5 Reasons To Be Positive aka THE THREAD OF POSITIVITY!

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This isn’t an easy post to write, but somehow we’ve managed to find positives after Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat against Swansea. We might be clutching at straws, so let us know.

Back to back defeats at St James’ Park mean NUFC are now 12th in the league. However, here are five things worth noting:

ONE – SHOTS – Newcastle had a total of 26 shots at Swansea’s goal yesterday. That’s the most by any Premier League team since January 2011. I know they weren’t all good chances, with the likes of Ben Arfa and Simpson firing well over the bar – but the intent was there to create and score. We’re finally creating chances, so that’s pleasing.

TWO – BEN ARFA – Hatem Ben Arfa was our best player on the pitch and at times you feel sorry for him. The Frenchman really turned on the style with some mesmerising runs but other players just weren’t on the same wavelength. His creativity can only be applauded and you fear if he’ll still be at Newcastle come January. However, for now, he’s ours and it’s only a matter of time before the chances he creates end up in goals.

THREE – EUROPE NEXT – Thursday night against Maritimo gives us an opportunity to play without fear and once again “kick-start our season.” Win and we qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League – so everyone will get a much needed boost. It will also mean we’ve completed a chapter and can then focus on the League again.

FOUR – PLAYERS RETURN – Papiss Cisse’s exclusion was frustrating not only for Pardew but the fans. He’ll return for the next game, and so will Jonas Gutierrez. The Argentine’s sister tweeted that the player was facing 6-8 weeks on the sidelines, but this has been dismissed by Pardew. The winger was 50/50 to play yesterday. The latest injury blow to Yohan Cabaye is a real worry, but we have some decent cover in the middle of the park.

FIVE – WE’RE DECENT, AWAY – After 11 games, we’ve played five away from home, drawing 4 and losing one. We seem to put up a decent fight away from home, and with visits to Southampton and Stoke being our next two, there is real reason for optimism. After defeat against West Ham, perhaps an away game would have been better to take off the pressure. As it happened, the focus was on the lads to perform against Swansea at home and they failed.

 

The last two games have been depressing to watch there's no doubt about that, but to be honest at half time on Saturday I was actually feeling pretty positive. We created a couple of good chances and looked more than capable of winning the game. I think a lot of it is confidence... when we go behind I don't believe we can win, and more importantly I don't think the players do either! The quality is still there, we just need a catalyst to kickstart our season, maybe a win on Thursday will do it, but it's not all doom and gloom..........yet

 

I'll take the first reason

if we didn't have the shots on goal then I'd be more worried
their keeper had a blinder on Saturday saving a few goalbound shots along with some poor finishing from us
how many times have we said Tim Krul has won us or kept us in the game (not last Saturday of course)
what worries me about Tim at the moment is that he's falling into the Given, Harper mould of not commanding his box,
At first Tim would come out and catch, punch the ball anywhere within 10 yards of his goal line, now he's not doing it
and letting our defenders try and clear which looks desparate at times

 

Maybe he's been told not to do it. His natural game seemed to be that anything within his distance was his.

 

Krul is just out of nick at present. Making a few errors although his shot stopping is still good. We knew when we went with a young goalkeeper he'd have these spells and we just need to get behind him. If our passing and possession was better it wouldn't be as noticed/costly. His kicking, and confidence in it does worry me. Its surprising it has not improved much because its always been his achillies heel. It forces him to go long as does Colo being missing and Willo being in there. We are in a bit of a vicious circle with these issues.

Maybe I'm just too horizontal but I'm not overly worried and have faith in squad, manager, coaches and set up.

 

Another positive, We're not getting smashed by anyone at the moment, bar the United result we havent lost by a large margin this season.

It would also be intresting to see how many games Krul, Colo and Saylor have played together so far this season. We had a very settled team at the begining of last season and had a great start but this season has been pick and mix squads.

One MORE positive (Don't know where this is all coming from today) is I'm possibly getting tickets to the Saints games (if a family friend can pull some strings) and Fulham game and have got tickets for the Wigan game. The reason this is good news is I have yet to be to a game live we have lost, granted I haven't been to one for about 5 years but I'm hoping to keep the streak going.

 

The other positive is that apart from HBA I don't think any of our players are even near their potential yet so all is looking up.

 

Football is a fix anyways, I'm sure the nice people at the FA have us to make an amazing come back and take the league on the last day of the season

 

We aren't as bad as Hartlepool .

 

We had chances to be out of sight on Saturday but the finishing was awful. We'll beat Maritimo and go on a run of Prem wins - you watch!

 

My positivity gift to you all, as I guessed this place would be as depressing as Katmandu following through with a wetty, is that I'm currently excavating in Boro in the pissing wet and freezing wind... The other day my supervisor was saying the archaeology looked like a medieval settlement, to which I responded "Obviously , look all about, they're still building medieval houses in Boro now!!!"

Mind you, don't see many people around (except at 5pm when everyone is trying to fecking leave the place), just see empty seats everywhere...

 

Working at the SOL?

 

Are there any ancient relics around threre?

I hear half of the SAFC defence live there.

 

You'll stuff us on Sunday so you'll have a fair few reasons to be positive then!

 

Nah, no chance I'd get work there... This company I work for only work on areas of "historical significance"


Had to dig a massive trench today by myself, and some locals gathered at the gates to see what was happening... Probably thought some Africans had finally made good on their promise to build them some wells

 

Hope so mate

Hope you enjoy the game though young sir