I thought that yesterday we had the perfect chance to build on an encouraging performance but we showed nothing at St James' Park. The great performances from Routledge and D'Alessandro on Wednesday transformed into nothing performances as both rarely saw the ball and when they did have it then they gave it straight back, the midfield were outfought for every ball, Benjani offered nothing up front and the defence, especially Griffin looked very suspect at times. In fact the only two players to come out of that game were Linvoy who gave everything and Dean Keily who kept the score respectable.
When will it take Harry to realise that 4-5-1 with our squad does not work! Benjani cannot hold the ball up well enough and needs a striker to partner him. Whether that be Toddy or Karadas or Lua Lua (now he's back) is up to Redknapp but I'm expecting Benjani and Lua Lua to play up front together next week. Despite his frustrating nature I think we've missed Lua Lua. We haven't won a single game without him and he is capable of scaring defenders and the odd flash of brilliance, he just has to learn to stop being so wasteful. Another thing. Why hasn't Brian Priske played when it's pretty clear that he is better than Andy Griffin? Griffin has come in for a lot of deserved criticism lately and got ran ragged once again yesterday, and his idea of getting forward is hoofing the ball up the field in the hope someone in a blue shirt will get it. In the short time Priske has been here he looks more calm and composed on the ball and he gets forward often and I just wish Redknapp would swallow his pride and play him!
Going back to the result is this now the end for us? Are we now doomed to the Coca Cola Championship next season? My answer is probably. We're 7 points adrift of Middlesbrough; who have a game in hand and our next two games are against the top two teams in the league so by the end of February there is a strong possibility we'll fall even further behind. What we cannot do as fans is give up and accept relegation. The moment the fans do, it can easily rub off onto the players. There is still a slight glimmer of hope as after February there are fixtures that can give us promise of a run we just need to get out of February with a chance of catching Middlesbrough and/or West Brom. It's all ifs and buts but we need to stay positive.
Going back to the subject of broken records, I told you so about Shearer didn't I?