Dog day afternoon
Blackburn Rovers 3 - 0 Newcastle Utd
At half time, 0-0 away from home, and looking reasonably comfortable, it looked like we might pick up at least a point away from home to continue our steady crawl towards safety.
By the end, and with three unanswered second half goals conceded, we were once again reminded that we remain desperately in the shit with the only light visible at the end of the tunnel appearing to be an oncoming train.
Even more galling than losing to our relegation rivals was the incredibly smug look on Fat Sam's face.
So what went wrong?
Well, having crumpled under minimal contact from David Edgar, Benni McCarthy calmly converted yet another penalty awarded against us by Rob Styles this season. At which point, we lost the capacity to defend.
A long ball from Paul Robinson over the top was allowed to bounce through and after a touch from Morten Gamst Pedersen, Jason Roberts fired home to give the home team a sadly unassailable two goal lead.
With time running out, Nicky Butt picked up a second booking to see him given his marching orders, which just left sufficient time for Roberts to notch his second of the match after Gutierrez had lost possession. That goal saw the returning Joey Barton try and pick a fight with Enrique, who had calmly watched David Dunn stream past him in the build up to the goal.
What is abundantly clear is that we need reinforcements - JFK has sought to blame his predecessors for the thinness of his squad, but memory tells me that both Keegan and Fat Sam had the same complaints when they were in charge, neither presumably being afforded the time or investment to address the problem sufficiently.
With eleven days remaining in the transfer window the clock is ticking, let's just hope it doesn't strike midnight and leave us with nothing but a pumpkin and some rats keen to leave a sinking ship.
Other reports: nufc.com, BBC, Guardian
At half time, 0-0 away from home, and looking reasonably comfortable, it looked like we might pick up at least a point away from home to continue our steady crawl towards safety.
By the end, and with three unanswered second half goals conceded, we were once again reminded that we remain desperately in the shit with the only light visible at the end of the tunnel appearing to be an oncoming train.
Even more galling than losing to our relegation rivals was the incredibly smug look on Fat Sam's face.
So what went wrong?
Well, having crumpled under minimal contact from David Edgar, Benni McCarthy calmly converted yet another penalty awarded against us by Rob Styles this season. At which point, we lost the capacity to defend.
A long ball from Paul Robinson over the top was allowed to bounce through and after a touch from Morten Gamst Pedersen, Jason Roberts fired home to give the home team a sadly unassailable two goal lead.
With time running out, Nicky Butt picked up a second booking to see him given his marching orders, which just left sufficient time for Roberts to notch his second of the match after Gutierrez had lost possession. That goal saw the returning Joey Barton try and pick a fight with Enrique, who had calmly watched David Dunn stream past him in the build up to the goal.
What is abundantly clear is that we need reinforcements - JFK has sought to blame his predecessors for the thinness of his squad, but memory tells me that both Keegan and Fat Sam had the same complaints when they were in charge, neither presumably being afforded the time or investment to address the problem sufficiently.
With eleven days remaining in the transfer window the clock is ticking, let's just hope it doesn't strike midnight and leave us with nothing but a pumpkin and some rats keen to leave a sinking ship.
Other reports: nufc.com, BBC, Guardian
posted by Paul at 10:07 am
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