If you has asked Newcastle fans after our first 4 games of the season how things were going you would have been told Newcastle would finish in the top 6 in the league — no problems.
In fact in a recent poll we conducted asking where we would finish – on our Newcastle United Blog – 60% of the readers that Newcastle United would be in 6th place (see the full breakdown here).
Newcastle fans of course have always been known for their undying optimism and that Newcastle will some day return to their great years of the past. Certainly, when growing up in Newcastle my father was a great supporter and in the mid-fifties we had just won 3 FA Cup finals in 5 years and we were on top of the world. We were one of the best teams in the world as far as we were concerned.
As everybody knows now unfortunately, Newcastle United are going through one of their worst spells in history in terms of not winning trophies. It was back in 1969 when Bobby Moncur led the team to their last victory in the Inter Cities Fair cup, when the great Joe Harvey was manager.
That was the last trophy Newcastle won — and the last home trophy was the FA Cup win over a Don Revie led Manchester City 3-1, when Jackie Milburn scored with a header (very strange for Wor Jackie to even head a ball) in the first minute. We watched that game on TV and both my parents were at Wembley.
This season started very well under Sam Allardyce, who maybe the perfect manager for Newcastle and until Monday night things were going really well and hopes were high that this could be the season to win something. But in truth, Newcastle were hopeless against Derby County, who to their credit fought tooth and nail every inch of the way, and won with a great goal from Kenny Miller on his debut.
While Newcastle never got going at all, it was a great win for Derby County and their manager Billy Davies, who seemed to do as much work on the sideline as his players were doing on the field . It showed just how strong the Premiership really is and no team can take any game for granted.
So now things at Newcastle are not looking quite as rosy as they once seemed for this season. However, we expect to beat West Ham United on Sunday although it should be a close game. Then Newcastle should be able to sneak a win against Arsenal on Tuesday night at the Emirates in the Carling Cup. But only if Arsene Wenger plays fair and fields his reserve team, or at least a weakened team, so we have some chance of winning 😀
Yes, it’s was a blow on Monday night, but the hopes of our Newcastle United fans remain fairly undiminished — and we still think we can do very well this season. Top 6 definitely and maybe top 4? Well, maybe not top 4 – at least not yet – we don’t want to get too carried away do we?
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