Friday night showed how poor this Newcastle side is with a heart-breaking 1-1 draw that proved, even when we do "try", we're simply not good enough.
Wor Hyem 1892 and Gallowgate Flags were once again present with two new surfer flags in each corner of the Gallowgate, each with two different designs, saying "Geordie Pride" above a ship, and the other being a magpie in a Newcastle United suit with a cane. A fantastic display from everyone involved, just a shame that once again the team couldn't put a performance in that justifies that tens of thousands they are on a week.
The team sheet saw two new entries into the side, Aleksander Mitrovic (following Dwight Gayle's injury against Sheff ) and Isaac Hayden into the central midfield area. Jack Colback was dropped from the side. Personally, I wouldn't of played Mitrovic and I thought he played quite poor tonight. As far as I'm concerned he is done at Newcastle United. Not really bothered about the Hayden->Colback switch because neither are dazzling to me.
As the first whistle blew, Newcastle seemed a different side, they played a lot better then they have in recent games. However, that improvement is just from catastrophically awful to Okay-ish. It made the world a difference to the opening of the game, with Newcastle almost scoring with literally seconds on the clock, much to the crowd's delight, but soon enough it dissolved to, you guessed it: passing backwards and sideways.. Joy...
The 90th minute came, and somehow the officials somehow worked out that there was 5 minutes extra time. How? We'll never know. That, was the decision that cost us so dearly...
After about 2 minutes of fannying around in the corner instead of trying to score when there's about 2 unmarked players in the box, Leeds snatched the ball of us and flew down the wing, but the "great" (...) Jack Colback, who was substituted on for Isaac Hayden, fouled Kemar Roofe as he was advancing into our half. Subsequently, Leeds got a free kick, after DeAndre Yedlin headed the ball straight to them with no pressure on him, Leeds bombed down the wing once more and crossed the ball into an unmarked, 25 goal man Chris Wood, who tapped it in for 1-1 with Jamaal Lascelles about a meter away from him the whole time....
On Bank Holiday Monday, a promotion pushing Toon Army faced 15th place Ipswich, a team they had previously hauled 3-0 at St James' Park. So, I ponder for the dozenth time this season, what went wrong? Finished 3-1 to Ipswich.
Everything. Top to bottom. Simple answer.
Excuses have ran out for excusing some of Rafa Benitez's decisions now. With an unbelievable FIVE changes to a side that played better (not good, but better) against a top side in Leeds for no apparent reason. This included dropping Chancel Mbemba once again, this time for doing nothing wrong.. Shambles.
This is yet another poor result in a string of disappointing performances and results that have been going on for a while now. We play Preston North End at home next Monday, 7:45PM kick off. The atmosphere has to be electric for this one, otherwise we're just going to play as we did here and if we keep that up, we will probably slip into the play offs. It's make or break next game. We have to be alert for this one. No defensive tactics, no stupid changes. We need to take lessons from our former selves in October...