...thought we battled & went toe to toe with a fantastic side & it was great to see how far we'd come in such a short space of time. Newcastle always had another gear in them though so without doubt a fair result. Couple of things from my point of view: - Our squad has probably 3 key players. Hammill/Kent as our key threats & Hourihane as the lynchpin. That's where all of our goals come from. When 2 out of the 3 have an off night, we've no chance & that's what we've seen these last few weeks. - We're looking really light as a squad now in wide areas - both midfield & full back. - Sam Winnall looks every part the Championship player in my view - looks to have worked on his aerial presence and all round contribution to him being our best finisher in the last 15 years. - We were always going to have runs like this in such a division. We're not going to start splashing the Stones cash - no doubt there'll be calls to - but this is the approach & it takes time. Rather be doing it in this league than the one below. - Really impressed with Yiadom & Jackson last night. Only got to look at where they were playing last year to give a sense of what we're up against. - Hammill was daft, simple as. Hecky will put him right. - It was far too busy last night.
Agree it was a good night. The result you can't complain about in itself. Glad Hourihane played. We are making steady progress after years of absolute drivel. I haven't got my hopes up for this season as it's still about steadying the ship. So for me this seasons all about building ourselves back up. I'm sure we'll do it as we have trustworthy people steering us now
Pretty much agree with this mate. We battled really well and apart for two 10 minute spells at the start of both halves gave as good as we got. They were incredibly well organised (as you'd expect of a Benitez team) and we struggled to create but it wasn't for the want of trying. Completely agree about Yiadom, I thought he was excellent. Jackson made a few mistakes and was exposed a bit for pace but he won't be playing against Gayle every week and he read the game very well. Special mention for Connor and Morsi. To play in a 2 against more players of a quality way above this division, and be competitive, takes some going. Hourrihane is such a complete player and a joy to watch at times first half, and I thought Morsi had some real quality on the ball and his forward bursts opened things up from which we unfortunately never really capitalised. They both tired second half but that's understandable. I wouldn't accept any bid for Connor in January. Irreplaceable at this stage in the team's progression, as Saturday probably showed.
I think this is a more balanced thread. Agree Conor is linch pin in the team, maybe Adam Hammill is playing at his level now & needs to realise he can't win a match on his own? Next 5 games are all winnable, if we can get 7-8 points from them that will help us steady the ship a little.
Yep, that's how I see it. To be honest would be happy to take a point from Brentford and Bristol and then the 3 games in November seems our easiest month on paper, with us facing Burton, Wigan and Forest. Think if we've still not picked up a couple of wins by then I will begin to panic.
I don't think you're allowed to have though. Some of our players aren't as good as Newcastle's and the sky's falling in. It's all bad, very bad.
Re: I don't think you're allowed to have though. Last year our players weren't as good as Shrewsbury's. I'll take it.
Re: I don't think you're allowed to have though. This time last year we lost at home to Crewe. Why moments in time are taken as definitive situations I don't know.
Bang on with that last point. West Stand Lower far too busy, not used to folk sitting near us. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: I don't think you're allowed to have though. <img src ="http://www.littletiger.co.uk/image/cache/data/onix/9781848957107-04-600x600.jpg">
Re: I don't think you're allowed to have though. Yes, we all knew it was a massive step up. We were beaten last night, but not outclassed. Only Fulham & Brighton where we have let ourselves down. Confidence bound to drop with no win in 6, but this is where Hecky earns his corn. We have some good competition for places in defence & up front, maybe just a little short in mid field in that our system revolves around Conor at the moment. Josh is a good player at this level too, but perhaps lacks the positional discipline that Conor has. Morsi looked better last night I thought.
Re: I don't think you're allowed to have though. Agree in most part , I think we put ourselves under more pressure than Newcastle created themselves imo with unnecessarily gifting them the ball and losing it in areas where we shouldn't be trying to be complicating play by running with the ball past two or three top class players . Having said that it's as you say a team progressing very nicely and even though we gave the ball away we still coped against a top half premiere league team. Not worried about the state of our championship status at all on what I've seen so far this season and enjoying it despite the last few results.
Re: I don't think you're allowed to have though. That's the frustrating thing - we didn't do ourselves justice with the ball last night.
