Sensitive Soul

Man City 2 Toon 1

For a match review please see Ten Thousand Holes - if the players can't be bothered to perform better than they did at Blackburn, then I can't be bothered to write a report. However, I commend the comment from Michael - who said it would happen again... It did.

Following on in the tradition of using comments from folk around me to sum up the match, this time from City fans.
Man 1 - "They were awful, weren't they?"
Man 2 - "Yeah, terrible"
"Worse than Hull?"
"Yeah - at least Hull showed some spirit, Newcastle didn't"

I buried my head in my coat and continued scuttling up the hill to find my car - firmly biting on my lower lip. The main reason for my reaction was simple, I was embarrassed. To check my ailing memory, I got back and looked up the City v Hull score - 5 - 0.

Of course the embarrassment has continued since then. N'Zogbia taking umbrage at JFK's mispronunciation of his name, and flouncing off to a big club in a galic manner... err, Wigan that I'll be then. If Charlie has got upset by being called "Insomnia" by his manager, how do you think he would have coped being managed by Bobby Robson. It's a good job Shola Ameobi has thicker skin... Bobby called him "Carl Court" at least once. Needless to say the press has jumped all over it, using it to point an accusing finger in the face NUFC and jibe that no one is happy [which, coming to think about it is probably accurate] On the embarrassment continues.

One thing that this defeat does seem to have provoked is some reaction in the transfer market. I was completely underwhelmed at first by the signing of Kevin Nolan. I never liked him when he played against us, combative and whining at the same time and he seemed to promise a lot going forward, but not ever really deliver it. However, after thinking about it a while, the buying of Nolan does make sense. The spirit that the City fans saw as missing, could well be provided by Nolan - also he appears to be a leader, another thing that is sadly lacking on the pitch at NUFC.

The result of this game does make Sunday against the mackems vital now. Even if this wasn't a derby game, 3 points against a team who are 3 points better off than us in the table is a statement that the Toon is going in the right direction, a loss and I'm checking out which Championship grounds I'll be visiting next season.

One footnote to the City game: De Jong had one of the best debuts I've seen for a long time, I classy hard tackling midfielder, quick and reads the game really well. I just wish that Newcastle had been in the market to attract a player like him to the team, rather than Nolan. Ho Hummm