November 2009 Archives

You can say what you want when it comes to whether Newcastle United are good enough to get out of the Championship - but 18 games into our first second tier campaign since 1993 and it's pretty clear that the standard in this division is arguably as bad it has ever been.

On the back of the Swansea game the gut reaction by many Toon fans was that the second half was one of the poorest of the season, good job we were unbelievable in the fist 28 minutes really wasn't it?

If Swansea's defence is supposed to be one of the best in the division then I can't wait until we play the worst!

Shola Ameobi's Newcastle United career has certainly had its fair share of ups and downs - but as the player prepares to come back from injury to warm applause, the prospect of the Academy product playing at the World Cup finals in South Africa has suddenly left Chris Hughton facing showdown talks with the big striker.

The African Cup of Nations tournament in Angola poses bigger problems for Newcastle and Ameobi.

Not only will United be without their striker for up to a month, the chances of him returning back from Angola are high due to the dry and bumpy pitches in a tournament that has also never, ever lacked a physical edge - you could say that the African Nations Cup is a tournament that still includes full blooded challenges that would have the Alice band and gloves brigade of modern football in tears!

By this time tomorrow the bags of Fabrice Pancrate could be packed and he could be in the same club as Kennet Andersson, Dennis Lawrence and Bachirou Salou.

All of them didn't last after a trial with Newcastle United and all of them were forced to find careers elsewhere in the game.

Trial players usually coincide with football poverty, relegation and generally hard times for Newcastle fans and the arrival of Pancrate is no different.

When Newcastle United were relegated to the Coca-Cola Championship there were many who thought that the Magpies could quite easily go on and do another Leeds.

Depressingly, talking to Leeds fans who had suffered the drop from the big time to what many of us will always call the Third Division resulted in a warning of "get ready, because you are in for more pain".

But so far, the Championship experience has been much less painful than expected.

Without doubt a club the size of Newcastle United should not be in the second tier.

Has Jonas Gutierrez finally broken free from Final Product Phobia?

It might have been a long time in coming but finally Jonas Gutierrez was able to "celebrate" his first ever Newcastle United goal.

However, after scoring his maiden competitive strike for the Magpies with a goal that Diego Maradona would have been delighted with, the South American didn't produce his Spiderman mask and his face looked more like a slapped backside.

Afterwards it emerged that Jonas was upset with being linked to Serie A giants Roma and in protest he chose not to celebrate the goal - but there are deeper concerns from Toon fans.

NEWCASTLE fans were in strong voice at St James' Park this afternoon as United secured a comfortable 3-1 victory over Peterborough.

It was an emotional atmosphere at the ground as fans protested about Mike Ashley's decision to rename the stadium.

Jonas Gutierrez scored his first goal for the Toon and an Andy Carroll header put Newcastle 2-0 up within 20 minutes. Danny Simpson got the third shortly after the break and despite a consolation goal for Peterborough it was a convincing win for the Magpies.

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