Back from the game....... I really hate geordies

[Focher]

Sig - 6

MOTM IMO

were you at the game?????

Bertrand was our best player by a street

[Question Mark]

Sig - 6

MOTM IMO

were you at the game?????

Bertrand was our best player by a street

Yeah I was the game. I agree bertrand was quality but in the 2nd half everything was going through the Sig. He was pulling the strings. It struck me as a very assured performance in centre mid.

[Focher]

="Question Mark

Yeah I was the game. I agree bertrand was quality but in the 2nd half everything was going through the Sig. He was pulling the strings. It struck me as a very assured performance in centre mid.

he was on the ball a lot, but some of his passing was way off, his shooting was below par (for his high standards) and he had little influence on any attacking moves we had. A very average performance for him in my view.

[Wimb]

As posted on the other thread...

Well mixed emotions.

Fairly good performance out there but we lacked any cutting edge and I'd be lying if I said we should have got 3 points tonight.

Newcastle personified 'gamesmanship' tonight. They used all their experience to bully us without getting punished and whilst that annoyed the shit out of us, its no different to what we did in the closing stages of the West Brom game.

At the end of the day Newcastle showed why they have walked the league and with that much talent in their team we were always going to be up against it.

Not really much else to say, I thought Tabb was a bit poor with his passing today and they marked Kebe out of the game. Still plenty to look forward too next season.

Oh and Nolan is a complete to55er

URZZZZZ

[Question Mark]

="Question Mark

Yeah I was the game. I agree bertrand was quality but in the 2nd half everything was going through the Sig. He was pulling the strings. It struck me as a very assured performance in centre mid.

he was on the ball a lot, but some of his passing was way off, his shooting was below par (for his high standards) and he had little influence on any attacking moves we had. A very average performance for him in my view.

I can't be bothered to debate it so I bow down to your superior post count

[Focher]

I can't be bothered to debate it so I bow down to your superior post count

dont bother mate, it will only degrade itself into a debate about whether the 50's we're the best diesels to run on our railways, which we all know is true.

[Question Mark]

I can't be bothered to debate it so I bow down to your superior post count

dont bother mate, it will only degrade itself into a debate about whether the 50's we're the best diesels to run on our railways, which we all know is true.

Yeah, and I'll end up comparing you to hitler

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Sig - 6

MOTM IMO

were you at the game?????

Bertrand was our best player by a street

Agree with both of those statements quite strongly!

[FiNeRaIn]

Sig was pretty poor until the last 20 minutes. Nowhere near candidate for MOM.

[PEARCEY]

Frustrating night all round really. Got to the ground late because of all the congestion despite leaving home "early".
Their first goal came out of the blue as they had offered nothing up until then. Route 1 stuff and a soft goal to concede. Pearce, sadly was too easily turned.
We were all at sea for their second with Bertrand really holding the defensive line when he needed to close down his opponent.
At that stage I feared the worst. We started getting muscled off the ball and when they hit the post I really thought we were in for a heavy loss.
Fair play though the side kept working really hard and I thought the support for the team was superb. They deserved the goal for all of their efforts but we never really looked like equalising and I can't think of one decent save Harper had to make. Thats disappointing given all the corners we had.
I also can't recall another game where so many of our shots were being blocked which I guess you have to credit to good defensive work by Newcastle.
Gutierrez dived around but for a big man he had plenty of skill and strength.
Again agree with Floyd in that had Mills and Kish been playing we may well have come away with something.
I do think that next season we need a bit more muscle in the side. Newcastle were too physical for us at times.

[Negative_Jeff]

McDermott did say we were in for a physical battle but I didn`t realise just by how much. Newcastle were big, muscular, disciplined, organised and cynical. Worthy winners of this league but have they done it in style? At RFC we know first hand the answer is no.

[prostak]

Most enjoyable loss I've seen for a while. Plenty there to give us hope for next year, though I'm slightly concerned that our best players tonight were either loanees or approaching retirement.

I thought Sigurðsson had a very weak game by the high standards he's set for himself, his through balls in particular seemed to be overhit every time, though that wasn't through lack of effort. Newcastle flooding the middle meant each of our midfielders had quiet games, saving perhaps Tabb. I thought taking him off was a strange choice, I can see why an extra man up front was needed (though Church was ineffectual) but Tabb was doing a great job of hassling and winding up thugs like Nolan - it's got to sting when you're continually beaten to headers by a midget... I'll go balls-out and suggest Pearce had a decent game, too, mistake for the opener aside.

Referee had an awful game. Whereas Woolmer keeping all 22 players on the pitch against Cov felt like good management of the game, tonight's guy seemed to lose control at some point. Both teams could've ended up with reds, or at least more yellows, and I'm keen to see a replay of what looked like Barton kicking Federici's head in their box. Presumably something could be done in retrospect if he did?

The positives are that we kept up a massive amount of pressure on their box for the opening 20 minutes, and even a slightly less organised defence (i.e. pretty much every other team in the league) would have surely conceded. The first goal cowed us a bit, but the second-half effort was excellent given that we more or less had nothing to play for. I'm fully convinced we've got the nucleus of a team who will, in a year or two, be more than a match for a side like Newcastle tonight. Everything was there apart from the final push to break down that defensive wall, and guile like that will come from experience.

[Upper West?!?]

Took along a neutral tonight who was not impressed with Reading at all.

"What good was all the possession in the first half if you don't actually shoot?"

"Kebe is a luxury in today's game. He doesn't defend, he doesn't go for 50-50 balls. He hides and doesn't look like he wants the ball at throw ins." "In top clubs, all the players work and defend from the front."

"You know Newcastle are going to get at least one goal when you're playing your 4th and 5th choice central defenders, so what's the point of playing a lone striker against premiership quality defenders? Sigurdson was marked out of the game, and you had no threat until you finally put two strikers on. Then you take off your best striker with 10 mintues to go. What was all that about?"

"Newcastle bossed you, and they didn't even play their best team"

It's a bit difficult to agree with all that through my RTGs, but it was quite sobering to hear a neutral's view.

[PEARCEY]

^Agree with your neutral friend about playing two up top. I thought MacD would have switched to 4-4-2 at half-time and was disappointed that he didn't.
I also felt we were too pretty at times. In the first half by the touch-line there was a spell of short and neat passes which looked good but got precisely nowhere. We did look too scared to shoot.
I thought Kebe had a decent game and gave it a good go in fairness.

[sandman]

I went with a Newcastle fan who was very impressed with us, said we should've got something out of the game and tipped us to challenge for promotion next season.

[Ian Royal]

Well that's the season effectively over, and as a whole it's been a decent success, rescued from the brink of disaster.

Firstly I'd just like to say that in the 15 odd years I've been going to games I don't think I've ever had the misfortune to see such a bunch of petty cheating, cynical gamesmanship like players as those out for Newcastle today. Diving, lack of respect for the officials, tripping, pulling, pushing, kicking the ball away, obstruction. What a bunch of oxf*rd.

We came close to total domination of that game in my opinion, but I don't think we ever looked particularly like scoring despite all our possession and attacks. We tried to pass our way through them, we tried to shoot through bodies, we put crosses in. I think our front line was far too static in the box, no one attacking the penalty area or crosses and they were too easy to mark out of the game by a fairly strong Newcastle defence.

We were undone by three or four quality attacks and poor defending. Some decent finishing. I'd like to see the goals again before I lay any blame as they were at the wrong end. No idea who scored for us.

Overall a very good performance, but with some weak defending (no surprise with what seems like the 4th & 5th choice centrebacks playing) and a misfiring attack. Newcastle look like a pale imitation of a Premier League team. Good passing, but way too many mistakes and no ability to control the game on that showigng. Although you can't judge on one game.

Federici - 7 Did ok, nothing hugely spectacular but I don't think he was at fault with the goals.
Griffin - 6 Not one of his better matches IMO, made more errors than I'm used to seeing from him, but had a tricky player to contend with.
Bertrand - 7 superb going forward, some dodgy defensive work.
Pearce - 6 I don't think he did much wrong but he certainly struggled with their attackers a bit.
Gunnarsson - 6 just (this probably won't be popular). I thought he was the weaker of the two centrebacks and we should have been punished with a 3rd goal when Newcastle narrowly missed after he inexcusably lost his man. Some absolutely sublime moments, but I don't think they made up for the rest of the match. Hope he's ok.
Tabb - 8 excellent. MOTM
Howard - 7 everything I saw him do he did very well, I find him a little difficult to pick out in the bustle of midfield though.
Sig - 7 lots of creativity but nothing quite came off. I think he was trying to be too intricate and clever and needs to learn to keep things a bit more simple some of the time.
McAnuff - 5 I was really disappointed, he looked rather disinterested and was totally shown up by Bertrand's quality attacking runs.
Kebe - 7 typical Kebe, constant danger, couldn't quite deliver today.
Long - 6 worked hard, didn't really get far.

Church - 6 see Long
HRK - 6 One good run that ended with him losing the ball to spark an attack from them. Not a lot else.
Rasiak - not really enough time

Glad we're already safe as we're fast running out of centrebacks.

[Compo's Hat]

From watching the past couple of games a concern of mine going into next season is that little bit of quality to break sides down. If we go well in the league then teams will shut up shop and come looking for a point. Add to it that we don't have the most deadliest strike force in the division and we might have frustrating afternoons on the horizon again.

For now anyway, i'm going to put my feet up and enjoy the last four games of the season. This is before i starting ranting to anyone who doesn't watch domestic football but believes the media hype while wearing their stupid face paint and stupid car flags that England will win the World Cup!

Also a big LOL at idiot tango's who came up to the back row and tried to get us to sit down when the whole block was stood up. Well done lads you really have reached new levels of stupidity tonight

Firstly I'd just like to say that in the 15 odd years I've been going to games I don't think I've ever had the misfortune to see such a bunch of petty cheating, cynical gamesmanship like players as those out for Newcastle today. Diving, lack of respect for the officials, tripping, pulling, pushing, kicking the ball away, obstruction. What a bunch of oxf*rd.

You've just upset someone!

[prostak]

Ian, I'm curious. How bad would a player have to be before you awarded lower than 5? McAnuff was very poor, and in the minutes leading to his substitution just didn't look bothered.

[FiNeRaIn]

Their team would have been torn to pieces by our 106 team. They won the league with brute force, not skill. But they won't care as they are back up again.

[PieEater]

Agree with most of the comments, and I thought we gave them a pretty decent game. Overall we were too lightweight upfront and useless at the back.

Pearce was at fault for the first goal, first he tracked Nolan to play him onside when he should of held the line, then let him get his shot in. Not sure where Fed was either, in fact I can't actually recall him making a save. For their second goal our defence was just nowhere to be seen.

The whole Newcastle team seemed to time waste right from the start, every goal kick Harper stands there bouncing the ball while the rest of the team slowly ambled up the pitch. Then feigning injures and contact to win free kicks, with Gutierez probably being the worst culprit. Ameobi, in between constant mouthing off, wasn't even booked for what could have been a straight red

After half time they realised Kebe didn't like it physical so that stopped a lot of our attacking threat down the right, but he still managed to set up the pur best chance for Gyfli just to clip it wide.

Hope Gunnar is OK.