Newcastle 1-1 Burnley: Positives to take but it’s two massive points dropped

What a sickener. A game we deserved to win and should have won, but missed chances kill us once again.

Rafa Benitez asked for signings to be made by January 20th and you can see just why. If Slimani had Joselu’s chances tonight then we’d have won that game. That I’m almost certain of. Here lies Rafa’s huge problem with Mike Ashley’s approach to the January window. The striker (Slimani) may have been signed, but in signing him too late it’s cost us another BIG chance to get three points – and these ‘winnable’ games are running out.

It was cruel on us to see a win snatched off us late on, but Joselu’s missed penalty, his dragged shot wide, Kenedy’s shot off the post and the missed open goal on the rebound from Atsu always had me thinking ‘we might just throw this one away’..and we did.

Anyway, onwards and upwards – Slimani is now signed and there’s now real potential to turn those sort of draws into big three points.

Onto performances and a massive hat tip to Mo Diame to begin with. I’ll get onto Kenedy in a second (who showed real promise on his debut), but big Mo was outstanding. He was tackling like Tiote, passing like an on-song Jonjo Shelvey and generally looked much more alert, alive and all action in everything he did. He’s been much better over the past month, so this wasn’t a big performance out the blue, but it was without one of his best performances in black and white.

Now to Kenedy. I was very impressed. I was worried he may showboat and frustrate at times, but he so often played the right pass, showed real quality and gave us something different. Whipped corners (which assisted Lascelles’ goal) like we’ve not seen this season and a wicked shot edge of the box that rattled the post and had Pope well and truly beaten in the first half.

Atsu was awful, Merino losing it in a few silly areas (although I still love him in the team) and the obvious missed chances from Joselu, I couldn’t have many complaints. That being said, I really do hope Benitez gives Murphy a chance from the start at Palace on Sunday. He looks MUCH more threatening than Atsu at the minute, who needs to pull his finger out.

Palace next on Sunday – another massive game – but so is every game between now and the end of the season. HWTL.

Match stats

Results elsewhere

Updated league table

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About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

61 thoughts on “Newcastle 1-1 Burnley: Positives to take but it’s two massive points dropped

  1. Cheers Olly. Im glad Diame is stepping up because the reat of the CMs have gone right off the boil. Merino included. He quite often puts no effort in at all. Blows hot and cold in his attitude for me. We know the ability is there.

    I hope Mbemba stays and I hope Slimani turns out to be half as decent as he has been built up to be.

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  2. One positive is the club will feel a lot fresher with a lot of the dead wood gone and 3 new faces in, even if it is all loans. That will do the squad a lot of good, including the u23’s.

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  3. Fulham imo have just sealed top 6 with mitro. A think rafa will walk end of season and new manager will drop joselu like a bag of **** and draft mitro back in. Ano ashley is to blame for a lot but rafa is slowly gettin on my tits

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  4. Must admit I would prefer Mitro over Joselu.
    And Mbemba over Lejune and Manquillo.
    Anyway new signings in for the time being – so onwards and upwards!

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  5. Ok Jack. You do know that Nottingham is south of Hull right? You take the A1 to the M1 and drive about 160 miles and it is on the left. If you see a pickle and the Houses of Parliament you have gone too far.

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  6. If letting Joselu take the penalty was to build up his confidence then it probably had the opposite effect. Anyway, he will probably be dropped for the next game in favour of Slimani. I think this is Rafa’s mistake. You don’t let the player who has not had a single unscuffed shot take the penalties. Especially one who is in the team to win headers and hold the ball up.

    Beat Palace and I will feel a lot happier.

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  7. Great goal from Stan Laurel, I mean Phil Jones. HE is England’s world cup centre half? Where are you Troysta, I will have another bet with you that England don’t reach the final. Remember you said we would win the European Championship 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  8. Deadline transfers you might have missed:

    Matthew Debuchy to St Etienne – FREE

    Batshuayi to Dortmund – we probably could have got him

    Kevin Miralles to Olympiakos – might have been worth a gamble

    Rolando Aarons – Verona. Looking for a bit of culture! Nice city, but it rained the whole time I was there and I couldn’t find the famous Villas because of roadworks.

    Lucas Moura – how the hell did Spurs get a 36 times capped Brazilian who is only 24 for 25 million?

    Olivier Giroud – if he would have come to NUFC for 15 million we would have beat Burnley last night and avoided all of the pissing around. Is 32 and probably preferred Chelsea although what happens when Conte leaves?

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  9. Nobody is really doing anything to distance themselves from relegation apart from Bournemouth. Swans have had a couple of wins but that won’t last. The rest are getting draws, much like ourselves. This will go down to the wire.

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  10. Sharpy , from last thread, you can bet Rafa showed them same stats to Ashley or he should of. Anyway a blind man could see what was needed added to the squad back in the summer.
    On your other post about only loans and little spend, I posted the same thing on that thread earlier on. It does indeed look like maybe if we survive a take over may well happen. Otherwise it makes little sense unless he’s becoming even more tighter.
    Ofcourse it could just be he doesn’t wanna waste cash on another dud so is testing before trying to buy ?

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  11. What was so frustrating last night was we were just minutes from winning again, so many times we do this and it’s a combination of nerves and switching off. Lot’s saying it was never a corner too ?
    Only listened to live com but sounded like Diame had a monster game and Kenedy a good debut.
    A few moaning about Kenedy coming off so early but I understand he had cramp.
    I think Joselu will need to be dropped for his own good now, he looked crestfallen after missing when I saw it on SSN. We need confident forwards now and his confidence is shot. He actually holds up the ball fairly well , if only he could finish .

    We should of been out of sight by half time really, Atsu, Joselu just not at the races in front of goal last night. I NEVER want to see Joselu take another pen for us, that was shocking.

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  12. Olly I agree with your summary. I too like Merino but he looked rusty last night. Needs more game time. At least we were spared Hollywood passes. I think Clark is looking like a good Championship player. Certainly not as good as he was last year. Kenedy was great and I am sure will get even better with more playing time. Our right was the weakness until Murphy came on. Atsu should have been pulled earlier. Burnley got away with murder with the ref. Two possible red cards for elbows in the face only received yellows and repeatedly falling down when robbed of the ball gave them undeserved free kicks. On the other hand blatant holding and pushing by Burnley went unpunished. Full marks to them though for commitment. A hard tough side. Having said all that the ref did give us a penalty. Enough said about that. MOM surpringly perhaps Diame. Excellent in all aspects of the game.

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  13. I don’t think there was one fan who thought the donkey was going to score the penalty. The guy is absolutely f*cking useless.
    Good debut from Kenedy. Definitely 2 points dropped again but I’m confident we’ll survive. We’re probably at least 2 points better than 3 other teams.

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  14. I thought from the beginning it would be 2 of the 3 promoted teams going down along with Swansea. I still do. Hopefully not us.

    West Brom and West Ham would be good though, but that is too much to ask.

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  15. Eric Sykes:
    I thought from the beginning it would be 2 of the 3 promoted teams going down along with Swansea. I still do. Hopefully not us.

    West Brom and West Ham would be good though, but that is too much to ask.

    dont know about WBA Pardew seems to be on his six month run

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  16. best deal of the window! bloody wearside jack gone,ime still smiling ear to ear and a little jig every half hour 😆 😆 😆 😛 😛 😛

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  17. icedog:
    best deal of the window! bloody wearside jack gone,ime still smiling ear to ear and a little jig every half hour

    Watch the hip though Icedog.

    Pards is good for about a year so I think he will save West Brom. Then. Then. Just when their fans think he is good he will send them into oblivion. He has a pattern.

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  18. Can’t disagree with either of you Icedog and Stuart – that’s the 5 to pick from. A win against Palace would really help though.

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  19. here are my predictions
    There will be at least 7 teams who fail to score as many goals as we do over the season.
    There will be at least 10 teams who concede more goals than us this season.
    We will get a minimum of 36 pts. personally I think 38-41 is more likely.
    There will be a lot of nay-saying, cursing and ‘woe woe and thrice woe’ on the boards.

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  20. I’d go with that Prem, bow we have signed these players and cleared out some dead wood.

    The squad will feel fresh and these new players bring the ability for the team to transition through passages of play faster and more efficiently.

    The squad is still a tad too static in other areas but its a start. I just hope Slimani stays fit and delivers on his promise.

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  21. If we are going 3 at the back with wingbacks, I think we have 5 decent centre backs, and 2 good wingbacks. Not impressed with the cover there though. Hope the new keeper comes good.
    In an Ideal world I would like to play with three CMs rotating, but I’m not sure we have the quality there. If we did we could play two up front, a traditional strike duo, but I don’t think we have the quality there either. So I think we will go two CMs One up front and two wide players.

    Still not my problem

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  22. Premandup says: “There will be a lot of nay-saying, cursing and ‘woe woe and thrice woe’ on the boards.”

    Nobody is moaning Prem. Calling Spades Spades is not moaning. We need a point a game and we are not there yet so stop your moaning about people moaning.

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  23. Premandup:
    Have you seen some of the other boards ?

    Eds is enough to make you cut your throat Prem, like a bunch of bloody school kids twisting on there. They might have more posters but you have to skim through a load of idiots arguing before you find an intelligent comment. There’s a couple of right Rafa haters on there too, though most back him to be fair.

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  24. I am waiting to see how we get on with the 3 new guys before making up my mind where we’ll end up. Very worried about our next 4 games if I’m honest though, that Zaha is a diving little ****, bet you anything he gets a pen when we play them.
    Plus we’re on tv and that’s always the kiss of death.

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  25. Of course you do realise if we still had JFK as manager he’d of lost us Slimani once he met him and called him Salami.

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  26. kimtoon: Eds is enough to make you cut your throat Prem, like a bunch of bloody school kids twisting on there. They might have more posters but you have to skim through a load of idiots arguing before you find an intelligent comment. There’s a couple of right Rafa haters on there too, though most back him to be fair.

    I’ve said a few times they are like bunch of spoiled brats

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  27. kimtoon:
    Of course you do realise if we still had JFK as manager he’d of lost us Slimanionce he met him and called him Salami.

    And we would have got Mangala if Eric hadn’t called him Mengele 😆

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  28. No worries Premandup, man. It is sort of like chilled on this site at the moment. Even me 🙂

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  29. I like it on here. Good People.

    Read a lot, post little. Hopefully more time after Easter. Beta site up and running, Main site ready soon, I keep being told.

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  30. kimtoon:
    Of course you do realise if we still had JFK as manager he’d of lost us Slimanionce he met him and called him Salami.

    😆 😆 😆

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  31. I have to say if we can’t get another 12/13 points from 13 games we deserve to go down. Especially with games against WBA, Huddersfield and Southampton at home and Watford, Palace and Bournemouth away. Plus the likes of Leicester and Everton who will have nothing to play for.

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  32. A good few lads I work with were at the match last night.
    Everyone said without debut that Diame & Kennedy had very good games. Diame solid and pinging the ball about with confidence – he’s a different (better) player in that 2 man midfield in front of the defence rather than #10 – and it seems Rafa realises that now.
    Kennedy looks like he could be a real piece of quality in the final 3rd.

    Slimani is probably the one everyone looks forward to seeing and will he get the goals – but I think it could actually be Kennedy who’s the greater success. Hope we have a buy out option with him at the end of it.

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  33. Hi folks,

    Don’t know if you noticed, but we’ve got a new logo for the site! (See top of page above article headline)

    Hope you approve!

    Another thing – do you prefer previews the day before a matchday or on the morning of a matchday? Just to get an idea what you guys think works best? Only trouble with posting them on a matchday is that there’s a post-match thread that’s then coming up later that day.

    Let me know your thoughts on that and the new logo! 🙂

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  34. Olly, yeah mate I noticed it last night and showed it to my mate , we both liked it, it looks like a badge pin- cool.

    Previews the night before would be good I reckon. We used to have a preview day before, a match thread and sometimes a match report in the past.

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  35. https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2018/02/02/comical-story-reveals-how-west-ham-cocked-up-a-deadline-day-deal-for-leicesters-islam-slimani/

    It would be good to see some empathy for fans of west ham who seem to be burdened with owners competing with our lot for fuckwittedness.

    I admit its a relief to see the circus at other clubs sometimes but we’re hardly in a position to crow given the ongoing ownership debacle at SJP.

    I know lots of hammers who like toon fans are a bunch of lads and lasses who just want their club to give a **** about something other than their own grubby money

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  36. kimtoon:
    Olly, yeah mate I noticed it last night and showed it to my mate , we both liked it, it looks like a badge pin- cool.

    Previews the night before would be good I reckon. We used to have a preview day before, a match thread and sometimes a match report in the past.

    agree with Kim

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  37. Olly Hawkins:
    Hi folks,

    Don’t know if you noticed, but we’ve got a new logo for the site! (See top of page above article headline)

    Hope you approve!

    Another thing – do you prefer previews the day before a matchday or on the morning of a matchday? Just to get an idea what you guys think works best? Only trouble with posting them on a matchday is that there’s a post-match thread that’s then coming up later that day.

    Let me know your thoughts on that and the new logo!

    Depends on who we play. If it is Man City I prefer no previews at all.

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  38. Premandup:
    Each to their own. WH are probably my least favorite team. Like to see them playing derbies with Colchester in league two.

    They won the world cup for England don’t you know. 51 years ago now. And their academy! Joe Cole. They also inflicted Pards and Harry Redknapp on the world. I will never forgive them for that.

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  39. Logo looks good. But? Isn’t there another website called Talk of the Toon?

    Better than recent redesigns for Juventus and Leeds. The Juventus one took a classic and replaced it with corporate ****. Leeds, I am not sure if it is preparation for a Roman or Nazi salute.

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  40. I also think Southampton are still very much in the relegation mix and it could be that WHU and Watford join in. Brighton and Huddersfield would be my main choices.

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  41. Re logo, my first impression was a carton winking eye… then after I looked again I saw the bird. There is another website called talk of the Toon, I’m sure.

    To be honest (sorry Olly) I never noticed there was a logo before so had not realised it had changed. I only read the article and the comments and don’t take much notice of the layout etc.

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  42. GlosMag:
    https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2018/02/02/comical-story-reveals-how-west-ham-cocked-up-a-deadline-day-deal-for-leicesters-islam-slimani/

    It would be good to see some empathy for fans of west ham who seem to be burdened with owners competing with our lot for fuckwittedness.

    I admit its a relief to see the circus at other clubs sometimes but we’re hardly in a position to crow given the ongoing ownership debacle at SJP.

    I know lots ofhammers who like toon fans are a bunch of lads and lasses who just want their club to give a **** about something other than their own grubby money

    Sorry, but I don’t have any sympathy. Arnautovic (£25m), Hernandez (£16m) etc. etc. – they spend money and pay massive wages. They may make **** ups regularly, but they have such a superior bunch of players to watch in comparison to us.

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  43. Dubai Toon:
    Re logo,my first impression was a carton winking eye… then after I looked again I saw the bird. There is another website called talk of the Toon, I’m sure.

    To be honest (sorry Olly) I never noticed there was a logo before so had not realised it had changed. I only read the article and the commentsand don’t take much notice of the layout etc.

    Thanks mate , I appreciate that a lot of you guys probably don’t spend much time looking the top of the page and instead are fixed on the bottom comments section.

    Re. The Talk of the Toon – it’s just a tagline for the Blog, not new naming so it works I’d say?

    I never saw the cartoon eye thing but kind of see what you mean now!

    I for one love the new crest/logo but all feedback is appreciated.

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