Wiggy | 
03 18th, 2008| 
I am aching loads!!! And its ace 
Was great to be back in the gym after a week off, but god I struggled to start with! On one machine it took all my effort just to lift it up, but once it was up the reps were easier, which is normally the way. Didnt do a full circuit like we normally do, as John still wasn’t feeling 100%, and had also been on a 3 mile run with Pete and Disco Dan altho Pete and Dan decided to extend their run to 5 miles, cos John pussied out
Left the gym, and went straight to my mum and dads to have the Sunday dinner they’d cooked me, and also to watch the Newcastle game. Jesus I was nervous before the start of the game. We didnt start too badly, but in the end Birmingham pretty much dominated the first half, and Lard Viduk, Owen and Martins couldn’t really get into the game. 2nd half and Martins was by far the most dangerous player on the pitch, and Butt and Barton began getting stuck in, and we got a goal back.
The True Faith guys tell the match much better than me…
Match Report
Maybe it was the St Patrick’s Day Guinness but I felt a bit more confident than of late as Saint Kev took the lads to St Andrews. The news beforehand, that Kev was intending to start with 3 forwards, bumped up the anticipation even more. Yeah we might lose the midfield battle but Brum were hardly going to go for all out attack when they had Viduka, Owen, and Martins to take care of at the back.
With Newcastle returning some of their ticket allocation it was unusual to find a cash turnstile for the away fans. Really turning the clock back. Despite that, there were still empty spaces in our end when the teams came out.
Despite all the criticism of the players in recent weeks it looked a decent enough side on paper. (Substitute the usual jokes about playing on grass). It could be argued that any of Duff, Milner, or N’Zogbia would be a better bet than Barton on the left of the midfield three but Joey is probably more capable of doing the defensive duties than the others. There was the added bonus of not playing Smith out of position, I.e. not playing at all.
Nowt of note took place until the 12th minute when a nutter calmly walked out of the home corner adjacent to us, onto the pitch and stood abusing the Geordies, much to our amusement. Two stewards went on to remove him but were unsuccessful and had to call on the long arm of the law for assistance. We now had the game held up by the sight of four heavyweights trying to remove the slightly built imbecile from the pitch. Hilarious but presumably not covered by the Setanta TV cameras.
As the match progressed it seemed that, as feared, we were losing the midfield battle but I am not convinced this was entirely down to the three personnel patrolling that area. Almost every clearance from a Newcastle defender failed to find a black and white shirt, and headers especially, went higher horizontally than vertically. Taylor was the most guilty culprit.
After 20 minutes Geremi was yellow carded for a foul when all he did was attempt to win the ball. Shortly after that we got out first decent shot on goal but Owen put it over the bar from about 25 yards.
The inevitable “Going down with the Mackems” chant was produced by the Geordies after 25 minutes but 8 minutes later the noisy away support was silenced by McFadden who tricked Faye before coolly putting the ball past Steve Harper. In fairness to Faye he was exposed in a one on one situation due to a poor header by Taylor who appeared to misjudge the bounce of the ball.
This woke up the St Andrews library and briefly returned the anti Mackem chant although, being Brummies, I doubt they know what a Mackem is.
For the remainder of the half the away fans were muted, probably fearing the worst. A defeat would mean us one place nearer the drop and another blow to fragile confidence. Personally, I didn’t think we played too badly in the at half and there were signs that Birmingham were terrified of the pace of Martins. The problem until then was that only Nicky Butt looked capable of making a decisive pass.
The second half saw much more action and it was mainly around the penalty area in front of us as the Lads attacked relentlessly. A goal looked inevitable and it came from Michael Owen who pounced on a loose ball when their keeper was unable to hold a low shot from Oba. (Maybe we should add St Michael to the heading) Interesting question here. If the positions had been reversed and Owen had taken the first shot, would Martins have reacted quickly enough to score? I guess we will never know but for me it was one in the eye for the Owen detractors. Minutes earlier most of our fans thought Owen had scored when he reacted quickly and appeared to tip the ball into the net only for the keeper to stick out a hand and make a good save.
Plenty of more attacking football followed as Newcastle went for the winner. The ball was being won in midfield although Barton tended to give it away as soon as he won it. Geremi had possibly his best game for Newcastle, looking yards quicker than I have seen him this season, while Butt was tremendous. I dread to think what would happen if he gets injured.
The poor display from Barton lead to conjecture about subs coming on. The sight of the Zog warming up seemed to confirm our thoughts only for gasps of amazement to be heard as the board went up to call off Martins.
Clearly Kev and his coaches know more about tactics than me and I suppose the idea was to revert to a four man midfield. Nevertheless it was Martins who had frightened the Brum defence the most so it seemed strange to take him off. Anyway Charles continued the attacking role albeit from a deeper position. He does, however, tend to get caught in possession too often for my liking.
A couple of decent saves, one each at either end, ensured that the game finished without any more goals. It was difficult to know what we wanted most, United to attack and score a winner, or defend the point we had. Certainly the cry of “Attack, Attack” was muted and brief. Perhaps Geordies are learning the harsh facts of life, an away point is better than nothing especially when it means that your relegation rivals fail to win a home game.
Well done Lads. I have been saying for weeks that we will be relegated but this performance raised my hopes. A repeat performance against Fulham and we should be OK
Dave Greaves
LINK
Maybe Olstizzle, or my weatherman over in Paphos can have a look if they read this HAHA. I seem to be having trouble receiving some text messages 
Gonna be out a few of them nights thats for sure, and I’m out with Moorey and Bagi on the Friday night, when he’s out with his workmates, and we’re gonna get smashed 
and then headed to bed, and did pretty much the same last night. Went over to A&E for my clinic appointment, and got there in plenty of time for an 11:20 appointment, to find myself sat there for about half an hour, texting Mr Baguley, who wanted me to book him in for a x-ray, as he’s pretty much falling apart 
