Sorry to interrupt the build up to "Grand Slam" Sunday but it's time to focus on the real big clash of the weekend - and that has to be our trip to Craven Cottage.
Central Station will be bustling tomorrow from the crack of dawn with Toon fans no doubt heading to the smoke for a big day out in the capital.
But has the recent improvement, or slight improvement if you are a realist, given us any real hope that Newcastle United can finally win their first game since the opening day of the season at Bolton?
I have the feeling that many remain unconvinced and I wouldn't blame anybody that is heading down to Fulham expecting a similar serving of football to that at Reading, Man City or Derby or even Sunderland - a game in which we probably should have lost.
OK, that's the negative bit out of the way.
Now the positive outlook - without the aid of alcohol - this week I was lucky enough to look at a dossier of information provided by ProZone which showed an alternative view of Newcastle's clash with Birmingham.
To the human eye it looked like a scrappy display on a rotten day in which we just sneaked victory at the death via Habib Beye's late header (one which he admitted he knew little about until he heard the crowd).
Yet a quick look of the information that arrived from the War Room at the club's Benton HQ told a somewhat different story.
Indeed the computer system, which tracks the efforts of players on and off the ball, says Newcastle not only created more chances than Brum but they outran, outworked, outpassed and in the end outfought their opponents via the head of Beye.
Make of that what you will but it's also clear that according the stats from Birmingham we did not revert to a long ball system with 9% of the passes over 25 metres in the whole 90 minutes.
And the overall summary of Big Sam's style is that Newcastle at the moment are focused on trying to cause havoc to their opponents by the sheer volume of penalty box entries.
At the minute opponents don't like it and some of our fans don't either but at the end of the first half against Birmingham for example I could, through the sleet that is, see how it could work when we had three corners in a row and Birmingham were rocking when it culminated with James Milner hitting the bar.
For me getting it into the net more times than the penalty area would be nice on a frequent basis!
But credit to the manager for coming out and stand his corner, we all stand up for what we believe in don't we? And that's what he's doing now.
Certainly, looking at the stats, if Newcastle work as hard as last week (a week which they had three games compared to just one this week) against Fulham we've got a great chance.
And while it appears the squad looks good on paper as well as a computer screen now, I'm still of the opinion that football will always be played on grass which is the only place that Newcastle United can do their talking from now on in.
I know it's not as simple as this but if Newcastle play in the same manner that they did against Arsenal they won't be too far away from what most fans want.
Let's hope they keep it simple and just give at good old crack at Craven Cottage.
BIG SAM ARTICLE FROM TODAY'S CHRONICLE ABOUT TACTICS
NEWCASTLE United boss Sam Allardyce says that he doesn’t have to defend his tactics – because the stats simply don’t lie.
Big Sam has endured flak from certain quarters who claim United are nothing more than a long-ball side following the scrappy 2-1 win over Birmingham.
But thanks to stats that originated from Allardyce’s War Room at the club’s Benton HQ, the Chronicle can reveal that:
:: Newcastle not only passed the ball more than City, they did so on a more successful basis;
:: Newcastle had more ‘successful’ passes than Birmingham’s total number of passes, good or bad;
:: After peppering the Blues’ goal with 18 efforts, United’s policy of getting the ball into the opponents’ penalty area on a frequent basis paid off, albeit via a last-minute headed goal from Habib Beye;
:: Newcastle crossed the ball 19 times and made 50 entries – ie balls played into the opposition penalty area – into the Birmingham box;
:: United outworked Birmingham by beating them to most loose balls, running harder and for longer in terms of what ProZone describes as high-intensity running by 700 metres – all of which came after a three-game week (with games at Blackburn, home to Arsenal and then Birmingham);
:: Despite the jibes that United are a long-ball outfit, only 9% of the Toon’s passes were over 25m.
Speaking on the results of the ProZone stats, Allardyce told the Chronicle: “Last week we had three very tough games in a week.
“We played Birmingham City, which came on the back of a very tough game against Arsenal.
“The players could have been down but they came back and didn’t make things difficult for themselves.
“It was about energy levels and that showed against Birmingham – it was the crucial factor. At the end of the week, for our players to keep going and going is testament to what we are trying to do.
“After the Birmingham game we were criticised in some areas, but the stats override anything negative that is thrown at us by some people.
“I think some people only want to undermine what we are doing at this football club.
“If you look at the stats, you’ll see that only 9% of our forward passes were over 25m during the Birmingham game.
“This isn’t a case of having to defend our tactics – the stats are a perfect response to those people who have unjust perceptions about our performance.�
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