Well, that was ugly. The first half was one of the most unwatchable halves of football in recent memory, and the second half was even worse, unless you're a Cottager, I suppose.  Damien Duff scored the lone goal in the 67th minute.  Other than that, the lads kicked the ball around for a while and created absolutely nothing.  I wish there was more to say.

No doubt the narrative from the national media will be about the lack of Andy Carroll, even though he hasn't played for this squad in over a month.  Our boys looked flat today, and though they had 49% possession, much of it was useless.  Newcastle managed only 3 shots on goal and it didn't seem that there was any chemistry at all between the midfield and the strikers.

Oh, and Shola Ameobi fractured his collarbone and is probably out for 5-6 weeks, which is welcome news for a team that only had 4 strikers coming into this one anyway. 

The good news is that there's another match coming up in 3 days to help us forget this one, and the bad news is that it's Arsenal. 

Talking Points

1. You're not going to blame the blue kit, are you?

2. Who's your ideal forward pairing going forward?

3. Damien Duff is an agent of Satan.  Discuss.