My little wager with @Nads is starting to look very foolish! I’m delighted to be, as things stand, proven wrong although admittedly we’ve had a massive dose of luck this season!
You'll do well under Bruce for about a season and a half, mate. He's a good short term manager but has no longevity.
To busy singing about a third division club (who they are not obsessed with by the way) getting smashed every week.
I doubt Rafa's name got sang at every game, but let's accept your generality. It could be because Rafa was seen as a man who stood up to Ashley's contempt for the club's fans, whilst Bruce hasn't proved himself in that area as of yet. Bruce might get his chance to prove that he's got a pair of balls in January when Chelsea or Man City, or actually Premiership club bid £20-£30m for a couple of our players. If Bruce stands up to Ashley when he has to, and that time will come, then he'll get more outward showings of admiration from our fans.
I thought football was about winning matches but according to Consett it's actually about how much you do or don't get on with an owner who runs the club as a successful business and spends a fortune on players, albeit **** ones. Who knew.
Give over man ya pan of broth Heed just admit that you lot went way over board with the way you went on with benitez treating him like a god and calling him a world class manager even though most of the performances were awful to watch. We all know that because his name was Rafa benitez and he has managed some really big clubs abroad that you lot clung to the fact that he was now your manager You lot really are pathetic, Steve Bruce is doing a better job so far than your idol benitez and yous haven't got the balls to admit it
I'll admit Bruce is better for us if and when he proves it. We never lost by 5 goals under Rafa but already have done under Bruce. We're not that far away from the relegation zone you know - similar to Rafa. So Bruce is doing OK, but not way above expectation. (2-1 win edit - he's doing OK +1)
Surely all he has to do is not relegate the club to do that ... ... Bruce started this season with zero points.
True. And to his credit he's making a proper go of it. To many, me included, were never against the man. He's a Newcastle fan. We were generally angry that another transferring of ownership story didn't come off (it may have been a Mike Ashley conceived distraction that a popular manager left the club). Bruce's appointment was seen as the confirmation that the club wasn't being sold. Also Bruce wasn't seen as an upgrade to Rafa. But the man had some bottle to join us when the fans were miffed with the owner. Our feelings towards our manager can't be much concern to your fans though. You lot are going through hell at the present. We've both lost our biggest rival for the time being.
The linesmans flag is for the referee not the players. Players are meant to play to the whistle, Shelvey did and the Sheff Utd defenders didn't. If you watch the ref from behind he actually signalled to the linesman that he'd seen the flag and let play continue. Great piece of refereeing in my book and something that should be happening more this season in my book. I'd like to see linesman keeping their flags down like they've been told to. Defenders are gonna be a bit more switched on now after that goal that's for sure.
Utterly ridiculous. It was awful officiating generally. Poor offside decision from the linesman which has caused the entire defence to stop. Referees don’t blow the whistle for a throw in. Should players keep playing in that situation? Until the referee blows? the flag makes a decision fir offside, throw ins and corners. A referee uses this. Always a linesman call. He got this wrong so everyone, even Shelvey, didn’t think it would count. His whole demeanour changed when he saw the flag. The flag stops players. Players and managers have been told that the flag won’t go up. But it did! The linesman ****ed up. The ref may have indicated to the linesman but did he indicate anything to the Sheffield Utd players? edit. This is not a ‘Cos it’s Newcastle “ thing btw, it’s my opinion in general. Same thing happened at the Norwich Liverpool game. Flag went up and ref didn’t blow, attacker had seen the flag and all but gave up on it. Happened a number of times. I just think the officials are still crap and see,I got, despite earning a fairly handsome wage for running up and down and sticking their arm in the air or blowing whistles, don’t know how to do their jobs also bet you’d have felt very hard done by if it was at the other end. There’d be loads of “well if the flag doesn’t go up” comments.
The entire situation was a shambles and reflected poorly on the officials and also the Sheffield players. As I've mentioned before i live on Merseyside and I can honestly say that every football fan I work with (so only 10-15 people) have said that your told from a child that you play to the whistle and it should stand as a goal - the Blades defenders made a mistake. It's the rules as they stand and a pretty much unanimous view of the media too. I'd be a bit miffed if it happened against us but i'd also be lambasting our players for not playing to the whistle. I agree Shelvey has seen the flag and was expecting it to be chalked off but... he did play to the whistle, it was all a bit ungainly really - when you think of the money that gets ploughed in at that level. As an aside we'd been leading since early in the game and the second goal was near the end of the match. Sheffield were pressing but had been for over an hour, i actually don't think the second goal changed the outcome of the match but instead provided a useful distraction for the Sheffield United manager.
Agree totally about the second goal SHeff Utd could’ve played till now and they wouldn’t have scored. Just one of those days for them. At our level the ref would have blown his whistle but the players would’ve stopped regardless when the flag went up. As they always do. The linesman’s flag is as important to players as the whistle. (Besides, there are no linesman in kids football for anything but throw ins, and they’re coaches of the clubs playing) the linesman made a mistake. I know people who’ve played to a fairly decent level who said the same. When you look across and the flags up, you stop as you know it’s offside. That’s when the ref blows (like happened at least 4 times in live games at the weekend) flag shouldn’t have gone up. As I say, had it happened at the other end, the opinions would likely be very different
I agree the linesmans flag shouldn't have gone up but both sets of players were told by the ref before the game to play to the whistle and play on in offside situations even if the flag goes up. Like I said, the flag is for the ref not the players, if they choose to stop playing cos they see a flag when they've been told to carry on playing there's not much else you can do is there? Maybe out of all of this, linesman will be a bit more hesitant to flag now. Why do they even flag for offside in the first place now. VAR checks every goal for possible infringements, handballs and offside in the lead up to every goal so it would be better for everybody, strikers, defenders, managers and fans if they just kept the flag down now and only flagged for fouls and throw-ins. It's easy to say I would have been pissed off had the boot been on the other foot. I would feel hard done by you're right and I can understand Sheffield Utd fans feeling the same. It's VAR that's caused all of this. Had we not had VAR, the flag goes up and the ref blows his whistle....Shelvey may well have been booked for carrying on and putting the ball in the net but he probably would have stopped before hand. This is the world we live in now. People were concerned that is was going to take away all of the post match debate between fans etc etc by having VAR, it's done exactly the opposite.