My thoughts on last night

1. In every friendly i have seen so far our perfomance has improved markedly with the introduction of the substututes, particularly Henderson and Robinson. This may be because they are more hungry or possibly simply because they are better than our starting players.

2. I thought etuhu was very good last night although he needs to be more positive with the ball - tends to go backwards or sideways too often when he could drive forward. Having said that robbo has looked very good when he has come on and upped the tempo so I can't decide whether I would prefer him or Etuhu to start!

3. The centrebacks look decent but at fullback we are very weak and desperately need a new right back.

4. Gallagher is a good shot stopper and a decent keeper but is too small and we will concede a few goals from high balls into the box this season.

5. The reintroduction on Hughes on the right was ominous. He was awful and did nothing. look very unhappy with life when he came off. Howevere Worthy seems determined to keep him in the team.

6. i sat behind Worthy's dugout and it was interesting. all he does is should at Jurgen Colin all game. it was noticeable that roeder was talking to all the Newcastle subs and telling them exactly what he wanted them to do and where they should play before sending them on. Worthy just turns to the subs on the bench and says - you're on. No instructions or pep talk at all.

7. In general thought we were ok but newcastle did make it look a bit too easy at times and possibly had another gear to slip into if necessary.

Posted By: Jim, Jul 27, 11:42:18