certainly the fans deserve like.

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  20. Troy-I think Mort may have left because we were a f*cking circus back then and any association with Ashley would end in tears

    Kim-Hope you’re right and not Sharpy. The way I see it, to guarantee we stay in the prem and therefore the biggest sums of cash, Ashley needs to strengthen. Surely he sees that. The CC is a lot more competetive than when we were in there last time as well and there’s no guarantee any players will stick with us-or that those that were there before i.e Colo will be as good.

    Also, we lack that core of English players who whilst undoubtedly less talented generally have the nous-and the attributes-to play well in the CC….

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  21. Rodz – good luck to Fred. Been watching his training on Sky1 and to be fair to the lad, he’s serious about it. Also seemed like an honest and decent kid – plus his missus is tidy 😉

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  22. Sharpy-I just confused Stuart’s name with yours that’s all mate 😉

    And Flintoff won, somehow. Other guy must have been gash 😆

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  23. No one expected to do quite so badly this year. i think we’ll see huge investment in January as there is no way the board will risk missing out on the tv bonanza. if we stay up this flirtation with relegation could leave us with a great squad going forward.

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  24. ST – I think you’re gonna be left sorely disappointed then mate. I think there will be investment, but no more than around £10m of Ashley’s money. He’ll probably allow money generated from any sales to be spent, but I don’t see him handing over more than £10m mate.
    I think he has a financial plan for the club in place and won’t divert from that. Instead he’ll look at it and think, these players were good enough last year and it would be cheaper to change to a manager who can get the best out of these players again, than spending a fortune on a bunch of new players. Don’t forget mate, we have a self made English billionaire – not a Russian multi Billionaire or Arab Prince with an endless supply of cash.

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  25. Shamrock I tend to agree with that, but I thought I would ask ST would his idea of huge would be , as I know last window I thought was shocking but some thought that keeping our players made it a good window.

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  26. Dave – do you think that’s how much Ashley will allow to spend or how do you see it going mate?

    Shamrock – do you really believe there will be that little investment?

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  27. @Dave
    Yeah I think it will be about that much. I think Ashley would gamble on not qualifying for Europe again every time, it’s not like Europa is bringing him much money.
    But I don’t think he would risk gambling on PL again, even if we have a stronger squad than a lot of teams in the league, relegation last time showed sometimes you need that extra push.
    I think we’ll see 3 players 15 – 20 mill. I can imagine us caving to Douglas/Debuchy demands now and signing a winger.

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  28. ST I hope your right but I just can’t see it happening unless he could get them for a bargain price of up to £10mil 💡 unless one of them is Pieters who I think is out of contract

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  29. Dave – 😳 that was good timing wasn’t it 😉

    ST – I am hoping we get Debuchy and a CB but I think that will be our whack mate. If Ba leaves he will replace him but it won’t be mega bucks like and won’t be a superstar IMO.
    I’ve read afew mention Remy – no way well spend that kinda money like – not with the defensive additions we need aswell.

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  30. @Sharpy & Dave
    We’re seriously lacking creative players though, it’s been masked for two years, firstly by our quality from set pieces with the tripod, and then last year with an unprecedented number of wonder goals.
    Hopefully the board are forced into action by Cabaye’s injury.
    I think with the increase in tv revenue the stakes are just too high for Ashley not to ensure we survive. He wants out, we want him out, and us surviving this year is key to that.

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  31. Also, I know a lot of what i’ve said could easily be applied to this time 4 years ago. I think the difference is when we got relegated last time we actually had a fair amount of depth in most positions. So he could have justified not spending.
    However this time we don’t so there is no leg to stand on when it comes to surviving.
    And surely with us doing as fantastically as the board claims we are financially we have money in place for contingencies such as this.

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  32. Samuel Ameobi ‏@Sammy_Ameobi
    Completely wiped out on some black ice leaving the house this morning #bambimoment

    Definitely don’t see the funny side 😯

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  33. Dave – I know he’s suffered with injuries, but if he’s on a free I’d still defo take Pieters.

    ST – I don’t disagree that we seriously lack creativity, I just don’t see Ashley splashing the cash though – really hope I’m wrong like.
    It depends where he looks. I mean I think someone like Matt Phillips at Blackpool would be a good young addition who wouldn’t cost a fortune or Marvin Emnes at Boro. Both of those would offer something different to what we have in already, and both could probably be bought for £5-6m for both.

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  34. ST – I love that tweet, you can just imagine him can’t you. I see Sammy becoming as big a cult hero as Shola to be honest…. just hope he’s a better goal scorer 🙄

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  35. The next three months will show us whether Pardew can hack the big time or not. Regarding the investment in players, he has to be strong enough and adept enough to identify the players who are going to move the club forward, and give the team a lift in the relegation battle. Our squad is too light weight in several positions, and lacks pace and creative quality in midfield.

    I also fear that the players are becoming mentally fatigued by the pressure. That’s also part of Pardew’s job, to make sure the players are in the best of states, physically and mentally. That has not been the case this season, even before our run of injuries we were lacklustre, and the “fringe players” struggling to live up to expectations. It stands to reason now that we have senior pros injured that the players coming in have a tough job, but if they cannot hack it then we need to move them on..

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  36. Sharpy,
    I see Sammy as an exact Shola clone so far. Neither are or ever will be good enough for a club chasing a top six PL position.

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  37. For me, we only really have six players could make a top four PL starting 11:

    Santon, Coloccini, Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse.

    Out of that, Ba and Cisse shouldn’t play in the same team. They are too similar.

    Then there are those that are good squad players for a top six team:

    Krul, S Taylor, Tiote, Anita, Marvaeux.

    From those S Taylor and Marvaeux are very injury prone, while Tiote has a terrible disciplinary record. Krul and Tiote could move up to the top group, but neither are consistant enough for me.

    Then we have the top youngsters who should be challenging the second choice positions, or should be developing out on loan.

    Gael Bigirimana, Samuel Ameobi, Haris Vučkić, Shane Ferguson, Curtis Good, James Tavernier, Paul Dummett, Mehdi Abeid, Adam Campbell, Brad Inman, Remie Streete.

    Then we have the players who simply aren’t good enough for a team looking for a top six finish. At best these players should be third choice for their position.

    Gabriel Obertan, Foluwashola Ameobi, Rob Elliot, Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, James Perch, Mike Williamson, Danny Simpson, Romain Amalfitano.

    This group is far far far too large…

    If we are relying on our third choice player in a certain position. I’d much rather be trying to develop a youngster, who could then be called back from loan to play in the first team until the senior players have recovered.

    For me, if our ambition is to break into the top six on a consistent basis. We need three more players for the top group (CB, RB and AM). And we need to clear a few of the lot that the club’s ambitions (the fans anyway) have outgrown.

    Otherwise, looking at the strength of opposition squads in comparison to our own (which is massively overrated due to last season)… we should be very happy with a top 10 finish and satisfied with a top 14 finish.

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