How on earth can you keep Acuna on and take Jenas off? How on earth can you take Solano off and use Ameobi? And how can you disallow 1 of Shearers 3 goals? This will cost us the CL next season. Comments.

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

Answers

I'll try: 1. Acuna was playing a holding role. Dyer could not play in that position.
2. YBR had to make some chages. I guess he felt Robert offered more chance with his shooting.
3. Mick Martin on Metro reckonned both disallowed goals were fouls. More to the point, why didn't Al just plant it instead of trying to place it?

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

Agreed Spence, Acuna was garbage (what was he "holding", his gonads?).

I don't profess to be a YBR, so que sera :-(

As for Shearer (see match thread) he normally blast them in (as Screacher concurs) :-(

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

Dunno about Acuntilde, Wise guy. I didn't have the benefit of seeing the game. And with a result like that, I'm not gonna bother trying to find a bar in Hicksville that's showing it (which is doubtful anyway). There's far nicer things to look at in thebars round here :)

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

Q) And how did the current England captain take his penalty today?

A) Full blast at the goalie ('Sydney' James) who dived out of the way :-(

I'm not sla99ing Shearer but what a bummer for us today :-(

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

To be honest, Jenas was the only one who could come off.

If we took off Dyer we'd have no midfielder of any defensive description.

Nobby wasn't too effective as an attacking threat - okay he tried hard and tackled back, but when he got the ball we didn't look like creating anything, in contrast with Robert who looked like he wanted to cause them trouble every time he got the ball.

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAADS...

AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

By Dave Ord, sportinglife.com

And then there were three.

"Even when Newcastle sat at the top of the Premiership Bobby Robson said they couldn't win the title. He was right then and he's officially right now."

We'll still shock them!!!

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

Solano was excellent and should not have been taken off. Jenas was an offensive threat and should not have been taken off. Robert was mixing the sublime and the ridiculous, but scored one, made one, and you'd have had to be even barmier to take him off.

However, Cort played sh*te, was providing no threat, and worse - his presence alongside AS was causing us to repeatedly knock long diagonal balls into the box.

The substitutions should have been geared to changing a pattern that was not working, instead of bringing on Ameobi and Lx3 without any discernible revised team pattern - and who accordingly contributed less than zero.

Jenas and Solano, with Dyer replacing Cort and playing in CB's role, may just have done the trick. FRUSTRATION!

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

So you're not a happy man Al?

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

Spot on Clarky. Watched the game with clenched teeth and came to the exact same conclusion.

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

With you there, Clarky. While expecting Cort to have problems adjusting to the level of play after a long time out, I feel it's not helping our cause in these crucial games to be letting him work out his rustiness etc. We have 8 games to go and after last night, every game is a cup final in order to get into CL, we can't affort to be playing excess baggage in any of the games. Let him work it out in the reserves games. If Bells ain't fit to play, move either Dyer or Robert up with Shearer. We need goals and players that can get them. Cort at the moment is not doing that.

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2002

I totally agree with you Gene - Court just doesn`t look up to it yet. (:o(

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

Shearer and Cort: never again.

Two big blokes - forget it. Cort should only play instead of Shearer, whose misssed penalty could cost us 10 million quid if we miss out on the CL. Perhaps Al is mentally as well as physically exhausted. Cort is so rusty he's a total liability. He should be eased back in. Pace up front made us challengers and a lack of pace up front could cost us so much it's mind-boggling to think about.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

That will always be the problem. We don't have sufficient guile to get the ball forward along the ground so it's the easiest thing in the world to hoof high balls to a tall forward. It's been like that at SJP just about as long as I can remember, and that's how it'll be whenever Cort plays.

And, as long as Bellamy takes a load of the pressure off our back players, which makes them look more capable than they really are, we're always going to have the problem of falling to pieces when he's missing. That's the only explanation I can come up with for his absence being so noticeable. One player obviously does make a team in our case.

Bobby definitely took temporary leave of his senses with those subs. It was one of the least watchable games I've seen for donkeys. 4th off top V 4th off bottom. No contest. At least it shouldn't have been, but that performance has drained my glass down to 3/4 empty.

How could so many of our players have had an off day at the same time ? Pathetic. And if the situation is that AS can perform as a goal scoring CF only when Bellamy's there, then, when Bellamy's missing, Shearer should be.

At this rate, missing out on Europe could turn out to be a blessing in disguise, that's how gutted I am with yesterday's showing. It wasn't even all that encouraging that we fought back for a draw, and it doesn't console me much that the officials were as bad as any that have been at SJP this season. We shouldn't have had to fall back on that as a contributing factor. They were dire and they brought us down to the same level of dire.

It's smell the java time as far as I'm concerned. We just ain't good enough yet, even if by some miracle Bellamy is back and we do stick it up the ar5e on Saturday, I think we'll be kidding ourselves if we believe the last three league games have just been a blip.

And just out of curiosity, what do you do when you've had your pills and are already lying down in a darkened room ?

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

But Shearer WAS a goalscoring CF yesterday.

Three goals and a missed penalty (albeit 2 ruled off) is pretty good going by any striker's standards.

We didn't play very well, but I feel we did enough to win it. The chances we made and the disallowed goals far outweigh their desperate defending and altogether lack of any attacking threat.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

You're right Paul. Bit out of order with the Shearer point, but we shouldn't kid ourselves that we don't need players who can cope with the extra pressure the defense comes under when Bellamy is missing.

Too 'eggs in one basket' for my liking, when he's the difference between looking like we mean business and looking like also rans.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

we basically have to keep tight until the season's end - if the players think like us the fans then we are TRULY BUGGERED

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

Shearer and Cort jusr doesn't work. For two battering rams to work they need to be very very good and Cort and Shearer aren't that at the moment.

Cort I struggle with cos he doesn't have superb close control to compenstae for his lack of pace. Shearer does have superb close control so he does offer something.

Lua2 is another I struggle with as he does have a liking to run at playersI recognise he has the ability to beat the odd one or two or three, but rarely four. He does make the perfect sub because of this, but he should be playing on the edge of the opposition defenders because of that ability to beat them. Beating a midfield player 40 yards from goal is a neat trick but probably not one to create a goal. Beating a defender on the edge of the box has greater chance of creating a goal.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

Do you ever think Lua would be better if he was played actually in a position?

Bringing him on and telling him to do his thing is hardly going to help. Maybe playing him as a striker would work, but we've never seen it this season. Last season, yes, but he's moved on as a player and so has the team so he might fit in better.

Bad use of limited resources IMHO.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

I think Macbeth makes a valid point about Lx3. If we're going to bring him on, play him right up front where at least he might confuse the opposition rather than his team mates. ;o{)

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

I suppose we can console ourselves with the thought that when Bellamy does come back, all will be sweetness and light again.

If only it was that simple.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

Bellamy must have an awful lot of scowling saved up

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002