United official site is currently running on a poll to pick the Goal of the Year among 57 goals we are scoring through the years of 2007.

The current vote leader was Oba Martins goal v Spurs where we won 3-2 back in January 14th, 2007 with 61% when I write this post.

Martins goal is also my favorite, when he smashing an unstoppable 30-yard shot beyond Paul Robinson.

Come to second and third so far is James Milner (12.7%) shot in new year’s day 2-2 draw against Manchester United and Charles N’Zogbia (8%) curling shot against Boro in August 26th, 2007.

Go to the official site to vote your goal of the year HERE.

I am absolutely sick of him and don’t rate him at all. I’m not blaming todays result on him either. I’m not making excuses. But instead of agreeing with everyone else I thought I’d raise this issue instead because he’s doing my head in this season.

He has power. But we see this so rarely it’s not even worth talking about because he doesn’t know how to make space for a shot.

For some reason he escapes all blame. There’s something “exciting” about him which makes him immune from criticism.

If he was from Gateshead, looked like Kevin Davies and didn’t do backflips I reckon he’d be getting a torrent of abuse for his woeful passing/control. If we signed him from Coventry instead of Milan would we think of him in the same way?

He’s even starting to look lazy. For someone with his pace he’s not doing a lot of running and when things are going badly I don’t see him trying to put it right. Martins has been the best of a bad bunch of strikers at SJP over the last few years so we rate him more highly than we should.

I’d swap him for strikers from the majority of other clubs in the league. We like to think we should be top 6 when we look at our squad. Owen and Martins on paper makes us look amazing upfront.

But the reality is that the only “footballers” that we currently have fit and available to play upfront are Smith and Viduka. And Viduka has missed a lot of our games.

I was saying this to my mate after the game. I think he kind of agreed. But then mentioned the fact that Martins scored a canny few goals in a crap side last season.

My gut reaction to this is that I honestly believe Ameobi would score quite a few if he started for the majority of games over a whole season and I don’t rate him.

Then there’s the fact that Martins is very young. This istrue But so is Fabregas. So is Milner. But they can trap a ball, look up and pass.

Yes he’s got the raw speed and power. But surely passing, looking up and skill is important too? Bramble also had all the “raw materials.”

Am I being too harsh? Or were we all just crying out for someone different to Shearer to come along and take us in a different direction? So put a load of mis-placed faith in him?

Comments welcome!

Obafemi Martins goes in against Arsenal at St James’s Park today with a tremendous tribute from one of his predecessors in a black-and-white shirt.

Malcolm Allen, had his most prolific spell while playing for Millwall which is resulting the attention of Kevin Keegan who later made him his first signing for Newcastle United in a signing fee of £250,000.

“Martins is the only Newcastle player good enough to go into any of the top four sides – and that includes tomorrow’s opponents Arsenal,” he said.

“Michael Owen is clearly not good enough because none of the so-called big four came in for him when it was clear he was going to be allowed to leave Real Madrid a couple of years ago.”

The former Newcastle striker Allen said that Martins is the man who could really upset the Arsenal team tonight. He is not just saying this with his heart, as a former Newcastle and Tottenham man, but also with his head.

Allen honestly believe that Newcastle have not really seen the best of him yet. According to Malcolm Allen, Obafemi Martins is a 25 to 30 goals a season man and a winner, but unfortunately there are not enough winners around him at the moment at St James’s Park.

Allen time as United player may not last longer. A damaged knee plagued his time on Tyneside which forced him to retire from playing professional football with eight operations and the fitting of four screws.