Clearly I've missed out on all this having just got back from the Toon a couple of hours ago. (Stayed overnight!) Still have to have my two penorth though.

Er........... wasn't it great? That's it!

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

Answers

Yup.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001

For any doubters about the quality of Saturdays win, the words of Villa FB Mark Delaney make interesting reading:

"We were lucky it was only three. Every time we got the ball we couldn't hold it up and we were always on the back foot. Newcastle bossed the whole game, and they looked more creative than we did.

Newcastle is never an easy place to visit - as we found out. They were coming at us from all angles and they got what they deserved and we got what we deserved. From the word go they controlled the game and we couldn't get going".

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001

Moustapha Hajdi's comments are also very interesting, and also encouraging:

""It's is very difficult to take points at places like Newcastle and Manchester United. Newcastle played harder than us, and wanted to win more than us. That was the difference between the teams."

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001

.... or even the words of the Prince of Darkness himself:

"Newcastle just worked harder and passed the ball better. We were taught a big, big lesson.

I was very impressed with Craig Bellamy. He was just up the road from us last season at Coventry City and did very well there, but he probably didn't score the goals he should have done. But he's in a much better side now and there are people to exploit his pace. Alan Shearer and Nolberto Solano can put the ball at his feet, with him facing the right way. He's improved enormously - he's gone from being a good player to a very good player.

And Alan Shearer summed it up for me. We had a corner in the dying moments and he ran 90 yards to defend it. He didn't just jog, he ran. That was the mark of a true professional. The game was well and truly won, but he wanted to make sure his team got a clean sheet.

We were fortunate to be only 1-0 down at the interval. Newcastle generated one or two chances you'd expect them to put away. For instance, there was the chance that Shearer headed over the bar after about 15 minutes - he would normally put that in the net.

When they went ahead I thought there would be more to come from us, but we never started at all really. By the time we had chances the game was won. Peter Schmeichel kept us in the game at certain stages."

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001

Maybe some of those comments should be posted on the dressing room walls to remind our lot what they need to do every week. Get to this level consistently then we can take the next step up. Looking back, this is the first time in quite a while where I actually felt somewhat relaxed watching us live. Still a bit of nailbiting, but no hair pulling and no (extra) grey hairs. ;-)

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001