Newcastle vs Aston Villa, 3rd December 2005

The game was so boring that i was dozing off and on 10 minutes before the half time break! The collective shouts and sighs from the crowds responding to the on-pitch action awakens me every now and then. The first half wasnt the "all guns blazing" approach i had expected. Sure we were 1 up after Shearer's penalty but the hunger and desire to win was terribly missing. Same old things are still happening, stray short passes, lumping balls up-field, poor first touch and miss communication (not among 2 but 3 players!) to name a few.

I wont do the usual player ratings as i didnt watch the game completely but suffice to say some players did improve from last week's very poor performance, some suprisingly didn't. Supprising because after all the commotion about their performance last week, i expected everyone to be playing like their future depended on it. Sadly, some still performs like they did last week. Souness said before this game that it's time for the players to show what they're made off, i hope he see's those that didn't perform and draft in the relevant replacement come January, or at the end of the season (if he's still around).

No thanks to Gareth Barry too for fluffing the penalty and giving Souness more breathing space. I'm not a supporter of the current manager from the first day of his appointment. I believe in track records and his record is not exceptional enough. I would've prefered Sir Bobby to stay on.