Their goal was the end result of some sloppy defending by Williamson and Colo, but otherwise they offered little in the way of a threat.

We upped our game in the 2nd half, but despite a lot of good possession just couldn’t find the target. A Williamson header hit the angle and went out and, Shola blazed high and wide when wide open on the edge of the PA and with plenty of time.

It was looking as though Blackburn would hold out when HBA took possession around 35yds out. His mazy run and thunderous strike was truly Maradona-esque. Fabulous goal. His overall performance was a bit in and out, and he looked more comfortable after going out wide when Obertan was mercifully taken off. He seemed to benefit from that bit extra time he got in the wide position.

Jonas had a good 2nd half, as his developing partnership with Santon caused Blackburn all kinds of problems, and the winning goal was well created by Shola and beautifully taken by the Spiderman.

Abeid did ok on his debut and certainly didn’t look overawed. He could prove to be another good ‘un.

Without playing well, Shola improved things up front simply by getting in and around the box. Best needs to recognise that he is now expected to be the main man, and he needs to concentrate on getting on the end of things rather than getting involved in the build-up. We dominated posssession yesterday without offering a consistent threat, and this has to be a real concern over the next few weeks.

Not a classic but at least we’re in the hat.

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.

We played some really terrific football in spells, but interspersed that with some real sloppy play, some unecessary over-elaboration in dangerous areas, and some woeful short passing. Blackburn themselves created precisely nothing, and any sniffs of chances for them came from our mistakes, usually in the areas in front of our back four.

The big error of course came when we were coasting at 2-0, and allowed Blackburn back into the game, albeit rather fleetingly. Ryan Taylor conceded possession cheaply in a dangerous area and a bad goal resulted.

Despite this annoying aberration, Blackburn were never really in this game, indeed they were fortunate to avoid a good tonking. Ba grabbed the goals, but I thought Best was terrific today. He bullied two big physical Blackburn’s center backs in Samba and Dann, and made some terrific runs down the channels that created time and space for Ba.

Best probably should have scored a couple himself, but snatched at two self-made opportunities lifting them both over the bar. Ba’s first goal was terrific, taking the sting out of very strongly hit pass-cum-centre, making space for himself and rifling the ball inside the far post. Excellent finishing.

In midfield, Cabaye and Tiote were very good. Cabaye is such an intelligent player, and Tiote is almost back to his best, and without picking up yellow cards too. Tiote was actually my Man Of The Match, despite Ba bagging a hat-trick. Jonas worked hard up and down, but as so often his delivery wasn’t always up to scratch.

Obertan continues to improve, although as with Jonas, his final ball was often disappointing. Technically he is a good player, he has pace and causes problems for defences when he cuts inside. He needs to be encouraged to take on his runs with the ball more often, and then deliver better crosses.

Coloccini and Taylor were rarely troubled, and the former was at his imperious best. The weakest area in the team is undoubtedly at FB. Against poor opposition today I thought both Raylor and Simpson were poor. Without Santon demonstrating full fitness, this has to be an area for Graham Carr to be focussing on in anticipation of the January window because the bigger clubs will undoubtedly pick at this weak spot in the team.

Although not officially in charge, he said he had felt the need to go into the dressing room at half time and say a few home truths to the team. He said he was rather concerned about the reaction, apart from Michael Owen.

Anyway, if his first team talk is anything to go by, he might indeed bring about an improvement – because the 2nd half performance was immeasurably better than the 1st half had been.

This group of players are clearly moping around feeling sorry for themselves, and Chris Hughton is almost certainly too close to them. This is why the introduction of an outsider at this juncture is possibly the first sensible decision Mike Ashley has made to date.

We started off brightly, but gradually lost the early grip on m/f. Defensively, we played like nervous wrecks – especially Taylor, who is desperately low on confidence after a couple of bad recent errors, and really needs a spell on the bench – being pushed out to RB may not exactly have helped him today.

Coloccini never really got to grips with Santa Cruz, who caused us problems all afternoon – and tbh at this admittedly early stage he looks a long way from being a £10m CB. I thought Cacapa was perhaps the pick of the defence today, but we still gave away two really soft goals leaving us with nothing in a game we should have taken something from.

With Zog switched into the centre, I thought m/f functioned rather better today than recently, but we lack cohesion and organisation and concede possession way too cheaply. Zog is essentially a runner, and we don’t have anyone who can make the incisive pass.

Up front, the Cisco Kid kept battling gamely, but looks a bit short of the class required at this level. He lacks the sharpness another yard of pace would give him, and being up against two giants today he won very little in the air. I thought Ameobi actually did a little better than Xisco when he came on, despite being booed onto the pitch by morons that I desperately wish would just sod off and support the mackems.

Michael Owen was our MOTM today. He worked off his gonads, both in m/f and up front, without ever receiving the kind of service he needs. He painfully won the penalty, and when he recovered, safely despatched it.

Another dispiriting defeat, but a glimmer of hope in the 2nd half display. The football we played wasn’t that much better, but the level of spirit and enthusiasm was a 99% improvement from the heads bowed rabble that ended the game on Wednesday and the 1st half today.

Whatever Kinnear said to Damien Duff at HT certainly worked – he was a revelation in the 2nd half, and perhaps for the very first time we saw the real DD. He just needs to work the same miracle on the rest of them, and we might be back in business. In particular, he needs to sort out a dithering, utterly disorganised defence.

The unpalatable truth, of course, is that we need a few players back to make any kind of recovery a realistic possibility.

Today, Oba Martins is back for his first game under the Special K. Young defender, Peter Ramage is also on the way for a return to training next week after more than six months out with cruciate ligament damage.

Newcastle will still without Emre, Mark Viduka, Stephen Carr and Shay Given who has the latest groin injury when playing against Manchester Utd last week.

Visitor side will wait for their midfielder David Dunn latest progress to see if he’s fit or not to play after injuring a calf in training. Ryan Nelsen missing with a hamstring problem, but defender Andre Ooijer is ready to make return.

Kevin Keegan will set to make his first win since returning for the second spell as United manager, and as everyone said, this would be our (another) season start if we can win this.

Our home fixtures against them for the last two seasons was not so impressive, but I do hope KK will bring something to cheers us up or we will be in serious danger. In 2006/07 home game we lost 0-2 while in 2005/06 they win 1-0.

Toon skipper Michael Owen said, with just six points above the relegation zone with the visit of Blackburn, the Geordies are in desperate need of a first win since before Christmas.

“But now we’ve got a few games coming up which we can, and should, be winning, and that starts with Blackburn on Saturday which is huge for us.” He added more, “We need to get confidence running going into these games and I’m positive we’ll turn a corner from there.”