Match Thread Newcastle v Bradford Wed 24 Sept 19:45 Carabao cup

Could have been 10 but pleased it was only 4. Fantastic for Cook to get his goal. No lessons learnt tonight for me. We were just beaten by a team 10x better than us who are in a different stratosphere when it comes to standing in the game. Back to our bread and butter with Blackpool on Saturday.

 

What are the chances of this?

 

We needed Newcastle to have a off night and City to be at they best to run them close. The non stop attacking quick football with out giving the ball away showed the gulf in class. Onwards and upwards to the more important game on Saturday.

 

Realistically we were never going to win this one. Take the £300k, move on to L1 football and use the money in January if needed.

 

Spot on. Carried away pre match in my case. A less changed side and a case of what might might have been, or at least showed better how feckin great we are. Second half better but by then the chicken was cooked. Chasm of finances rang out.

But

Cooky, you beautiful man. Celebrated that goal down oxfordshire in the sports and social like it was a winner.

Sometimes football goes beyond result.

 

Terrible striker, thought he was sh1t at pressing.

 

Alas it was not to be. To be fair the team we started tonight would struggle against Blackpool on Saturday and the bulk of Howes starting line up gave Barcelona a fright first half last week. Great to see Cooky get his dream goal at St James Park. Hope Swan is fit for Saturday as Humphrys looks increasingly useless but as I drown my sorrows on the quayside I'm proud of my team and our wonderful fans.

 

Exactly.

Apart from an 18 yard thunderbolt,what else did he do?

 

Just marking him the odd time would have been a great start to be fair.

 

It's almost as if Humphrys was a wider forward all along, just like the Barnsley fans told us.

Who'd a thunk it.

 

I don’t think we expected to win that. Not the sane ones anyway. Lovely for Cookie to score, even better it was versus Newcastle. Power will have a sleep tonight, because he’s been all over this game since the start. Top of the league puts pressure on the skipper. Maybe he’s slightly relieved the cup has gone. GA happy no injuries and everyone played to their potential. Cook scoring adds another arrow to his claim for starting above humph and Powell, who I thought were both ineffective. Our defence did good. We’re not going to get unlocked by Bruno passes in our league. In my opinion, he’s the best midfield player in the Premier league. Also made me proud that Trippier was on the same pitch as our players,
We lost but we did OK!

 

Echo that last statement: yeah, it was a bit reminiscent of the Swansea City game at Wembley at times, but these clubs should be passing through us. Their players should be blurs on our defenders' peripheral vision. That's why that squad is worth about £500 million or whatever.

I don't think anyone expected to win, but I think you have that little hope that they play their passes to our defenders, that they blaze most of their efforts wide, and that they overplay at the back given us enough chances to win or draw.

But I can't fault the players tonight, didn't think everyone got it perfectly right, but so what.

 

Liverpool.

Barca.

Bradford City.

 

That's because we is massive innit

 

Fair few Newcastle fans have stopped us tonight in the bars after the match to compliment our team and especially the fans.

I thought 3-1 pre-game and thought it would have been fair during too. Glad we got our goal and Cook got his moment. Onto the next one!

 

There's loads of them on twitter saying the best away fans they've seen at SJP for years. I've also seen a few commenting about Cook and saying they are absolutely made up for him.

 

They are proper fans at Newcastle. Proper club. Nice to hear they’ve complimented our fans.

sounded great on Sky, lads and lasses. Well done.

 

I think last night was everything it needed to be. A great experience for management, players, club and fans with a decent financial boost which we will have not originally planned for. Add to that Cookie getting his moment - perfect.

On the playing side, I think GA got it absolutely spot on. Players who haven’t featured much got a needed run out and/or a moment they’ll likely remember (Humphrys, Halliday, Powell, Kelly, Byrne) which meant most of the first choice XI weren’t needed for the full 90. Fully appreciate the opposition is incomparable to league 1 standard and it was his first game of the season, but it solidified for me that Byrne is a back up and EFL trophy squad member at the moment. Kelly the same.

Yet again I thought Tourey was very good. He looked comfortable and was relatively faultless throughout. Kudos to Walker for keeping the score down, however think he would have been disappointed if he had conceded some of the stops he made.

Seen some comments saying we learnt nothing from it - have to disagree. The likes of Pointon, Leigh, Neufville even Metcalfe from the bench, had the chance to experience what it takes to play at the elite level. If they have aspirations to step up, this was one of the few moments they’ll get to experience first hand. Surely that can only benefit both player and club.

My one and only downside (result aside) was playing on Wednesday ahead of Saturday. Hope the players can recover accordingly. Outside of that, it was all good IMO.

 

One take, despite the opposition, is that Humphrys is devoid of all confidence in front of goal. He should be scoring that vs Newcastle/Newport/New Saints.

 

Be no training today as Wednesday is usually the day off I believe so that will help recovery. I would imagine tomorrow will be a light training session making sure the players are fresh to go on Saturday.