After a strong finish in the 2011-2012 season that saw them 5th place in the Premiership and with a spot in the Europa League, this season saw the Magpies finish 5th from bottom in the Premiership table and without any silverware in the cabinet.

Lack of Strong New Additions

The club brought in two players who became regulars for the 1st team in  6.7M signing Vurnon Anita and 1M signing Gael Bigirimana but neither player had a tremendous effect on the club`s fortunes. The real weak point was still the defence and with only six clean sheets kept over the course of the season it`s clear that more money should have been spent on reinforcements.

This problem was compounded when Taylor, Simpson and other solid defenders were unavailable for some of the key games, including a big loss to Man United. Three defenders were indeed added to the squad, but their quality is still in question. Certainly they didn`t perform to the levels that were hoped for, but unfortunately that could be said for much of the Newcastle team.

Still, time will tell whether Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Massadio Haidara will become staples of the Newcastle team. Of the three, Yangi-Mbiwa has looked the sharpest so far but it always takes time to settle into a new side.

The Crumbling Premiership Season

From 5th place to 16th place is a hell of a drop. While the season started well enough with a win at Spurs, it quickly took a nose-dive. Much of the blame has to lie with tactical decisions that seemed to play certain players out of their natural position on quite a frequent basis.

Moussa Sissoko and Yohan Cabaye often found themselves playing in each other`s natural position and at times Sissoko was forced to try playing as a winger   much to his obvious dismay. When the core team members from the previous (very successful) season are still intact, it can only be poor tactical decisions and perhaps some bad luck, that explains the drop in fortunes of Newcastle in the 2012-2013 season. Maulings from both Sunderland and then Liverpool towards the end of the season summed up their year in the Premiership.

Europa League & Cup Competition

In European action Newcastle eased through the qualifying round and managed to finish second in the group stages to Bordeaux, in a group that also contained Maritimo and Club Brugge.

This was followed by relatively easy wins against small Ukrainian side FC Metalist Kharkiv and Ruussian team FC Anzhi Makhachkala in the knockout stages. Ultimately the European adventure was cut short with a loss in the quarter-finals to eventual finalists Benfica.

In the domestic cups, Newcastle didn`t even have time to get excited, as they were beaten in their first FA Cup game by Brighton & Hove Albion in a huge upset and were ousted from the League Cup at the first opportunity by Man United.

Other Notable Happenings

The managerial future of the club was solidified when Alan Pardew was given a huge eight year contract extension. Of course, this being Premiership football, who knows if that means anything or not but it does show that for now at least the board are happy to stick with Pardew. Another season like this and they might be changing their tune however. The manager was also in the news for shoving a linesman in a Premiership game, which saw him receive a two match touchline ban.

Demba Ba left the club and agreed terms to move to Chelsea. After offers exceeding  7m were made it triggered a contract clause that allowed Ba to speak with other clubs. After a short period of confusion and disagreements the player eventually said goodbye to the club and headed to London to play for the Blues.

The Season Ahead

It`s clear just from looking at the statistics that Newcastle needs to seriously strengthen its squad. While a number of players were added to the side, it was a case of too little, too late. The key imports should have been made during the pre-season, allowing the new and improved Magpies time to hit their stride. Unfortunately a lack of stellar new players and a spate of injuries left the team exposed.

The rigors of European football also paid its price, stretching the side beyond its limits. Alan Pardew has to bring in some top talent and it would also help a great deal if he freshened up his tactics a little. Allow players to work from the positions where they are comfortable and promote fast, exciting football rather than endless set-pieces that go nowhere.

Fans of the club should stick by Alan Pardew and the team in the season ahead, even if it is a rough one. The constant changing of managers is not helpful to building teams that can have long-term success.

There is still a wealth of talent in the team and if there is one thing you can be sure of it`s that the Geordie fans will be loud and proud supporting the lads on the pitch like no-one else. Don`t forget to pick up the latest Newcastle United shirt so you don`t look out of date on the terraces.

Puma are once again supplying the official kit and you can even get the matching Puma football from sites like sportsballshop.co.uk. Let`s all hope that next season has a few more highs and a little less lows that the season gone. A little bit of silverware in that cabinet would calm a lot of restless fans nerves.

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From what I saw in the first-half we created the most chances of the game to only for Cissé still under his best form, the visitor side can held us to not scoring the goal we looking for.

Shane did as good as what he can give, Sammy Ameobi also did well but he may still need to sharpened his vision more just like what he does when creating the only goal of this game in second-half.

“When you see great young players coming through it kinds of buoys your spirits and Sammy’s got a big future at this club,” Pardew said after the game. “He’s a creator, he causes havoc, he’s got fantastic technique and he can play four positions.”

The visitors are often sitting deep, but once in a while they also capable of getting forward to counter-attack, which couple of times making quite dangerous situation in our six-yard box.

Couple things that I noticed from our squad performance last night was Anita once again anonymous, perhaps he’s still not on his preffered position or needs more time to settled.

Tiote was eventually booked again for a foul on Ivan Trickovski. He was caught in possession just outside our penalty area to give Brugge a rare chance to attacking us.

“Brugge are a good side and this was a tough game,” said Pardew. “It’s a big win for us.”

Newcastle United:

Harper; Santon, Perch, Williamson, Ferguson (Cabaye 81); Tiote, Anita (Shola Ameobi h-t), Bigirimana; Obertan, Cisse, Sammy Ameobi (Coloccini 73).

Subs not used: Krul, Ben Arfa, Ba, Adam Campbell.

Club Brugge:
Jorgacevic; Hogli, Hoefkens, Jordi, Buysse; Jorgensen, Refaelov (Trickovski 56), Odjidja, Blondel (Van Acker 84), Lestienne; Bacca.

Subs not used: Kujovic, Vleminckx, Vasquez, Vansteenkiste, Engels.

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We’re scoring goals for fun, and have conceded only one goal in our last 6 games, with 3 consecutive clean sheets. Colo and Santon were imperious, Williamson quietly efficient and even Simpson did canny.

Tiote ran the game for spells, Cabaye made the telling passes and scored two goals. As ever, Jonas put in the hard yards in a more central role, and tbh I thought he was bliddy great.

The front three linked well and were always dangerous, and every time Ben Arfa got the ball the crowd’s anticipation was palpable. He got caught in possession a few times, but he was generally a delight to watch. His run for the 1st goal was just exhiliarating.

It was a shame Demba Ba didn’t get the goal his team mates tried all day to provide for him, but his performance was still at a high level.

Cisse scored his customary goal, expertly finishing off a delightful pass from Cabaye and had another wrongly ruled out for offside. He also showed some lovely control and clever touches: this guy is a really top-class footballer as well as a predator.

Ever onwards & upwards.

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Santon was literally all over the place, and not even Jonas’s efforts down the right were good enough to contain Sagna and Walcott. Santon’s defending is looking increasingly dodgy. Accordingly, Colo was pulled all over the shop – but he still did rather well plugging the gaps.

Williamson looks a nervous wreck these days and was made to look rather foolish by RVP’s brilliant 1st touch for their equaliser. Without doing anything of particular note, Simpson looked steady against the potential threat of Oxlade-Chamberlain, and at least there was little threat down our right.

Since Taylor’s injury our defending imho has deteriorated significantly, and the defence requires a significant rethink ahead of next season. Taylor’s full recovery physically and form-wise is not guaranteed, and we badly need another top class center back as well as at least one decent full back.

And from what my other folks told me, Arsenal were subdued down their left by Hatem Ben Arfa being there. He doesn’t track back as well as Jonas, but he clearly petrified them, and meant that Gibbs was very reluctant to go forward and join Chamberlain and attack Simpson.

By the second half, the combined effects of replacing Santon with Perch and getting the central midfield to provide better cover stabilised the back four distinctly. Of course it also meant that we rarely ventured forward, but it restricted them to a handful of clearcut chances.

That’s what made the winner such a downer: it really looked as though we had held out, and I think some last minute complacency from Simpson and Guthrie were our downfall.

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We’ve had better football teams over the years, but there is much to admire about this team. We struggled in the 1st half. Imho, this was once again largely down to our apparent inability to deal with the opposition playing an extra man in midfield.

Perch and Guthrie tended to move towards the same man, and where frequently passed around, leaving large gaps in front of the back four.

I had confidence Alan Pardew would sort this out at Half-Time, and he appeared to do so simply by telling Perch to stop chasing around the pitch and hold his position in front of the back four.

Villa created too many half chances for comfort, and Krul was kept fairly busy, dealing with pretty well everything thrown at him superbly. As usual, Simpson was awful, including on their goal when he did not get tight enough to Insomnia.

Santon was again decent going forward, and rather suspect defensively. He and Jonas are forming a useful partnership, but being right-footed they both slow progress by constantly needing to bring the ball onto the right foot.

Colo was less effective than normal, seemed rather hesitant, and made a number of unusual errors.

We were much brighter in the 2nd half with Obertan occasionally threatening down the right, Jonas working incredibly hard up and down the left, Guthrie working his nuts off in the provider role, and Cisse and Ba’s movement causing Villa problems. What a joy to have two mobile forwards!

After a tough night on Wednesday, we tired towards the end and let them come on to us; however, we saw it out. It would have been criminal if Cisse had been denied the winner after that phenomenal strike and a hugely encouraging debut.

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