Andy Rivers - The Geordie Author

Holidays in the Sun.

There will be those of you who’ve been a little disappointed by the results of the messiah’s return thus far. Some of you were no doubt dreaming of us storming up the table and into the european places just before we battered Man Utd in the FA Cup final and have been a little discomfited by the chill wind of reality. Me? I knew we’d struggle for the rest of the season. I also knew we wouldn’t qualify for any european competition (fingers crossed for the fair play league eh…or maybe not with Smith and Barton in the team!) so I’m not downhearted in any way shape or form.

Yes we’ve been tanked in a few games, yes we’re struggling for both goals and points and yes, I admit relegation is a real possibility but look further than the london based tabloid headlines and you can see the beginnings of a new era at St. James.

In the first half against Villa we dominated them, even though we were carrying the likes of Barton (slow, and over-rated in my opinion – that’s not me being vicious though) they couldn’t get the ball off us. When Kev’s had time to get his own men in then we’ll see that start to turn into full games of keeping possession and toying with the better teams.

If you look back at Wor Kev’s previous go around at Newcastle he started slowly, he just kept us up in Division two with a mixed bag of results and performances before he got to have a proper pre-season and work with everyone away from the hurly burly of a match every couple of days.

Throw into the mix that it also gave him time to plan and execute his transfer policy and it’s obvious we should be looking forward to next season with relish.

That summer we stayed up he got rid of half a team and brought in players of the calibre of Venison, Bracewell, Beresford and (a few weeks later) the mighty Robert Lee. He persuaded them all to sign for a team that was literally minutes from going into Division Three (once again thank you messrs Kelly and Peacock – lest we forget) and then lit the blue touch paper.

The paralells that can be drawn from that season all those years ago to this current mess are eerily similar:- underperforming players on big money; disenchanted fans; cowardice in the face of the enemy (ie good teams!) and, most importantly, a new owner making his first managerial appointment and being prepared to throw buckets of money at making it work  

So smile at the social inadequates who try to bait you with jibes about our underachieving club, dismiss the ‘journalists’ who find every excuse possible to have a go at us (you could even stop buying their paper – just a thought like) and ignore the pundits on the telly who repeat gossip, fabrication and rumour as solid fact.

As Newcastle supporters, the best thing we can do now is get behind the lads on the park regardless of whether we think they deserve to play for us or not, write off this season and then book our summer holidays knowing that while we’re on the beach and drinking lager for breakfast Kev will be hard at work on our behalf.

He loves the club, he loves us and he’s got unfinished business with a few old adversaries.

Next season’s going to be great – I can’t wait.

Howay the lads

Newcastle let themselves down at Reading, there’s no doubt about that. We obviously went out with the intention of nullifying the opposition and keeping things tight. This has been Sam’s away game tactic for most of the season and, while it’s understandable when we’re playing top class teams such as Arsenal, Man Utd et al, it’s a little suspect against the likes of Reading and Derby. We’re basically letting them know we’re scared of them and giving them licence to attack us, with the end result usually being defeat. Our away form has been dire and I’m sure it’s uppermost in Sam’s mind.

That apart, we’re still doing okay in the league and looking increasingly like we have a platform to build on and a solid chance of progression as a team. With this in mind I find it hard to fathom why the team was booed at the end of the Reading game. While stressing that it wasn’t the majority of the away support that heckled, and also pointing out that our away support matches, and in many cases is much better, than anyone else’s, I have to ask the question – Why?

It achieves nothing, the players know that they didn’t perform, the manager, whose job hangs on results, certainly knows and the chairman and owner obviously know. By booing, you are heaping pressure on the manager not to lose matches, that in turn leads to the safety first approach I mentioned above and that then leads to us losing matches at places we should win because we tried to keep it tight rather than attacking from the off.

For the first time in over ten years we have a board and management that want success as much as we do – do we really want them to feel unwanted? Maybe we have supporters now who grew up through the Keegan years and think it’s always like that – it’s not, deal with it.

Let’s try and remember, we don’t do ‘glory hunting’.  We do not echo the impatience and ‘me, me, me’ antics of the ‘success’ supporters. We stay with our team through thin and thinner. We are Newcastle United, it’s what we do.

Howay the lads