Newcastle Fan View: United stumble, but it’s only a blip

Yesterday’s home defeat against Blackburn Rovers was nothing more than a blip.  Yes, it was a rather unfortunate blip given that a win would have given us a record equalling 10th victory in a row but it was nothing more than a blip, nothing to worry about. The defeat should not mean we start to panic, we remain top of the league, despite the chasing pack all winning. We simply need to move on, forget about the result and look ahead to the Hull EFL Cup quarter final on Tuesday night.

If you were a cynic, you could say that is exactly what Rafa did, albeit rather prematurely. When you looked at his team selection yesterday you could argue that he didn’t have just one eye on the Tuesday night cup game - he had both eyes on it. We all know Rafa likes a bit of rotation but in my opinion both he and the players completely under-estimated the threat of Blackburn Rovers.

If anything, the result yesterday shows just how far we have come under Benitez since he took over. The result and certainly the performance against Blackburn was the norm last season; it is what we had come to expect, whereas this season it is the exact opposite, the defeat was a surprise. A defeat is never easy and I woke up this morning with that feeling of defeat and disappointment that was a regular occurrence last season. It’s a feeling I had forgotten and it is not a feeling I want to rush back to.

As for the game yesterday, it was a pretty average performance by the Magpies. I sadly (you could say luckily) missed the game, the first home match I have missed all season as I had to work. I have watched the highlights back and we seemed to be unlucky. It might not have been the most exciting of games but we dominated possession, we had a few chances and they scrambled in a goal towards the end. We were unlucky, we lost, we move on. Simple as that. I’m gutted of course, but we must keep looking ahead.

On Tuesday, we face Hull EFL Cup quarter final. It is most definitely a game we should be looking at winning, despite facing a Premiership opposition. Hull City are in awful form now and judging by the home side fans’ complete lack of interest in the game, they seem to have written off this game already. What is a shame is that Hull haven’t made the unsold tickets available to Newcastle United fans who are desperate to get there, instead they have chosen to close an entire tier due to lack of interest?

Yesterday was tough to take but I am not disheartened. It was a blip, an unlucky result. We are not unbeatable and we should look at this game and push on.