Toon v. Fulham [R]

I'll agree with you there and I wasn't blaiming Keller...just thought he could've gotten it if positioned a bit better!

 

It's interesting reading these posts and seeing differeing opinons on how people played. I have to say for me, Konch & Murphy were really disappointing. Konch gave away possession too cheaply and didn't mark Owen on that second goal. He did have one nice cross into the box, but overall his play was poor IMO. Murphy never tracks his players when they make a run into the box. He's been directly responsible for a few goals on the year because of this and was lucky Owen tanked the one from this match. It's time he sat on the bench. Bullard's passing was a little off today, yet IMO he was still one of our best players. He has an incredible motor and dictates the tempo for us. I'd like to see EJ turn and run at someone. His touch has been better than I thought it would be and now I want to see him use that athleticism and go at someone. Where was Simon Davies? Invisible compared to some of the matches he's had of late, and that's against the 4-3-3. Anyways, just some of my thoughts from the match. We got to throw the kitchen sink at Derby

 

my thoughts are here


but i do want to add that newcastle have been planning for this match for a long time. and yes, we did play poor. but they also played well.

now lets drop this game. pfog -- lock the thread![/url]

 

The first half was very promising but in the 2nd, it seemed like everyone just didn't want to be there.

Why hasn't Dempsey been getting the minutes he used to? With McBride and Johnson fit he can play his natural position instead of as a forward.

 

Maybe, maybe... Keller definitely isn't so spritely anymore. Viduka is good though.

 

Well, the good news was I did get to watch the game, I'm sure I am the only person interested in that fact, but hey, I have to reach for something.

McB and EJ were not on the same page. EJ got worked, he is not progressing fast enough. I feel for Roy in his situation, but EJ is behind the learning curve. I'll assume he straightened his head after some youthful numskullery, but he did not get the job done.

Hangeland let Viduka have too much space on that goal. He may be fat and past his prime, but Viduka still has to be respected, and he put that ball exactly where he needed to. All he needed was that little bit of space.

My God, how did that little lob by Faye not go in. I thought that when they missed that shot, the Newcastle curse would descend upon them and we would get a goal.

One thing that I noticed is we don't have any size, outside Hangeland. McLionheart makes up for it in other areas when going for balls in the air, but he's one of a kind, we seem to lose too many balls in the air.

Harper did not have ONE difficult play all game, I don't think. Disgusting.

Between Newcastle (they still are a laughingstock, I don't care if they beat us twice), Derby, Sunderland, and Reading, seven points out of 12 is the bare minimum that is acceptable. The home games v. Liverpool and Portsmouth, I am hoping their cup competitions will give us a B team to play for like last year's Liverpool game. I realize that is long odds, but that is what odds we are facing. Add to the fact that Derby took points against Citeh in Manchester this year and we better beet the Brummies at home, taking points in every game is a possibility.

Of course, that presupposes we play halfway-decent, I'll keep my rose colored glasses on for that one.