When the Mags go down in the City...

I surely hope that the Journey reference was appreciated. Newcastle went toe to toe with Manchester City over the weekend, and came away with a 1-2 loss, a double leg break to new signing (and still possible douche) Hatem Ben Afra, and a lot of questions about just how far this team can go.

This was a pretty highly anticipated match, as the return of Joey Barton to City sparked some passion in the fans. Barton, formerly a City player, is best known for sticking a cigar in the eye of a teammate at a Christmas party (I'm not kidding) and injuring a teammate with an overly harsh challenge in a practice. Let's just say that the blue shirts don't really send him an Easter basket every April now that he's gone. Manchester responded to their hatred of Barton by going after new signing Hatem Ben Afra, and ended up breaking both bones in Ben Afra's leg. De Jong was the culprit in the attack, an attack that the ref didn't seem to think warranted any booking. Really? Did City pay these guys off? It's crazy! 

It would get even worse in the 18th, when Mike Williamson challenged Tevez for the ball. Williamson connected with the ball as Tevez went down, and the ref called for a penalty kick. Williamson, and the rest of the Newcastle players were in total shock. Williamson was shown the yellow, the ball was placed on the spot, and Tevez got City ahead early by putting it into the net. After Coloccini went down with a groin injury, 'Castle had to rely on Sol Campbell on the back line, so most Toon Soldiers were sure of our fate. We were told, "Not so fast," however, as Jonas Gutierrez would help ease our worries temporarily. Gutierrez gobbled up an attempted clearance by City's defense, and blasted an impressive shot into the netting to make up for a goaless season last time around. The Argentinian star had us level.

It would take until the 75th to break up the draw. Man C's Adam Johnson had the ball on the near side, dribbled around the defense, and blasted a brilliant shot past Timmy Krul to snag the lead. The refs would take control of the game, yet again, as things wound down. With the Magpies down 1-2, Shola Ameobi was dragged down inside the box on the attack. Nothing from the refs. The whistle, card, and hand were all left in his pocket, and we in the Toon Army were left wondering what happened.

Hopefully a look at the lineup can shed a little light on what happened:

G: Krul- Not much more he could have done, really. But, one has to wonder, watching Forster excel with Celtic, if we'd rather have him.

D: Coloccini (Campbell 36), Williamson, Enrique, Perch- Losing Coloccini was certainly a blow, as Campbell is just too old and too slow. The other three did well enough, in reality.

M: Tioté, Barton, Nolan (Carroll 77), Gutierrez- Look, I don't like to complain, but why is Andy Carroll sitting on the bench until we're pretty much out of it? And then, you bring him in for Nolan instead of Tioté? Come on! How do you expect our #9 to find his stride riding the pine? Pathetic. Start him!

F: Ben Afra (Routledge 8), Ameobi- The starters up front should be Shola and Andy. Enough said.

At 2-4-1 (7 points, 0 GD), we're not doing as well as I felt we were doing. Newcastle has dropped all the way down to 15th in the table, with just Birmingham and Everton standing in between the Toon and the relegation zone (which Liverpool is in, by the way). We need to start notching wins, and it'll happen if the right starting eleven starts getting put out on the pitch.

We get a week off for international play as we try and figure things out. Then, on the 16th, it's back to the EPL front lines against #14 Wigan (2-3-2, 8, -9). The Latics, as they are for some reason known, are coming off of a 2-0 win against the Wolves, and are evenly matched with the Mags. This is exactly the type of team we need to own. Their fans are known as "The Mudhutters" and the "Cockney Latics," and I don't think either of those groups can stand up to the likes of the Toon Army.

I don't dig the Wig!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē