Ba then hit the post when he made a decent chance for himself. He spent all the first half playing up front on his own. I assume Ben Arfa was supposed to be the support player but was never near enough to Ba to take advantage when the big man won the ball. In fact Ben Arfa was woeful tonight so I hope that was a blip.

Davide Santon started at left back and showed a willingness to get forward but something of a relucatance to get back and cover when he’d lost the ball – which he did regularly. He seemed to lack strength and was knocked off the abll far too easily. He moved to right back later on but to be honest, I was far from impressed on this showing.

A word at this stage about the referee. He was shite. For a start, he is very inexperienced at this level. I saw him make a far few cock ups in a League 2 game 10 days ago so I had an idea what to expect.

Blackburn’s second goal was a result of his total incompetence. Ba broke into the box and was hauled over by Samba. Everyone in the ground could see this was a pen – expect the ref who waved play on. Blackburn cleared the ball forward and proceeded to win their own penalty – probably was but that’s not the point.

It should have been 1-1 and instead we found ourselves two down. Ba spent the time during which they were preparing to take the pen remonstrating with the liner and fourth official – in this he was supported by Pardew!

I thought there was a fair chance that Pardew was going to deck one of the officials he was getting so upset at what was going on. In the first half a free kick was given against Colo when the ball was hit against his hand from about a yard. When a Blackburn defender handled in the box when the ball hit his hand from about three yards – no pen. When anothere free kick was given outside the area for a third such offence Pardew nearly blew a gasket.

We were a bit better in the second half without really troubling their keeper too much. We seemed to lack urgency and never got behind them down the flanks until late on. Marveaux didn’t see a lot of the ball in decent positions and Jonas had two men on him every time he was in possession.

Then came added time. We were chucking men forward without getting much joy then Guthrie popped a great shot in from about 30 yards. He’d had a rather mixed night – he lacks real creativity and isn’t as effective defensively as Tiote. Good goal though but. It was only when that goal went in that I realised we were far from the only Newcastle fans in the Jack Walker Stand!

There were still two minutes of the added five (mainly due to their time wasting) but I never expected what happened next! In the fifth minutes of added time we got a free kick about 25 yards out. Mr J said “he’ll have to shoot cos the ref is gonner blow”. So Cabaye shot – and it went in!! Last kick of the 90 apart from the kick off when the ref blew his whistle straight away. Amazing.

So extra time started with us on a high and them looking fed up. We were pressing more but they got a free kick about 25-30 yards out. Morten Gamst Pedersen shot, it took a wicked deflecttion and went in the bottom corner. So we just kept attacking and Lovely pants was pulled over as he was about to shoot. Ref never saw it of course and ended up giving a corner but the liner was signalling for a penalty. Lovely pants put it away with ease.

At this point, the Toon fans in the Jack Walker were on their feet cheering the goal and some sad git behind me went and complained to a steward saying he should throw them out. The steward basically told him to bog off!

Sadly, the heroics at Forest weren’t to be repeated. They got a free kick which Pedersen chipped to the far post when Samba won his header and Givet nodded in. Now I can only think the liner thought Givet had come from behind the ball because if he hadn’t he was well offside there being none of our players withing a country mile of him.

Colo nodded one over the bar in the dying seconds but that was that. Shame really. Man of the Match?? The 5,000 Toon fans who made up half the crowd and sang all night.

Within the last ten years, we have so many names come and go as our manager trying to re-creating the old formula of an entertainers side which is, in my honest opinion, no longer as exciting as before.

Now with Pardew in charge, he was determined to change United team’s ethos into his new favoured 4-2-3-1 formation which enabled his midfield creators playing as the bridge between our defensive and attacking players. And to fullfil Pardew’s plan, the United chief scout Graham Carr has provided the recruitment of Yohan Cabaye, Gabriel Obertan, Sylvain Marveaux and Mehdi Abeid this summer.

This season we have a bit more attractive playing role from our midfielders. With the rose of French revolution at St. James’ Park, Alan Pardew has more than enough la munition to support his upcoming formation that could change the style of Newcastle United’s team for years to come.

With Ben Arfa slowly now regained his full fitness, we will see more of his playing role as United’s second striker along with two of his french compatriot Marveaux and Obertan to support his pacey movement. They will be supported by our two powerfull central defensive midfielders Tiote and Cabaye. Especially for Cabaye, he will have more duty as Toon playmaker.

I’m excited to watch Pardew’s new formation to working well for us this season, and hopefully with this new style, United team will be become stronger in defense as well as have more pace and fierce in attack. Until then and thanks for coming to this site. Howay the Lads!

Yohan Cabaye: He looks like an exceptional player. Alongside Tiote and Ben Arfa he could do some real damage.

Davide Santon: An imaginative signing. Credit where it is due, this player has the tools to become a star…handled right. Can we manage that? (gulp)

Demba Ba: It looks like he’s just about ready. Showed good signs in the Fulham game.

Leon Best: Can look deeply hopeless, but he scores goals. He is meant to be a driven character. Can he use that drive to keep scoring and stay fit? If he can we may have a new antihero.

Sammy Ameobi: Finally some raw talent to take the breath away. His stunning goal against Scunthorpe may only have been against Scunthorpe, but it showed serious promise.

Sylvain Marveaux: An exciting player. He hasn’t had an opportunity yet, but he looks – from what I’ve seen – to have something about him.

Jonas Gutierrez: I’ve been mightily impressed with him so far this season. He’s tracked back like a titan and seems to have added something to his game. He was a threat against Fulham. I think this could be his season.

Haris Vuckic: This will be his year. He’s bloody good.

“That’s not to say their business has been disastrous. In fact, in certain areas it has been rather good, but mistakes have been made and, perhaps worse still, there has been a startling lack of ambition shown given the position of strength they were in when the window opened.”

In my honest opinion, with all my respect to Luke’s opinion, I don’t think he (or any one of us) knows very well all the works that (possibly) have been made by United’s scout and managing director Derek Llambias.

People (United’s fans) keep asking about the £35m from the sale of Andy Carroll to Liverpool and how we “should” spend it to get the player with “highest” price as that’s the way to get quality player these days.

Although I’m not saying that was not true, but I don’t think that’s the only way to do it. We still (hopefully) can get “quality” players even though he’s not in the ridiculous expensive amount of money.

I also don’t agree with Luke on his further statement, “Newcastle lost sight of what was so badly needed, even though manager Alan Pardew rarely let up in his highlighting of the issue.”

I think, what so badly needed by Newcastle is a fullback, and we have got one player to fill in that position. And how about a new striker? I don’t think we are in desperate to get the replacement of Andy Carroll because we still have “enough” backups.

This type of press statements are a deadly poison for us, the Toon Army, if we cannot filter it well and think about what should probably is the truth of things in the real world, not in their office keyboards or even as tiny as their smart pad.

Lastly, Luke also mentioned:

“Yet, as every Newcastle supporters knows, Newcastle’s squad has lost its two top goalscorers from last season – Carroll and Nolan – it’s spiky motivational force – Barton – and it’s flying left-back – Enrique. These are gaps that have been filled, but we have no idea how successfully.”

True, we have no idea how successfully the replacements are, but I also would like to ask if we get those high price big name players, with a quality that some Toon fans are wanted, are they also can guarantee a success?

You decide!

Shane Ferguson could be terrific but we can’t depend on him at this stage. We need another center back. I said this long before Williamson got injured, but it is is now a high priority. I guess the ideal would be a good full back who could also play effectively at center back.

Despite the apparent numerical stength in midfield, we ended up with Alan Smith coming on yesterday. We lack genuine cover for Tiote and Cabaye in the centre, and are only an injury or two away from Guthrie being back in the team.

Gosling and Vuckic offer possible alternatives to Cabaye, but Gosling is still recovering from a potential career-ending injury, and for some curious reason wasn’t even on the bench yesterday. Vuckic picked up yet another inury yesterday, and seems to be on the way to becoming a permacrock.

We are desperately lacking a player who can effectively link midfield and the striker(s). Lovenkrands is simply not effective in this role, and we have to hope we can get Hatem Ben Arfa back, keep him on the pitch, and quickly.

Up front, I believe we need two strikers, not one. Lovenkrands is simply not good enough, and Ranger is on his way out. Best and Shola are barely good enough and perpetually injury prone. Imho, we missed a major opportunity by letting Shane Long go to WBA – he is playing well for the Baggies and would have been the perfect replacement for Lovenkrands. We might get by with Shola, Best, Ba and ANO if Sameobi can continue his current rate of development and make a genuine contribution.

Frankly, I feel we are about five players short of where we really need to be.