I was chatting to my brother a few hours before Watford vs Norwich on Friday night, wondering what would be the best and worst case result from a Newcastle United perspective.
A Watford win would’ve been disastrous, giving them a FIVE point lead over ourselves with a game in hand; which is a winnable one at Burnley in a fortnight’s time.
A draw may have been ideal, leaving both sides frustrated after failing to pull clear, but myself and my brother agreed that a Norwich win wouldn’t be the end of the world by any means. In fact, we thought it would actually be a pretty good result for Newcastle United.
Well, that’s exactly what happened, with Norwich coming away 3-0 winners in the huge relegation six-pointer at Vicarage Road.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s down to us at the end of the day – we’ll only stay up if WE start winning games – however I do believe that this result may work in our favour.
Why? Because not only is Norwich’s lead over ourselves only four points (Watford would’ve gone five above us with a game in hand had they won), we now have TWO games in hand on the Canaries; who face Man City and Liverpool in two of their next three.
Not only that, I still don’t see Norwich staying up. Even after this big win. They weren’t all that impressive tonight and Dean Smith confirmed after the game that they won’t be spending money this month.
So, with new signings to come and a ‘winnable’ run of fixtures coming our way, I still back us to finish above Norwich.
However, had Watford won tonight and then picked up something in their game in hand at Burnley, do I believe we’d have overcome a six to eight points deficit to them? I’m not so sure.
While we have to focus mainly on ourselves and accept that Norwich’s win tonight shows how awful our draw was with Watford last weekend, I do believe this result actually does us a favour.
After all, the bookies are currently backing us to stay up and still have Norwich as the favourites to go down…
Bookies like taking your easy money We can barely scrape a point from games
V(Quote)
It is a complicated one Olly, mate. You just need one of the teams in our mini-relegation-league of 4 to go on a good run and we are screwed. Hopefully, we are the team that will do that though.
The bookies and the Sooper-Computer have us staying up. A loss at Leeds and they will have us going down. They are as fickle as fans!!!
I never believe the Sooper-Computer, I think it was programmed by monkeys and a computer is only as good as the programmer.
Eric+Sykes(Quote)
Very true mate, I just think Norwich’s run won’t last long (they have City and Lpool in two of their next three) and maintain that we’d be going down regardless if we don’t finish above them.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
All nonsense as far as I’m concerned Olly!
All if’s and but’s, the damage has already been done by a previous owner and manager who have allowed the club to go into decline, the so called professional players have not been fit enough by their own admission, which means they have gone along with the lazy ways afforded to them.
A disgrace to Newcastle United!
Joseph(Quote)