I am thoroughly ashamed to say that I felt lazy to blog about my favourite footie team.

Well, I wanted to see how Glenn Roeder did as a caretaker manager, and boy oh boy must I admit that he did us all proud.

Not only did he manage to lift the morales of the players, he brought us to Europe (via Inter-toto) winning more than 9 matches though there was a mean streak of 4 losses in a row, thankfully he decided to bench Boumsong, and that proved to be the key factor.

Now, I'm just waiting for the World Cup to start, and also, of course, I want to see the players that Roeder will want to get, as well as which players does he want to offload. I do hope that Milner stays though.

Orite, till then... =)

Finally... a win has come back... to Gallowgate! Newcastle finally won after such a long winless streak, and Shearer (now Assisting Glenn Roeder as Assistant Manager) finally broke Wor Jackie's club record with his 201st goal for Newcastle. Portsmouth rarely looked like a Russian powerhouse (as compared to Chelsea) and I for one am glad for that.

With 14 games to go, I do hope that Newcastle can climb up the tables faster than you can say Greame Souness, and get us that coverted Europe spot.

Hooray for the Magpies!

So.... Newcastle won 2-0 away at Cheltenham Town. Was it easy? NO!

I digress.

They played a sad sad game, with the two Dumble Dee pairing of B and B at centreback really caught my eye, once again.

That being said, I will not say anything further about the game except that I am happy that Parker, Emre are back in the team.

Happy Chinese New Year Folks! I hope that during my absence, Newcastle will prove the critics wrong by winning away to Cheltenham. Go Magpies Go!!

West Ham 2 - 4 Newcastle at Upton Park

England striker Michael Owen scored a superb hat-trick to lead Newcastle to a 4-2 win at West Ham and give Graeme Souness something to celebrate on his 50th Premiership game in charge of the Magpies.

Owen notched his first treble for the club since his £16million arrival on Tyneside from Real Madrid last summer, while Newcastle legend Alan Shearer moved to within just one goal of equalling Jackie Milburn's all-time record of 200 when he struck the Magpies' third.

The kick-off at Upton Park had been delayed for half-an-hour due to a road accident close to the stadium, but Owen was quicker off the mark than the home defence when he latched on to Shearer's headed pass to dink the ball over the advancing Roy Carroll.

The home side briefly threatened to make a game of it when they levelled the scores in the 19th minute thanks to an own goal from Nolberto Solano.

Titus Bramble, attempting to clear Marlon Harewood's right-wing cross into the six-yard box, succeeded only in finding Solano's shins and the ball rebounded into the net.

Solano's own goal sparked West Ham into life and a mazy run by Yossi Benayoun ended abruptly when he appeared to be brought down by Jean-Alain Boumsong inside the penalty area. However, referee Phil Dowd waved away their spot-kick appeals.

In the 28th minute, a fine run by Matthew Etherington almost brought some reward for the enthusiastic Bobby Zamora as the former Spurs pair linked up to create an goalscoring opportunity that brought the best out of Shay Given.

The Republic of Ireland international was forced to dive to his right to keep out Zamora's powerful effort on the turn.

But Newcastle were always a threat going forward and in the 40th minute a clever move almost brought them a second goal.

A long ball from Ramage was knocked into the path of Scott Parker by Shearer, but the former Chelsea midfielder saw his 20-yard effort flash past the left-hand upright.

However, Parker's effort was merely a portent of what was to come two minutes before the interval when Owen struck again to re-establish their lead.

The second half began in a sloppy fashion, with both sides preferring to give the ball away at every opportunity rather than use it to good effect.

In the 51st minute Shola Ameobi stopped Benayoun on the edge of the penalty area with a deliberate foul that brought the Newcastle player a yellow card.

West Ham were again unable to make the most of their advantage and Benayoun's effort was blocked by United's defensive wall.
In the 55th minute West Ham were almost level for a second time when Robbie Elliott made a hash of an attempted clearance to leave Harewood with a clear scoring chance.

But the West Ham striker's effort was brilliantly saved by Given as the home side increased the pressure on the Geordies.

Seconds later the ball rebounded to West Ham midfielder Carl Fletcher whose 25-yard drive beat the outstretched Given, only for the right-hand upright to come to the Newcastle 'keeper's rescue.

Newcastle had a further escape immediately afterwards when a cross from Zamora fell to the feet of defender James Collins, but his goalbound effort was hooked off the line by Shearer.

In the 61st minute Benayoun was replaced by David Bellion as West Ham manager Alan Pardew searched for an alternative method of puncturing the Newcastle defence for a second time.

Shearer scored Newcastle's third in the 65th minute with his first-ever goal at Upton Park and one which takes him within one of equalling Jackie Milburn's all-time record of 200 for the club.
The goal, courtesy of a slide rule pass from Owen, looked to have ended West Ham's interest, but they bargained without the unpredictability of Ameobi.

He inexplicably handled the ball in the 73rd minute to allow Harewood to slot home the resultant spot-kick and give the home side a lifeline.

Only a fine save by Carroll prevented Owen from completing his hat-trick in the 85th minute when he did well to stop the England man's header from dipping into the roof of the net.

However, a counter-attack in the final seconds of injury time saw Owen score his third from a pass by Amady Faye.

My 2-cents worth : Finally! A good string of results! Though I am pretty disappointed with the performance of Shola Ameobi (again), the duo of Shearer and Owen did it for me.. thankfully.

Newcastle 1 - 0 Arsenal at St James' Park

Nolberto Solano chose the perfect moment to score his first goal since returning to Newcastle to condemn 10-man Arsenal to a second successive Barclays Premiership defeat.

The Peruvian struck with just eight minutes remaining to hand under-pressure manager Graeme Souness a 1-0 victory, a first win in five attempts, as Gilberto was sent off for two bookable offences.

That the home side created little in attack until the dying minutes of the first half - when the outstanding Scott Parker sent a dangerous ball across the face of goal and Michael Owen danced his way into a promising position before being muscled out of it - was a concern, but the fact is they had their hands full elsewhere.

The rearguard was pierced only once, though, on 27 minutes, when Thierry Henry's volley from Freddie Ljungberg's cross was heading for the top corner, only for Shay Given to pull off a stunning save to keep it out.

Souness' side, buoyed by their resilience in the opening 45 minutes, returned after the break and set about the visitors from the off.

Newcastle's momentum increased further on 57 minutes when Gilberto, who had earlier been booked for a foul on Shola Ameobi, caught Jean-Alain Boumsong with a mis-timed challenge and was dismissed.

But there was to be a twist in the tale.

Shearer battled well to return the ball to Solano on the right edge of the penalty area with eight minutes remaining and the Peruvian needed no second invitation to blast a blistering low drive across Jens Lehmann and into the bottom corner to set St James' Park alight.

Owen might have made it 2-0 on 86 minutes, but one goal proved enough despite a frantic finish in five agonising minutes of added time.

My take: Finally! Newcastle breaks the duck against Arsenal... but it's at home! Let's see them beat them away in the future.

Newcastle drew with Aston Villa....... at HOME.

I shall no longer post personal thoughts and match reports, to spite Newcastle, until they wake up and win. But, when will they win?

Wigan 1 - 0 Newcastle at JJB Stadium

Well, I would have loved to write out a nice entry about how Newcastle finally overcame Wigan...












BUT THAT IS NOT TO BE! And Emre got injured in the process! (thus I will not blog the match out, cept for the fact that Wigan had 70% possession in the 2nd half)

There goes our Carling Cup dreams. Bah. May as well lose to Grimsby, bah! Souness blasted his players for the poor performance, and I totally agree with the man. If they don't buck up soon, they will soon be without a manager again.