Towards the end of this match, with a couple of minutes left, I was half planning this entry in my head. I was also worrying I'd have to change it---it seemed almost inevitable that we would throw the result away. I was going to talk about luck; I suppose I still am. That post would have went something like this: It is undeniably true that to be a top team, in any division, you need your share of good fortune. It can be argued that good teams make their own luck but sometimes it has to start from somewhere. In the opening moments and minutes it looked like we might just get that bit of luck to set us on our way. While some were undoubtedly still taking their seats (you've paid the money, the teams are on the pitch, the excitement and tension are almost touchable---what is it with you people who think it's OK to wander in minutes late?) we had quite a chunk. If it hadn't been the first minute of the first match of the season Elliot's clumsiness in the box may have been handball and we could have been one down. As it was, he got away with it. Then the opposition decided to gift Bellamy a chance and, following on from preseason form, he for once managed not to fluff the lines. But that's no longer the entry, for the gods do not smile on the Toon for too long--ever. They just like to use us in their big cosmic joke of a dice game. So the luck I was going to talk about seeing us on our way came back to haunt us, of course--this is Newcastle. Dyer slips at the worst moment. The linesman decides that a player diving in front of the keeper isn't really interfering and hey, if you handle the ball into the net, what the hell. On another day it would have been disallowed. On another day Jenas would have sealed it.
Enough of luck. Let's try some analysis. In fairness the result was probably about right. Both teams had periods of pressure. Neither keeper made that many saves. Our makeshift backline looked more organised than the first choice had for most of last season. That has to be encouraging for when players become available again. It was undoubtedly helped by man of the match Butt though. In fact, at two and a half million, it must look on that performance that he really was a summer sale special bank holiday deal. A replacement for Speed maybe, but is it possible he's better? Maybe.
We were injury plagued, conjunctivitis and other more normal ailments taking their toll. But we didn't look too bad. Milner and Carr linked well on the right. Milner (who's first few touches had me worrying he was going to have a stinker but came on) must practice his crossing though. Too many times, especially during the first half, he found ample space on the right only to deliver harmless balls to the Middlesbrough defense. The potency down the right also helped disguise the anonymity (barring long range free kicks) of Robert on the left. Bernard was more prominent than he.
At the cutting end it was as you were, Bellamy and Shearer playing alongside each other in the strikeforce which, when fit, was so potent last season. And of course it worked, a goal each. More noticeable was the introduction of Ameobi, especially when that resulted in three strikers being on the pitch. One might surmise that Kluivert is still not match fit, for surely he would have been a more obvious choice. The conspiracy theorist will note who he did eventually replace. Maybe he and Shearer can't (or won't?) play together. Ameobi to be honest did alright, adding a dynamism which had faded by that time, and winning the penalty for Shearer to score what should have been the winner. By that point the game had already become ragged and stayed that way. Boro attacked even more and we broke. Kluivert nearly converted on his proper debut, and one must wonder if it was his outstretched leg which put Jenas off what was a sitter. That miss cost as, with a certain feeling of inevitability, we let the lead slip a second time in the final breaths of the game.
The goal, as mentioned, should not have stood. But as captain Shearer pointed out post match, the defense still shouldn't have allowed it to be scored. Last season we were incapable of actually winning away and far too likely to turn victory into a draw. The pattern has begun to repeat and must be broken quickly or it will once again cost us league position.
(@22:08)
