We'll both be safe, as will Villa due to the brilliance of Benteke (why did we not scout this absolute beast, him & Fletch?? Wow). Stoke & Wigan are the 2 in the ****, and I fancy Wigan to pull through, both have awful runs of games, but Martinez sets his team up to play and thus they will score goals. I fancy QPR to really give Stoke a blasting at the weekend, get them -1 on your coupon and thank me after.
A post at the end of last season i predicted getting into the european thing would prove a disaster , unless the club had the squad worth while playing in it. At the present time and since xmas we have barely put a team together for league games let alone extra games with the drain on resources , look at the teams who are in that place and look at there squads, newcastles squad is just about big enough ,but look at the facts ,they did look tired and that was with five changes from thursdays game. In the long term we all wish for these games ,but how would it affect the bread and butter side of the club. Also fans only have so much money to spend and i cannot see things getting any better. We stay up , we get a huge payment this time round,.pdc will do his dealings in the summer and get stronger on and off the pitch. The owner has proved that he will do what needs doing ( a bit late however) all the stucture is in place to enable us not to be in this horrible place in the table. i bet pardew was cursing that match thursday even before it happened. tough titty
For me the bigest most important part of Sunday result was it was a FIGHTING performance that gave us a good win. More of the same needed to survive and don't rely on result on others fixture lists. Waiting to see if we are benefiting from the "new manager" surge that usually happens.
I think both NE teams will be okay, hopefully yesterday can push us on for the end of the season, a draw with villa would be good for both teams IMO and a win against stoke is vital and we're safe, everything else is a bonus the mags have a tough run in, but i can see them picking up at least 2/3 points before the end of the season easy, maybe not in there next two games, but after that fatigue can be no excuse.