THE AMAZINGLY BRILLIANT PENFOLD MATCH DAY THREAD V BRISTOL CITY

I think that was down to our defending

 

So this is the point were I go ner ner n ner ner I was right, keep the faith, and all that ****.

Massive wake up call for Rafa, dire performance against a bad team that proves our recent run is a combination of luck and playing poor teams.

 

I'm hoping it's a blessing in disguise. The big three that will make or break the season are upon us, so in a way if we'd kind of jogged to a decent result it might have worked against us - this is a BIG wake up call, we cannot just sit and keep playing this ponderous garbage and expect results. We should be rabidly attacking teams from the first whistle. Huge thanks to Barnsley, got us off the hook, then we're in a win-win with Brighton's match.

 

I haven't seen it, but according to the radio, 8 yards out, unmarked header - over the bar. Unfortunately, he's simply not doing anything to change my mind.

 

We need a Brighton win. First place means nowt, and could do without Reading closing the gap.

 

Every time Darlow touched the ball I was cringing.
How many times do we let the lad off?
He has cost us in 3 games now.
Time for Rob E.

 

I like the draw

 

It was, he did and in the middle of the goal.

Totally agree. He was absolutely shocking today.

Also whilst he generally had a reasonable game I was shouting a lot at Lascelles for his slow play and the square across the back passing and failure to move into the space ahead of him. Clark was similar first half but did seem to twig on in the second half.

Don't get me started on Colback though..

 

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/10781826/newcastle-2-2-bristol-city

Brief highlights including Mitro's miss.

Doesn't include the obvious sending off incident when the BC defender pushed Mitro away from the ball in the second half after under hitting his back pass. I had a perfect view of it as did the referee. Referee and linesman on John Hall Stand side both were totally inept.

 

Also BC were blocking and obstructing a heck of a lot today especially first half which again the referee did nada about, And will referees stop holding their watches when players are time wasting and just book them if they persistently do it. A booking is much more effective at stopping players from doing this.

 

Unfortunately you're going to get **** all goals from up front if Mitro is leading the line.

Hopefully Gayle is back soon.

 

very very poor 1st half...1st goal looked offside from my seat anyone seen it better..2nd goal keeper at fault... Plus points great fight back and nearly won it...minus points another game we took for granted...wake up and speed up ffs Newcastle...thanks Barnsley.

 

Was at the game. Sorry all, but we are miles away from Premiership material.
OK we were unlucky to conceed the first goal - no offside given.
The mix up for their second was poor. Darlow needs to communicate much better than he does. Cost us another two points today.

But a midfield with Colback in it maybe answers why our play often just punts diagonal balls to the corners. We have too few who can keep the ball.

I've only been to home games. Maybe I've seen too few of our good performances - it felt like another defeat today - but I'm concerned by our dreadfully slow starts.

St James Park, with the flags, and almost full again, just doesn't seem to motivate our players to perform.

 

More disappointing home form. We need to come out with a much positive set up and mindset. It's becoming a bit of a joke now. Darlow looked frail again. Colback reverted to type.

We aren't set up to create much and don't. So then you focus on the one good chance Mitro had (which he should have done better with). You'd hope he would get 3 or 4 decent situ's in a home game like that.

Just a bit deflated to be honest, been horrible for a while now.

 

Brighton looked excellent today. Keeping this faith business I'm finding testing after seeing the first half performances of the last two games.

 

I don't know what it is. I think Rafa has to carry the can on some of this; he's not sending his players out with the right mindset. We are over-confident, we fell we can walk around the pitch, won't concede, and will score. It's stupid. We should be saying "right, we're NEWCASTLE UNITED and we're coming to murder you." We did it in the second half, where the hell is that attitude in the first half or in the other stupid defeats and conceded goals?

There's two or three balls fizzed across the 6 yard box where I cannot for the life of me understand why our only CF isn't busting a gut to get to the ball? He's miles behind it, but for no reason. It's not just about the misses, you see, he's also missing too often from where he should be, where Gayle is when he plays. Darlow isn't mature enough, but he produced a heck of a save to keep us in it. Dummett was as much at fault. Stupid errors are costing, but it's the lack of attacking impetus and our general impotence that's proving costly now.

As for chances, Atsu missed an easy-ish chance, as did Shelvey at the end - they're missing the target. Perez/Ritchie might have done better from range. Rafa cannot do anything about that, we had enough to win it. But we shouldn't be strolling out like it's a practice and playing sideways football against bloody Bristol City!!!

I do not understand at all why we seem so averse to wanting to take the game to the opposition.

 

After recent form, I can't understand how we've still managed to remain in top 2.
I can seriously see us finishing 3rd behind Huddersfield. Then it's a lottery for play-offs.
Lack of additions in January could be costly.

 

Nail. On the head

 

Actually, I think it's BECAUSE we're still top two, and by a healthy margin, despite recent form that indicates we'll finish 1st or 2nd.

 

Can't remember Darlow doing any important saves today. Could be getting old and its just my memory. Do remember a save in the second half which was good except he palmed the ball into the middle of the six yard box instead of over the bar or round the post. He really was useless today.