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When I left the kids’ swimming lessons we were winning 1-0

Newcastle United lost against Manchester City yesterday. The score line was 6-1 and this should come as no surprise having lost 4-0, 4-0 and 5-0 in our last 3 league visited to the Etihad stadium but it was the manner in which the defeat happened that was disappointing. Newcastle United played some fantastic football in the first half and were unlucky not to go in to the break holding a lead but unfortunately for us, Sergio Aguero happened.

I was actually at my youngest’s swimming lesson at 3pm and whilst (of course) watching proudly on at my 4 year old son performing five bombs in the pool, I was keeping one eye on Twitter for the scores coming in. MITROVIC HAS SCORED. MITROGOAL. My timeline went wild. We are playing well, who is this side? What a well worked goal. This was encouraging. When the lesson was over I got my son ready, put him in the car, enthusiastically drove home and checked the score. 6-1 to them, 30 minutes still left to play.

Manchester City were poor in the first half, there is no denying that but Manchester City blew us away in the second half. They have truly world class players in every position. They have world class players on the bench who can more than replace the likes of the injured Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure. After Newcastle United invested £50m in the squad during the summer we started with a forward (I use that term loosely) in Yoan Gouffran in the central midfield role and had to again rely on the young, inexperienced (but promising) Kevin Mbabu at left back, out of position again. Newcastle’s squad lacks depth and it has done for a decade now. Fans have been crying out for better players in every position; after all, we have an awful injury, surely it makes sense to have a big squad? No? What do fans know anyway?

I said in my last blog that I wanted to focus on the positives from now on with Newcastle United. Some might say that is an impossible task and quite frankly, I’m starting to side with them but let’s give it a go…

We have had the toughest set of fixtures out of anyone in the league and this is nicely illustrated by the fact we are sitting quite comfortably on the bottom of the table. Out of those starting fixtures, the Watford defeat was hard to take and the Sheffield Wednesday defeat was awful but looking at the other games – were we expected to get anything from them? I’m writing this at 6.45am with the noise of Dino Dan coming from the TV next door – alcohol induced optimism isn’t a factor here; we have had a tough run of fixtures and whilst a lot of fans on Twitter made some noises about Steve McClaren’s post-match comments on the season starting at Norwich, he does have a point.

We’ve also performed well, albeit remaining win-less, against Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. There are the makings of a good side and we do have some extremely talented players; are they taking time to gel, is there something more sinister going on? Who knows.

Whilst saying I am going to focus on the positives I also said I wouldn’t glass over the negatives and whilst I wrote the above a little tongue in cheek I am of course completely aware that whilst the results have been poor, the performances of both the team and individuals has been dire. We lack character, we lack leadership (seemingly on and off the pitch), we lack talent, we lack strength in depth, we lack depth for that matter. We truly are an awful side and despite some signs of promise, the overall feeling is we are just a downright poor side. There are many, many negative things to write about right now; the players’ attitude, their (lack of) character, their (lack of) talent, their (lack of) desire and I could possibly repeat the above for the off-field staff too. This season is a complete mess. This season will be a relegation battle; of that I have no doubt.

We now have a short break in the season before taking on Norwich at home – I usually hate breaks in football but this one might be quite a good one for Newcastle United and their fans. Forget about football for a bit, spend some time with the family. Go outside, get some fresh air. Do some gardening, cut the grass for the last time of the year. Just forget about football and forget about Newcastle United for the good of your health.