5 live describe the defeat as very harsh on Newcastle

It seems we reserve decent London performances for Chelsea and still leave with bugger all

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Answers

I'm gutted. I have no idea how the lads played since I didn't get to see or hear it in the end. Anyone - what was the performance like? Did Dyer get on and did he look OK?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Elleray is an utter Homer. One of the linesmen was clearly being operated with wires by the home "fans". Shearer missed 3 he would have put away on other days, Bellamy 2, O'Brien 3 and someone else (can't remember who) missed one. Gudjohnson took the piss out of us and it was once he was subbed that we really had them in the vice. Two terrific saves from Given and 3 misses (including a lob cannoning off the bar for Jokanovic).

Gut wrenching stuff. Kieron had two terrific runs but looked rusty (obviously) while Bernard was shit and brilliant in equal parts.

Perhaps the best aspect of the night was that The Red Lion in Earsden was the only pub towards Whitley Bay showing the match and it was heaving. Great atmosphere and torrents of bile directed at Ellaray, Le Saux, Hasselbaink, cockerknees in general and that shit- hole they call our capital city.

You can't keep playing that well and lose.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

In the first half they had more, better chances. But we also had a couple of good ones too. At half time I felt it could still go either way. For the whole of the second half we were generally better. All of their offensive moves were balls over the top. We had lots of clear cut chances and looked great. Especially near the end which makes it even worse. It really looked like we would score "any minute now" but there weren't many left. And just at the end they had their best chance of that half and put it away after looking crap for the past 15 minutes. Dyer came on and looked great. We seemed to be playing a lot more directly to their goal whe he was on. Whereas before that we were depending more on the wingers. Bernard looked a lot better than Robert. Don't be sprised if he starts for a few premier league games soon. And Solano was OUTSTANDING. Man of the match in my opinion. Dabizas also had a great game. Given once again made a fine save. We didn't use Bellamy as much as we normally do. I think it's the first time i've seen him have only one 1 on 1 with the keeper in 90 minutes. But It would be unfair to say he played badly as he did nothig wrong.

Overall I don't think we could have asked for a better performance from our current squad. If we played that match 10 times and played like that, we'd win at least 5. But I guess it doesn't work like that :-(

AND HOW THE F*CK DID O'BRIEN MISS !!

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Softie I tried the Hunting Lodge and the Monkey in Monkseaton Never thought about the Lion. I know for next time though.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Ta for the reports. Oh well.

BTW I just KNEW Zenden would play some significant part tonight -on the cards.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

But the Chelsea fans hate Zenden. I suppose that is worth nothing as a consolation

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Why do they hate him?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Another gut-wrenching defeat in the latter stages of a Cup competition. Watched the game in the lercal that was absolutely packed to the rafters. It was like watching at SJP in the old days - great atmosphere.

The game itself was pretty good; fairly even overall, although we had much the better of the final 20-25 minutes, and where really pushing forward for the winner when we were caught on the break with the sucker punch in ET.

What made it even more disappointing was that with 2-3 minutes to go Andy O'Brien put a free header over the bar from a corner from inside the 6yd box! It was actually harder to miss - and naturally a few minutes later we paid the ultimate penalty when a poorly marked Zenden hit a terrific cross to a totally unmarked Hasselbaink inside the 6yd box. Even though it was a breakway goal, to find JFH completely unmarked in the 6yd box was dreadfully disappointing.

In a tight 1st half, Chelsea hit the bar and Bellamy almost hit the corner flag from a good position inside the box.

Dyer came on with 20 minutes to go and did OK, although to be honest I thought Olivier Bernard had aquitted himself pretty well before that.

The Curse lives on - and I'm coming to the conclusion that we'll never win owt in my lifetime.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Condensation rolling down the walls and only two behind the bar Kennyboy - hopefully they'll be ready for the crowd next time as well.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Didnt feel let down after watching it on the tele- best performance by a mile on TV this season though lacking cutting edge due to a solid Chelsea defence+'away tactics'. 100% effort if not more from everyone and it bodes well for the season ahead. Just unlucky again though u cud argue we were extremely lucky 1st half with the shot hitting the crossbar+Hasselbank missing a good pass across goal.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Sorry but after playing so well you cannot just go to sleep in the 92nd minute. I mean for f*cks sake we had a chance. I don't care about the O'Brien miss but O'Brien allowing Hasselbaink to stroll into the box unmarked in the 92nd minute is unforgiveable. Jesus I'm so angry and dissapointed.

On a positive note was glad to see Dyer wasn't injured as many feared. We also passed theball well throughout the match and looked confident. Screw Chelsea they'll always be foreign and over paid.

Still livid that we gave them a goal after playing pretty well with bags of grit.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Ipswich in the last round was on the TV as well wasn't it?

Surely that one was better, especially the first half?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

I agree - I don't think I'll live to see NUFC win ANYTHING in my lifetime either. I started to support them when I was a wee lass and my first strong Toon memories are the 74 and 76 cup defeats. If I'd known then that this would be what following the Toon was like all the time, I might not have bothered.

Still.......keep the faith.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

I agree with you Jim- Solano looked exceptional on the ball without really creating that much- very good away performance from him hence YBR didnt stick Lua on till very(very)late. Dabs was good also which speaks volumes when he had to mark Hasselbank(not sure if he was to blame for the goal). Barnard contributed much much more than RObert has since his first few games- its great that YBR has someone to threaten Robert + get his undoubted talent into gear. I think if Dyer cud successfully replace Lee/Speed in central midfield we could be well on our way to completing the jigsaw.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Swift and I were crying on the phone after the game (in a deep- voiced, manly fashion of course) and we have also decided that we will never win again in London. Our 30 year losing streak will be the most famous bit of sports trivia of the century.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

I remember a teacher of mine trying to explain the notion of 'chance' and luck. He said that when people are gambling on roulette say, they often say. 'has to be red next' after a run of black. Well there's nothing to say it does HAVE to be red next, the routlette wheel could keep bringing up black every time until eternity.

This is my very long winded way of saying that we might never ever win in London again. All this 'it has to happen sometime'...........well there's nothing to say it will.

Cheerful soul aren't I?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Ok, Unless you die within the next 5 years then you will see Newcastle win something. We were getting there around 97, champs league ect.. A few bad managers are the only reason that we aren't in the champs league every year. Last year we had to pick ourselves up and ensure we weren't relegated. Now we have stability and a great manager. We are looking to finish in the top half and challenge a European spot. Starting next year we will have a stronger squad and be challenging the champions league. In 3 years time we WILL be backwhere we belong and seen as one of the main title contenders. And thats not just me being hopeful, I really believe it.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Lynda, I often think exactly the same thing. It really does seem like a curse the longer it goes on.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Im 'only' 29 but i might give up smoking JUST to make sure i see Newcastle win something :-)

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Jim, 5 more years of this sort of thing and I'll be in my box with a burst ulcer. Course if we DO win I'll probably be in line for a heart attack...

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

LOL

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Actually, I hadn't considered the fact that the Toon finally winning something could result in several of having a terminal wobbler!

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Finally found a local pub showing the game around 7.55. It was heaving but what I could see through heeds looked like we were the better team. Elleray gave us nowt as usual tho' Bellamy talked himself into the book AGAIN! We really didn't deserve to lose like that. Oh well now we can concentrate on the league etc etc blah blah blah............... VERY p*ssed off ( and a bit p*ssed!)

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Thanks for the eyewitness reviews folks. Makes me feel a little better that we played well. That's definitely a step up over our usual London form. And I'm not giving up hope of seeing us win something in my lifetime. Course I also plan on shattering the records and living to 150!

However I don't think I'll ever see us win in London in my lifetime. Not sure I'll make it to 200y.o. ;-))

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Well I thought we played very well. A good goal won it, it's just a pity that it wasn't ours :-(

A great game of footy. Bellamy was booked for a retaliatary kick at Terry and not for mouthing off. I thought Bernard was good and would maybe have brought Dyer on for Lee to "go for it" at the death.

Oh well....

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001