My mistake : two thursdays ago (my tracking of UEFA results is as bad as yours is for CL qualifier rules) .
Lloris has got stick from me so it's only fair that he gets a special mention for tonight, I thought he was superb.
he bollocked players for not making themselves available for the ball and for being careless...played a huge leadership role tonight...top stuff
and was clearly the most overjoyed about CL qualification in that little clip Spudulike posted. It must have meant a lot to him today, well done mate. It's amazing what confidence does, as soon as we scored we were playing like ourselves again until then we were worryingly clueless. The move that led to our goal was as smooth as we had been all night. It makes me feel more confident of seeing off Lesta now, I hope they don't think it's job done, I want 3rd.
tbh...I am just overjoyed that when me and my girls go to the last match on Sunday that we can relax and enjoy it and leave with a smile
OMFG. That was tough. I was at boiling point from the moment we gave away that free kick that hit the post in the first half. I'm hard pressed to think of a game where I've been more manic or loud. The blokes who were sitting next to me didn't come back after half time and there were plenty of empty seats for them to choose from, I'm sorry to say. It's a given that Newcastle have great away support but in the first half there was very little coming from the majority of our fans. I hope that we sell out every game next season and nights like tonight, in that soulless ****ing red bowl, fade into the distance. Some of the recent games have been as poor as any I can recall for many years. I'd have willingly taken a draw at half time and had a second chance against Leicester. However, we had that one bit of class in Kane's finish and that's what most of the top sides do. They ride their luck when playing badly and pull something out of the bag to take all the points. The fact that we're doing it enough to take third shows how far we've come. I'm not going to go after the players or the manager. They brought home CL football for the club next season, after playing 19 games in a stadium we all hate and which seems to hate us. We should finish 3rd. Frankly, it's a ****ing miracle. We return home to N17 and build from there in our new home. I'm not going to make a DVD of it but it's an important part of our continuing growth and will make for fantastic nights in the new White Hart Lane. Cheers boys. We made it......just.
Is Poch actually a genius? The way we staggered over the line to get CL football should convince Levy he needs to make significant additions to the squad. Was that part of a well conceived plan?
Poch: "Massive effort, playing 38 Premier League games away from home" Spot on. Be honest everyone, we never expected to be where we are back in August playing at Wembley. The pundits were also rubbing their hands saying this season would kill us. Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Was Benitez watching another match? https://www.football.london/tottenh...z-newcastle-penalities-spurs-wembley-14637977
Great news! I can fully empathise with your feelings right now. Had my prostectomy 11 years ago. That’s exactly how long the surgeon said it would be before could be sure it had worked!
Where he got 3 from I have no idea - and while there were a couple of close calls, neither were clear! There was one in the first half when I think a Toon was bundled into and in the 2nd Richie was whining after the incident with Lloris, Perez and himself, although Hugo just got to the ball first. Thought officials were not terrible, but we seemed to get the worst of the decisions. A couple of incorrect offsides and they seemed to get the benefit of the doubt in most challenges. On the current scale, the performance was almost acceptable
Last night's refereeing performance was pretty par for current standards. The worrying aspect of this is the increasing tolerance for barging into players as they're about to receive the ball. Provided that you don't attempt to actually make a tackle from behind, kick an opponent or push with your hands it isn't a free kick. However, it makes receiving the ball with your back to goal extremely difficult and against a team, like Newcastle, who sat deep and played on the counter attack, you're playing to players with their back to goal all night. Worst of all was the allowing of a perfectly timed barge just as a player is going to jump to head the ball. It's not a fair challenge for the ball, as the ball hasn't arrived and it makes it impossible for the attacking player to jump as they intended. That's the point, this isn't a challenge for the ball at all. It's calculated to unbalance a player just as they are going to receive the ball. It almost completely negated us as an attacking force and has become 'de rigueur' for teams to get a result against others attempting playing progressive football. In the second half of this season, such results have become much more common place from use of this tactic. I've no problem with playing a physical game but this is a refinement of Leicester's Greco-Roman wrestling tactic and gives a huge advantage to teams that are content to spoil for 90 minutes and try and nick a goal. Is that really good for anyone and does it make for something that people want to watch?
And the one time all night that Sonny used his strength to turn an opponent he got called for a foul! It wasn’t helped for me by having to listen to the biased twat ex-Spanner Tony Gale - who rubbishes us at every opportunity and calls totally incorrect stuff, then doesn’t correct himself even when replays show him up!
