Cold Turkey

Newcastle United suffered yet more boxing days blues this afternoon as they crumbled to a 1-0 defeat against 19th place Wigan Athletic. As they pushed desperately for another late equaliser it seemed as though the ‘get out of jail’ card had been played too many times. A second-half Ryan Taylor free kick ensured Geordie boss Steve Bruce took all three points from a resigned Sam Allardyce. Our results against the bottom five clubs are as follows:

Vs Middlesborough (away) 16th – 2-2 (draw)

Vs Birmingham (home) 17th – 1-0 (Win. Late Habib Beye goal)

Vs Fulham (away) 18th – 1-0 (Win. Late Joey Barton goal)

Vs Wigan Athletic (home)19th - 1-0 (Win. Late Michael Owen goal). (Away) 1-0 (loss)

Vs Derby County (away) 20th – 1-0 (loss). (Home) 2-2. Draw (late Viduka equaliser).

As you can see we’ve picked up more points than we’ve dropped but it is the performances and the manner of getting the results which is awfully concerning. The players seem to have lost the ability to play football, this is not necessarily because they are bad players, but purely the way they are being taught how to play. After watching the Fulham game I thought that the style of football we played couldn’t get any worse, however, Newcastle’s first half-performance was a reproduction of abjection. With Mike Ashley looking stone faced in the away end and for the first time this season Big Sam loosing the away crowd, I fear for his job.