You know the old Newcastle stand-by, where we can win against some good clubs then get hammered by a team in the relegation zone? It's been happenning most of my life and probably yours too. Well, that's actually not true for this season.

In fact, if you have a table showing the results just against the bottom half of the division, we're second behind Man U, losing only once this season to 'crappy' opposition. Interestingly too, Manure have had 3 more games against lower oppo than us, which means they have some tougher games in the run in and we have some easier games.

Yeah, I know, I know, the words chickens count hatch spring to mind, but it's looking good. No longer should we fear those 'tricky Southampton aways'. http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/vbothalf.html

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Answers

Actually Pretty damn good for us. Naturally Bolton will piss on my fire tomorrow.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

We should fear Soothamton away Nick bonny lad we've never won there since 1971. One guess who we play on the last game of the season?

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Yes but it's a totally different ground now...that hoodoo is dead! ;)) I hope....

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I put a little table on here recently of results amongst the top 6. Man Utd were bottom and I hinted then they must be "flat track bullies" which your link there indicates.

However, I'm hoping for some inconsistency tomorrow. Newcastle is the only team in the top 5 that Bolton has not yet visited. They have yet to lose a game with 1 win (Old Trafford) and 3 draws to their credit. The match is no pushover.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Jonno, I've said elsewhere that they are draw specialists and will do all they can to stop us from scoring. We legendarily do badly against defensive sides. We really need to be up for this game.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

The fans should also be up for it tomorra as well. We could do with the Leeds game atmosphere for every home game now. I hope too many don't come with the "we'll beat this lot easy" attitude and just sit back and winge.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Jonno - forgot to credit you mate! It was a direct link from your posting on the other thread that got me looking at these statistics. so...TA!

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

There are no easy matches. We have to remember that. There are matches we should win, but nothing is a walkover at this point. There are 17 teams below us, most of whom will raise their game when they play us. They certainly won't underestimate us. We have to work...hard...every match. We are certainly capable of it, now let's do it! Howay the lads! :-)

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Dougal's got a good point though...we really do struggle against the very defensive teams just like Leicester. Of course we should expect to win it but we might very well have to change tactics or be a bit more patient throughout the match....

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Considering the predicament Bolton are in they could well set out to grind out a point. We need to score 1st and force them to attack.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

That's the thing with Bolton, they ALWAYS attack. A team who attacks them full out, with a half decent defence will win. Man Utd at OT played a weakened team and couldn't be arsed really, and Bolton made them pay. Liverpool tried to defend and play on the break and failed.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

I disagree that we struggle against the weaker teams though. We have got 6 points from Middlesbrough, 4 points from Leicester and 3 from Bolton, Everton, Derby, Ipswich and Blackburn who we have only played once each. Not to mention a point at Charlton - that is one more point than we got in all London games last year.

Bolton is a team we should beat. And I fully expect us to beat them. If a team who is supposedly a title challenger (or CL challenger) thinks Bolton are too strong for us then we are destined to fail. KK made our team believe that we were better than we actually were, especially in the first season when we finished 3rd. Apart from Forest, which promoted teams have really made such an impact since then?

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

A few facts:

Bolton have: Not won in 11 Premiership games Lost 4 of their last 7 Premiership games away from home

Whereas Newcastle have: Not lost in 5 games in all comps Won 10 of our last 13 home games Failed to score only once in their last 11 games in all comps

And Alan Shearer has scored 8 in 10 games.

Seriously, there is no prediction jinx or any of that bollocks, this is a match I feel confident we will win. 3-1 or 3-0 for me.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002

Thanks for that little gem Nick. But despite all the numerical predictions I'm still afraid of the yellow skins! I agree with Dougal - no easy games.

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002