Test post to note the reopening of the blog, to be used for the rants and considerations of a simple man,

I guess I should comment on the current state of affars as SJP as I am one of the 52,000 lucky ones who go to the match. The tone for Saturdays match was set at 14:30 when the team was announced, I was sat in a queue on Gosforth High Street and started shouting at the radio for telling me the discrace that is Steven Carr was playing and Milner was not. Knowing I couldn't change Glenns mind I looked around me to calm down only to see the men in the car next to me shouting at the radio due to team selection.

What did we learn on Saturday.

Carr is not good enough, if anything goes wrong his first reaction is who can he balme, a disgusting attitude for a supposidly senior player.

Baba is not good enough, but we have few alternatives.

Butt and Parker cannot play in the same team together as long as it is set up like Saturday.

Duff is invisible from pitch level. That is the only way I can explain players refusal to provide him the ball when he was wide open.

Glenn shouldn't be in charge of making substitutions. It was obvious Solano was our best player and Carr the worst, so Nobby comes off to make way for Milner, who looked lively from the off.

What would I do now?

From the players we have fit and available I would make changes and blood the youngsters. We already know there is to be a clearout in the summer, lets start now. If we can afford 300 Million to build seats no-one will want we can risk losing value on crap players to bolld youngseters. I'd start like this on Saturday. I said before Butt and Parker couldn't play together but I believe if you introduced attacking fullbacks like Solano and Duff you would need the extra protection. In the middle of defence I would give Edgar a couple of games alongside Tayls who is bang on form at the minute. The only decision I struggled with was the subs. I might be tempted in starting with young Carrol as well and leave sibi on the bench. The only reason I didn't here was the experimental defence and young wingers.

Harper,

Carr,
Moore,
Bramble,
Bernard,

Solano,
Emre,
Parker,
Duff,

Owen,
Dyer,


SUBS:
Krul
Shola
O'Brien
Babayaro (?)



Shame isn't it!

Newcastle 'v' Reading.

I can’t remember the last time I walked to St. James on a Wednesday to watch a league game, and a nice change it was.

The game itself was entertaining, 5 goals allowed, one not. Solano’s ball for the first goal is as good as anything you will ever see and Emre’s battling performance was capped with an excellent goal.

Unfortunately the night was partially spoilt by a small section of ‘eejits’ who thought it would be productive to boo babayaro. Okay, he was having a mare, complain in the pub, ring the radio, write on your blogs but DON’T boo one of your own players. Ever. It will never be productive.

On the plus side we battled well, 3 of the back line played well as did three of the midfield. Charlie looks flat at the minute and Glenn needs to get to him before it becomes a real problem. Emre had one of his best games, carrying the ball well in midfield before frustratingly passing when approaching the box, he should carry the ball on and engage the defence more often. The one time he did he scored!

Martins is improving and the seasons motto of ‘worth every pennie’ continues with regards to our latest French attacker!

And then there were....

Fit -

Given
Solano
Emre
Luque
Martins
Rossi (ineligable Europe)
Bramble
Sibierski
Butt
Pav (ineligable Europe)
Ramage
Taylor
Huntington
Carrol

ST Injured

Carr
Dyer
N'Zogbia
Milner

MT Injured

Duff
Harper
Parker???
Moore
Baba
Pattison
Krul

LT Injured

Owen
Shola
Bernard


I make that 13 players with 1st team experience plus Paul Huntington (this includes Andy Carrolls minute the other week). 2 of the 14 are ineligable for europe. What price the followign starting 11 on Thursday?

Given

Solano

Bramble
Taylor

Ramage

Emre
Butt
Luque

Martins
Carrol
Sibierski

Portsmouth (H)

The last time we played pompey at home an old man scored a goal that made history; yesterday it could be argued saw an equally historic event. No, not Dyer playing 90 minutes, even more surprising, Freddie put his hand in his (our?) pocket and provided scarves for all. The first time since the club decided a week after a certain derby match to provide pack'a'macs to all affected by the loss of the roof we received something for nothing, and well received they were to!

Of late the atmosphere has been a little disappointing, not helped it has to be said by matters on the pitch. Yesterday this began to change. The team were fantastic and the crowd responded.

Given – Finished the NOTW, People and Mirror by half time, took to playing on his PSP in the second.

Cafu – Who knew?
Ramage – Good, solid, involved in the goal. Maturing well.
Bramble – Solid, dependable, good in the tackle, better in the head. Welcome back.
Taylor – Played like an old pro

Milner – involved, obviously enjoying the pace in the team which suffered for his injury.
Charlie – Looking more like the zog we know and love.
Parker – painful injury didn’t stop him playing on for 10 mins, almost scoring and keeping us ticking us over. Hailed off for his own good.
Butt (sub) – shaky start, no complaints (high praise indeed!)
Emre – okay, need to be more involved, stay on his feet and learn to tackle, best game in a while.

Dyer – Outstanding, full of running and purpose, hopefully the headless chicken with no end product has been left with the injuries. The biggest impact on this team.
Martins – Leaning all the time, out jumped Campbell and Primus regularly, strong on the ball, perfectly good goal disallowed.

Antoine the man (sub Milner)– worth every penny.

This was more like the toon under Roeder last year, good on the ball fast feet and the confidence is coming back. No move in the league table this time but the smoggies are only 3pts ahead. Tough game against Reading follows the UEFA cup game where you can expect to see Roeder and Pearson lining up at the back to cover for injuries.

On that theme I cannot recall hearing Roeder make one comment about injuries to date and we are literally down to fit 11 players, and I wouldn’t call some of them 1st teamers. Class act!

Celta Vigo

Last night saw me attend my first non semi final/final cup match since before the kids were born and good value it was as well. Okay, it wasn't spectacular, but we were playing against a side who have won their last 2 away games against Real Madrid and Deportivo.

Roeder started with Antoine the man upfront in his own, contrary to some reports with Milner and Luque wide and Nobby at right back. This ploy paid off all night with Milner and Luque always available and Nobby in particular spreading some lovely 60yd balls onto the Spaniards boot. Okay, Charlie and Luque looked rusty in the first half but they grew into the game and Charlie in particular seemed to benefit from not being subbed in the second half.

the crowd was still disappointing at 25,000 but this is still more than other English clubs on a cold windy night for a televised game during a ridiculous league stage of a knockout cup competition.

The club deserve some credit as they had obviously given some tickets to an organisation who work with disabled adults and we had a dozen or so around us who appeared to have the night of their lives. Well done.

And, I can say I was there when Steven Taylor scored his first goal and witnessed first hand the celebrations that will go down in folk lore. Taylor looked confident and assured throughout and had another accomplished game. If you read some reports he is blamed for the goal but make no mistake, if Emre had either tackled or stood his ground instead of trying to drag the ball away from the attacker the chance would never have materialised.
On a sourer note, switching to 5 live on the way home to listen to the phone in we had to listen to lawro praise Rangers for being the first British club through to the knock out stages and lament us for our poor attendance. No mention of us being the only club in the competition with 3 wins from 3. No mention of us having the universally accepted hardest group, no request for us to call in and give our view, just Rangers this and how good are Spurs in Europe. Sad.