Newcastle United - Rest of the season

Hi readers and welcome back, this will be my last blog of my second season and I am hoping to end it on a good note by qualifing with my Newcastle United team. I had a tough final two months ahead of me. In April I will face Stoke at home witch will be the easiest of the lot before I face a away game to Manchester City and at home to face Liverpool before ending April wih a game against Spurs at White Hart Lane. In May I faced to games first up I would face Bolton before a final day fixture with Chelsea.


v Stoke (h) Barclays Premiership

I started off the month with a home game and a chance to get the ball rolling for the chase for Europe. Our pressure built up in the first 20 minutes and chances were getting closer and closer to breaking the deadlock. After 24 minutes the Magpies were ahead through Fedrieco Macheda. A pull back from Simpson from the byline saw Macheda smash the ball from 10 yards beyond the reach of the Stoke keeper. The longer the game went on the more chances Stoke created I was suprised with the effort they put in considering that they weren't really playing for anything as they were safe in the league but were do far away from Europe. The second half started badly for Stoke and they were reduced to 10 men when Glen Whelan picked up his second yellow card of the game. Disaster struck 5 minutes til the end of the game when former Newcastle employee Abdoulaye Faye got on the end of a Matthew Etherington and he silenced St James when the ball hit the back of the net. I was really dissapointed with this result as this was one of the games that I really needed to win idf I had hopes for Europe. Nextup was Manchester City at Eastlands

v Man City (a) Barclays Premiership

We were now set to face Man City in a game that will test my players to the limits as Ma City are currently top of the league and look like winning the title. The game was a real end to end contest with both teams really going for it for seperate reasons. At the start of the second half I thought that we could possibly get something out of the game but I dream was dealt a blew when City took the lead and Adebayor got the goal. With that setback it was looking less likely that we were going to get anything out of this game and we never really created enough chances to put sustained pressure on Man City. The game was effectivaly over when Steven Ireland doubled the Citizens lead with a nicely curved shot from inside the box. Mac City also had the chance to make it 3-0 when they got a penalty for a lazy challange from Coloccini. Tevez stepped up and it was saved from Consigli this was in vein as Manc City ran out 2-0 winners and this was another blow to the chance to qualifing for Europe. Next up  was a home game against Liverpool.

v Liverpool (h) Barclays Premiership

My last home game of the month saw us face a Liverpool side that we had only beaten once in 8 games and that was a friendly match at the start of my first season. In the 22nd minute I was deligted to see that we were ahead and that Okaka was the player who got the goal after a lovely flick on from Macheda from a long ball upfield he was left with a simple chance to put the ball in the goal. I was delighted with the effort of everyone in black and white and we deserved our half time lead. We were pushing for the second to kill the game off but the more we pushed the more dangerous Liverpool were looking likely to score next but in the 64th minute of the game we astonishinly took the lead and Guido Davi got his first goal of the season and one of the most important goals he will score. A corner from Guthrie which was header away from Skrtel fell to Davi on the edge of the box and he volleyed a low shot into the bottom corner and we were 2-0 up. When the final whistle blew we had won 2-0 we took a massive step to Europe and I belived that we could get there. Next up was Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

v Spurs (a) Barclays Premiership


After the brilliant win over Liverpool I was expecting for this next game against Tottenham to be a close encounter. Spurs were a team that we just above us in the league and whoever won this game would take a massive step in securing the final European spot. With both team eager to get the win it was a bit of a scrappy match and in the 23rd minutes Spurs's goal machine Jermain Defoe gave them the lead after a mistake from Burdisso left Defoe a glorious chance to put Spurs ahead and he took it. We finally got into the game after that goal and started to create chances but Gomes was playing really well and at half time Spurs were 1-0 up. In the 67th minute they were 2-0 to the good and it was Defoe who was the scorer for the second time this game. Unfortunatly Spurs finally won this game and this looked like the European dream was over after this game and Lennon made the game theirs with 15 minutes left to play. It was a bit of a blowto my chance but I was keeping my hopes high and their was still 6 points up for grabs.

v Bolton (h) Barclays Premiership

My last home game of my second season saw me play against Bolton in a must win game if I was going to have a good chance of getting into Europe for next season. My nerves were increaing the longer the game went on and when I saw that Spurs were winning if results stayed like this their was no chance of finishing higher than 8th. I got a small sigh of relief when we took the lead in the 64th minute through Stefano Okaka after a one-two with Carroll he placed the ball past Jaaskelainen to put the Magpies 1-0 up. I nerves got higher when hothead Alan Smith got sent-off for two late challanges. We were down to 10 men and needed to work really hard to keep this lead. Bolton were pushing for a equaliser and this meant that their were big gaps in their defence. We took advantage of these spaces and we got the three points when Macheda scored in the 92nd minute. This was a good win and I also found out that Spurs had drawn meant I leapfrogged them into 7th place. I just needed to a win in the final game of the season to secure the European spot but this game was agianst Chelsea what made it worse was that Spurs only had to play Bristol City who were unlikely to beat Tottenham.

v Chelsea (a) Barclays Premiership

The final cruch game of the season saw us play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It was a bit of an uphill struggle but I belived that we could get at least a point out of this game. The chances of that happening became less likely when Michael Ballack gave Chelsea the lead after 14 minutes. The longer the game went on the more threatening we looked and Macheda hit the post from 20 yards out this was our best chance of the first half. My season seemed to be crumbling before me when Chelsea doubled out when Alex scored. Our season fizzled out to a dissapointing end when Chelsea made it three and Scott Sincliar was on the scoresheet. Our season was over and unfortunatly we didn't qualify for Europe.

Season 2 Final League Table

After all the hard work that I put in through the season I was a bit dissapointed that we weren't rewarded with a European spot. Anyway i was elated with the team as we exceeded above expectations, my prediction for the season was to finish 13th but we finish 5 places above that in 8th. It was a good effort from the players and I was hungry for more and couldn't wait for the next season.

Thanks for reading, next post will be here in a day or two

warren