Looking Back But Heading Forward

Firstly, I apologise for the lack of a thread in the last few days.

The reasoning behind it was that today would be a good day to look forward to the Birmingham game tomorrow and also still close enough to the weekends win to talk about that.

So, let’s start with the weekends game.

It was a great win, especially after being in such bad form lately.

Brentford are by no means a bad side and even without Scott Hogan, they can be a real threat, as Lasse Vibe showed.

As always, Dwight Gayle didn’t fail to disappoint, opening the scoring before being withdrawn through injury.

Daryl Murphy came on for Gayle and scored the winner, which has filled many people with confidence, following the injury to Gayle.

Looking forward to the Birmingham game, I think everyone would back Murphy to lead the line well.

There has also been rumours that some youth players may be rewarded with a start, making the experience of senior players like Murphy essential.

Perhaps this is why Rafa Benitez has blocked Cheick Tiote’s move to Spain, or so the media are reporting.

Now, let’s finish with a quick piece of nostalgia. Nine years ago today, Newcastle played Stoke City and Kevin Keegan returned for his second spell as manager.

Hopefully this week, our current world class manager will take us into the next round of the FA Cup.

170 thoughts on “Looking Back But Heading Forward

  1. This is really cynical of me. But at every game now there seems to be a minute’s silence before the match for someone then a minutes clapping in both halfs to remember somebody. And then something about a sick child. I know we still have it on 17 minutes at NUFC. I am not saying that is bad or anything but at some point the tributes and will become too many and become meaningless.

    Just saw another one at the Plymouth game and it is every match now for someone or other. Have the funeral with your family and friends.

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  2. Sounds like Shelvey is running the show in first half… good to hear. Youngsters seem to have done ok so far too. El-Mhanni seems to like his step overs too from what I hear.

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  3. Dubai Toon:
    Sounds like Shelvey is running the show in first half… good to hear. Youngsters seem to have done ok so far too. El-Mhanni seems to like his step overs too from what I hear.

    Rafa was very un-happy as he was thrown to the ground

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  4. icedog: Rafa was very un-happy as he was thrown to the ground

    Rafa was thrown to the ground? ?? not surprised he was unhappy… ??

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  5. Kimtoon: we have 3 of the top 5 candidates for Championship player of the season – Gayle, Shelvey and Darlow.

    I hold my hands up that I had my doubts about Darlow in his first game but he has been fantastic for us this year.

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  6. I said when Shelvey got his ban he’d be a huge miss and we would really struggle without him.
    For me he’s our best player by far and we have struggled badly without him. Hopefully those 5 games have really highlighted that and we need to address things in his absence. I really believe Townsend would give that plan B option too.

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  7. Sharpy17:
    I said when Shelvey got his ban he’d be a huge miss and we would really struggle without him.
    For me he’s our best player by far and we have struggled badly without him.Hopefully those 5 games have really highlighted that and we need to address things in his absence.I really believe Townsend would give that plan B option too.

    agree mate

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  8. Well I hope Jake is right and Sels can come into his own with the time wasting – coz B’ham have had ONE shot on target so far and scored.

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  9. I always have that queasy feeling when we only have a 1 goal lead and nearing end of the game.

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  10. Sharpy 🙂 🙂 🙂

    That was pretty funny. If all Selz has got going for him is time wasting 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  11. Well I’ll take that…. 3-1 onwards we go. Oxford next which is very winnable.
    Goodnight all, almost 2am now and time for bed… ?

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  12. Sharpy: you shouldn’t make fun of young Jake. He just got engaged and doesn’t realise it comes with a mother-in-law.

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  13. Dubai Toon:
    Well I’ll take that…. 3-1 onwards we go. Oxford next which is very winnable.
    Goodnight all, almost 2am now and time for bed…

    😆 😆

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  14. Dubai Toon:
    Well I’ll take that…. 3-1 onwards we go. Oxford next which is very winnable.
    Goodnight all, almost 2am now and time for bed…

    aye mate, should be winnable and yes go get your beauty sleep 🙂

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  15. 2 assists from Shelvey – welcome back wor kid ??????▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️

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  16. kimtoon: aye mate, should be winnable and yes go get your beauty sleep ?

    Beauty sleep won’t do much for me these days Kim… ? Goodnight

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  17. Eric Sykes:
    Sharpy: you shouldn’t make fun of young Jake. He just got engaged and doesn’t realise it comes with a mother-in-law.

    Eric – Im only breaking his balls mate. I know he’s new to the blog but I hope he knows there no malice in it. I enjoy his articles & he’s been good for the blog – but the time wasting thing made me chuckle like ?

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  18. I am going for NUFC 2 Rotherham 1. We seem to struggle sometimes against the **** teams except QPR away.

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  19. It was pleasing to see Hayden come on for a run out as well. His injury couldn’t have been that bad.

    Does Gouffran get moved up top in Gayles absence, or is it Murphys gig?

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  20. The link would link Andy, mate. Must be some UK/USA thing.

    What do you mean anyway 🙂 I don’t think anybody disagreed with my rant. They didn’t say so anyway!!! I am usually right. Pardew is ****. Troy is 110% wrong,. And, Ugly John looks like a pickled walnut with hair. What more is there to say?

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  21. Just back from match. We bossed it first half but B’ham came back into it in the second and we took our foot off the pedal at 2-0. I was just praying that it didn’t go to extra time and thankfully it didn’t. Shelvey makes such a difference. With Hayden back (he looked fine) and Colback, I think that may be the last time we see Tiote. Of the three young lads, Findley was a big strong left-footed centre back. He was seeing a lot of the ball in the first half as we protected the 1-0 lead and he was often the deepest player to pass to. Once or twice he played a decent ball down the wing but he was obviously just looking for a steady night and safe passes. Barlazer I thought was a striker but he is actually more of a rangey, attacking midfielder. He did okay but this was a bit of a step up obviously. He worked hard though and got forward when he could. Ben-El Mhanni is possibly the most likely to progress into the first team set-up as I think we are still short of wingers, despite having Atsu and Ritchie. So much of our creativity has to go through Shelvey. This player is perhaps the one that people will get most excited about. He is still raw but when he finally took a player on, he has obviously got some skill. He is not the quickest, for a winger, although he is still developing and very raw. He would need more game time and then a good loan spell to progress. He apparently has lots of tricks but playing 11-a-side football is not the same thing as doing tricks.

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  22. Well I fancied a win & said I wouldn’t be surprised if Shelvey came back in with a MOTM performance.
    What I didn’t expect was Rafa to select 3 such young uns. I’ll be the first to admit if we lost last night I’d be on saying he made a mistake. So I’ll be the first to admit it was good first team experience for them and infront of 35k.
    A shame to concede coz I think a clean sheet would have been good for Sels confidence, but getting back to winning ways is the most important thing at the moment.

    Now go sign Townsend please ?

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  23. Happy with how it went last night. The reports seem to highlight Findlay as a very solid talent. Sounds like El-Mhanni was very flashy with little substance. Lots of work to do there. Really want to see Roberts given a few games and Sterry too.

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  24. DJG, Have to agree, it’s disappointing that at 2.0 we let them back in, I wish we wouldn’t do that. We got the win though and onwards to the next round and Oxford must be winnable, would be criminal to lose to them. For me though this season is all about the league form and getting back up.

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  25. Boro trying to beat us to Townsend,they might get him too as they want to do a permanant deal where we want loan until end of season,thing is Sam wants the money now to do some deals himself

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  26. I would be amazed if Boro were a bigger draw than us. Even in the Championship! Although Townsend decided PL football was the most important thing for him so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move to Boro if he did move.

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  27. Stuart79:
    I would be amazed if Boro were a bigger draw than us.Even in the Championship! Although Townsend decided PL football was the most important thing for him so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him move to Boro if he did move.

    think its a case of Sam accepting a cash deal with Boro and knocking back our offer of a loan first

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  28. For the sort of money being mentioned, we should just cough up and sign him. Ince would probably cost around about the same for example.

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  29. Newcastle United FC ‏@NUFC · 3h

    NEWS: Brighton fixture rescheduled for Tuesday 28th February (kick-off 7:45pm

    That’s my birthday so they **** well better give me a decent birthday present.

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  30. I have to say that I agree with Shamrock. We may as well pay them what we got off them for Townsend and do it permanently. If we’re only interested on loan then that to me smells of the Ashley influence already.

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  31. Even with profit in the summer jabba will not spent money in this window,I can defo see Rafa walking in the summer,Rafa wants us to be a top team jabba just wants to make money

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  32. Got to agree this has Ashley all over it. Just doesn’t see the bigger picture does he. Buy the lad back and he helps secure promotion and you have a PL ready player you don’t need to buy in the summer for probably a hell of a lot more. 🙄

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  33. I can understand looking to loan the likes of that young un from Chelsea or Ojo at Liverpool – they are young and you don’t know what you’d be buying, or the parent club may not want to let them go permanently.
    But with Townsend we know what we are buying and we’d make any loan deal permanent for sure.
    Spending money on him now – £13m for example (what we got for him) we would get back 10 fold in the £130m or whatever it is for promotion now.

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  34. Maybe it’s a case of Townsend not being prepared to make a permanent move to a team in the Championship, just in case the promotion push goes wrong… In that case, any loan would probably have a non negotiable purchase agreement in the event of promotion, insisted upon by Palace.

    If that is the situation, then we need to cross our fingers that a current pL side does not come in for him in a permanent deal.

    Tough one.

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  35. Sam definitely needs some money but probably not happening for us with Townsend. He played so well for us I can’t imagine why other managers are having so much trouble getting the best out of him.

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  36. Sharpy17:
    I can understand looking to loan the likes of that young un from Chelsea or Ojo at Liverpool – they are young and you don’t know what you’d be buying, or the parent club may not want to let them go permanently.
    But with Townsend we know what we are buying and we’d make any loan deal permanent for sure.
    Spending money on him now – £13m for example (what we got for him) we would get back 10 fold in the £130m or whatever it is for promotion now.

    Exactly. The only reason I can think of is Rafa is not given the $ to buy.
    This is more and more like the transfer window the 2nd year in Napoli – lots of names flying around, but for various reasons – too expansive, too old … none of those names was coming in the end.

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  37. Shamrock:
    Maybe it’s a case of Townsend not being prepared to make a permanent move to a team in the Championship, just in case the promotion push goes wrong… In that case, any loan would probably have a non negotiable purchase agreement in the event of promotion, insisted upon by Palace.

    If that is the situation, then we need to cross our fingers that a current pL side does not come in for him in a permanent deal.

    Tough one.

    Sham – quite possibly mate, but if that is the case then Townsend really needs to give his head a shake. The only time in his career where he’s been back and given the freedom to play his game – the only time he’s had the spotlight and love of the fans has been with us.
    He should be thinking, I’ll go back and get them promoted and immediately be a fans favourite again. He’d get regular footy, winning more than loosing and gaining promotion, before getting back to his beloved PL.

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  38. I agree with Kimtoon that Ashley doesn’t see the bigger picture. Signing Townsend saves us signing someone in the summer. We miss out on a player with sale on value.

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  39. Shamrock:
    I agree Sharpy but then he did leave us for a Palace team managed by Pardew…

    I remember Rafa did not blame him. He did blame the buy-out clause in his contract. Townsend may have said he wanted the move for PL footy but it could be the reason that he did not want it looked like a forced move, especially in front of his new club.

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  40. Shamrock:
    I agree Sharpy but then he did leave us for a Palace team managed by Pardew…

    Sham – to be fair Palace are a team that play with proper wide players. If Pardew told Townsend that Bolasie was leaving as well, then Townsend probably felt he could shine there with Zaha on the other side. It probably helped he was moving back to London too in all honesty. However he did say it was a really difficult decision.
    But for me, this shouldn’t be as difficult as that one. He’s not getting regular football with Palace and he’s fell out of favour with both the manager & fans – time to move.

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  41. Quite surprised Sam is happy to let him go to be honest.

    Would be a major surprise to me if we got him.

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  42. Where is Troy Stavers? It is almost like he is hiding from the fact that everything he ever said on here was wrong.

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  43. I’m really proud of the progress the club has made in less than a year under Rafa but if Ashley falls back into his old ways of meddling with the club and refusing to support Rafa in the transfer market it will all have been for nothing. Rafa will leave and we’ll be right back to the bad old days. It’s as simple as that. Either support the manager and get behind him to make the club highly competitive or the interest will fall away again Ashley.

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  44. Troy likes to rattle cages Eric mate. For quite a while there it looked as if Pardew was going to be the best of a very weak bunch of managers when you compare him with the likes of Carver and even the Wally, Steve McMuffin. Now we see what a real manager is like of course but I still worry that we’ll lose him with an owner like Ashley.

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  45. Townsend should come back to us for his own good. He’ll get the playing time he needs and help us go back up. Once we’re there he can be a driving force and re-establish himself in the England side. The loan idea is nonsense. Make a decent bid for him Charnley and stop mucking about.

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