Another defeat but there is still a long way to go

Newcastle United slumped to their second defeat of the season yesterday when they conceded a late winner against a well organised Huddersfield Town side. Whilst the defeat is hard to take, it was completely deserved as once again, the magpies never really got going in the match.

It would be easy to jump on Rafa Benitez’s back right now and lets face it, that is exactly what the rest of the country is waiting for us to do. They see us Newcastle fans as spoilt and most of all deluded. They think we expect success, that we have a god given right to win and that we all expect to walk this league. They watch as managers come and go and seemingly all down to the fans wanting them out without any good reason. This may have been the case with Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce (but certainly without good reason!) but most managers of the club I have witnessed have had an awful lot of support, perhaps at times more than they have deserved. With Rafa Benitez it is different; the fans are behind him completely - we know we will never get a better manager at the club.

Not one Newcastle United fan I know thinks the club’s problems are down to Benitez or that we are set to walk the league. Yes, we are confident, yes we like Rafa and are behind him completely and yes, we think we have a strong squad which is capable of winning the league but do we expect that? Of course not - I expect to lose, as a Newcastle United fan it is what I am programmed to expect, I rarely see us win!

I had hoped we would approach the game differently yesterday - with perhaps a more attacking side and even with two up front. It was refreshing to see Colback and Hanley dropped as I thought they both, Colback especially, were poor against Fulham.

The game started with an absolutely electric atmosphere generated by the Gallowgate Flags group which provided 500 flags for fans in the Gallowgate end to wave before the game started. It was a spectacular sight and given the 52,000+ crowd you could argue that the fans have done everything they could have.

Unfortunately for us, the let down was, as ever, on the pitch. The players seemed nervous and lacked confidence, they failed to turn attacks in to chances and seemed fragile all over the pitch. I think we all know what is needed, it is quite simple, we need a win to lift the confidence. The first game away at Fulham was always going to be tricky; away ties in London have proved that time and time again for Newcastle. The game yesterday was the perfect time to get a win but it was not to be.

We now go in to the Reading game at home on Wednesday night with no points and seemingly no confidence. I would really like to see us attack this game and really throw caution to the wind. Newcastle’s best form of defence has always been attack; in my lifetime we have never been able to defend! We need to take the game to Reading, we need to put in a no surrender type performance that us fans of a certain age used to watch under Kevin Keegan. We have a side capable of that in this division.

The Huddersfield boss David Wagner said some sensible points after the game; Newcastle United is a new side, it is a developing side and it will take time to click and I tend to agree. Going back to my original point, it would be easy to jump on Rafa right now. What has Darlow done wrong? Why stick with Dummett? Anita is not a right winger! Actually, I can give him his dues on the first two but Vurnon Anita, on the right wing? Seriously?

No, I for one will not be jumping on Rafa at all this season; I trust him, I respect him, I like him and I support him. I can see that changes need to be made but I would imagine he can see that too. I am not going to set a date to judge Benitez in the same way that McClaren did with his famous “judge me after 10 games” quote. Targets like that never turn out well do they Steve? However, I do think we need to start winning games and winning games quick. This is a season where I want us to be promoted and I feel we can do that. The only way to do that is to win, it doesn’t matter how we win, we just need to win. On to Reading.