Newcastle 1-0 Fulham Sun 15 Jan 14:00

[LittleErn]

Stop the blame game. We held our own against a good team, owned by a country, 3rd in the league and at their place. No shame and no blame

Agreed. A great performance in the circumstances. Not blaming Tosin. He wasn't on long enough to settle. I don't think Silva had any choice but to make changes because of the exhaustion factor.

I'm happy that we can give any of the top teams a game on equal terms.

[TheCeiling]

Don't forget the exhaustion after the Chelsea game plus the 2 day turn round. Agree about Tosin - he lost his man.

Players were exhausted indeed and Marco made his first substitution only at the 75' mark if I recall correctly.
He also didn't made the ideal subs (IMO), more to get a draw rather than trying to win.
I don't think Dan James has the skills to create anything against as strong defence as Newcastle. Would much rather see Manor on if we're about to create something out of nowhere. The Tosin sub was.. yeah, not an ideal one to say the least.

Anyway our next step as a team, is to to start changing this mindset and play like a team that believe they can win away also against strong sides. Marco is not there yet, mental wise. Hopefully we'll get there. One game at a time.

[ianthailand]

Stop the blame game. We held our own against a good team, owned by a country, 3rd in the league and at their place. No shame and no blame

Agreed. A great performance in the circumstances. Not blaming Tosin. He wasn't on long enough to settle. I don't think Silva had any choice but to make changes because of the exhaustion factor.

I'm happy that we can give any of the top teams a game on equal terms.

+1

[Lordedmundo]

Don't forget the exhaustion after the Chelsea game plus the 2 day turn round. Agree about Tosin - he lost his man.

Players were exhausted indeed and Marco made his first substitution only at the 75' mark if I recall correctly.
He also didn't made the ideal subs (IMO), more to get a draw rather than trying to win.
I don't think Dan James has the skills to create anything against as strong defence as Newcastle. Would much rather see Manor on if we're about to create something out of nowhere. The Tosin sub was.. yeah, not an ideal one to say the least.

Anyway our next step as a team, is to to start changing this mindset and play like a team that believe they can win away also against strong sides. Marco is not there yet, mental wise. Hopefully we'll get there. One game at a time.

I think the subs should have been more positive (no need to go 5 at the back for starters).  We are on 31 points, there shouldn't be a desperation to hang on for a point in games like this - apart from anything else it plays into the hands of the opposition.

[TC's Sporran]

i agree with the sentiments of most posters on here that maybe hanging on for a draw was with hindsight the wrong way to go about it. who knows fresh legs and a willingness to take the game to newcastle from the 60th minute might have took some of the at times relentless pressure off us.

part of me thought at 0-0 marco would be reluctant to change anything because it was working.
maybe a different more carefree attitude ie these are third, its almost a free hit, lets go for a win. we have enough points in the bag to not need to worry about every point as if its the end of the world.
but its hard for managers to break away from the hang on to what weve got instead of speculate to accumulate thinking.
no big shame in losing to a top 3 team, buit i thought they were there for the taking if we'd had more of a go.
but its hard to have a go when the players are in dug in mode.

[TC's Sporran]

Don't forget the exhaustion after the Chelsea game plus the 2 day turn round. Agree about Tosin - he lost his man.

Players were exhausted indeed and Marco made his first substitution only at the 75' mark if I recall correctly.
He also didn't made the ideal subs (IMO), more to get a draw rather than trying to win.
I don't think Dan James has the skills to create anything against as strong defence as Newcastle. Would much rather see Manor on if we're about to create something out of nowhere. The Tosin sub was.. yeah, not an ideal one to say the least.

Anyway our next step as a team, is to to start changing this mindset and play like a team that believe they can win away also against strong sides. Marco is not there yet, mental wise. Hopefully we'll get there. One game at a time.

I think the subs should have been more positive (no need to go 5 at the back for starters).  We are on 31 points, there shouldn't be a desperation to hang on for a point in games like this - apart from anything else it plays into the hands of the opposition.

youve summed up in far less words than ive used the same thinking.