McClaren admits that his Toon side will need to continue to develop on how to control the games, especially when we are in the lead.

McClaren said: “We are not at that level (where we can control games) yet but that is the level you want to get to.”

“We are trying to get that balance between the two so we are growing, developing; we are not there yet but as long as we keep battling and picking up the points and always being competitive (then we’ll be fine).”

Newcastle took the lead in the 38th minute, when De Jong mis-hit delivery, the ball skidded under Chancel Mbemba and through the entire Villa defence before Coloccini sliced his shot into the net.

Newcastle then have to the chance to kill the game in the 59th minute, with Wijnaldum picked out Siem de Jong unmarked at the back post just to see the Dutchman direct his header wide.

It was an awful miss – and then Villa were level after Janmaat allowed Ayew some space in the left-hand corner of our defense box before whipping a curled shot into the far corner past a diving Elliot.

Elliot had another good performance and kept Newcastle level couple of times, especially with a brilliant tipping over a powerful Gestede header in the second half. So finally with a promotional code money placed on draw was at this time very lucrative.

Ayoze Perez, who come in as substitute then missed another Toon great opportunity to win the game in injury-time just like what he did against Spurs. Played in by Sissoko, he could only direct his shot high and wide from 12 yards out.

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That day is when Kevin Keegan was Newcastle United manager and also our first Premier league season. Newcastle players who scored were Andy Cole and Rob Lee.

And when Cabaye finally break the deadlock with his typical shot on goal from a perfect Ben Arfa’s cross, I was screaming and thought that the goal would definetely a sign of our winning day.

The game starts with little chances in the opening minutes for both team with Luis Suárez, as we often saw keep performing what he can do best beside scoring goal, falling down to the floor with everytime he has been challenged.

In the 43rd minute Hatem Ben Arfa overturned Jose Enrique down the right flank before serving the ball over to the far post where Yohan Cabaye is waiting to controll the ball and then volleyed past Brad Jones.

To be honest, their equalising goal also a special one, from you know who and that will keep me thinking of why that such quality player would have another equally high quality skill to easily down to the ground.

Suárez from the start, had a constant battle with Coloccini from within minutes of play when he was appealing in vain for a penalty for a slight contact from Colo.

His intention is finally come to a conclusion with seven minutes remaining which I hate to say but it may have been a well deserved red card for our captain although from a replay there’s no hars damage was inflicted. As for the remaining seven minutes plus four of added time, we fought hard to keep the score sheet in ballance, and come out from there with a point.

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And not just in the Europa league, but with a reasonable shout at getting a coveted champions league spot. With the wheels properly off the managerless Chelsea’s bandwagon and the perennial underachieving Arsenal facing a difficult run in it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the boys in black and white will leapfrog into fourth place and the knockout stages of the Champion’s league.

Cracking the top four
Not many have managed to crack the top four in recent years and even when Everton bucked all the odds and managed the impossible they went spiralling out of the premier European competition at the first hurdle. But still the prospect remains in place at the moment; Newcastle United could realistically get into the Champions League next year. If you had suggested that at the start of the season to anyone in the north east you would have been smiled at, patted on the head and given an appointment card for the local head doctor.

April is the key
Looking at the run in there are a series of key matches in upcoming weeks which will define the season. Sure no one can deny that the results that the team have managed to pull off up to now have got them into the position they are at the moment. Particularly memorable are the 3-0 win over Manchester Utd (what odds on that at the start of the season) or the early season away win over Sunderland which set the momentum for the team to project forward.

A speculative look over the next ten fixtures shows up a number of matches where you find yourself already adding on the points. You would expect at least 4 more from the March fixtures (Norwich at home and West Brom away). Six points would take the team to 50 for the season.

Fourth place in the league
For the fourth place in the league the target is usually mid to high sixties. Certainly within Newcastle’s sights, particularly with the run of fixtures which is to follow in April. Four key matches really stick out in the April schedule. At home to Bolton and Stoke, then away to Swansea and Wigan are the four games that could make or break the season.

None of those matches are easy. Particularly with teams scrapping for their Premier League lives. Who will forget the heroic Houdini act performed by Wigan last season? Given the calibre of performances Newcastle have put in this season these are games they should win, must expect to win, let us hope that their nerve stays true and they don’t falter with the prize almost in their grasp.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
Ok the club has the uncanny ability of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, of blowing it big style, and just when the success seemed almost assured. So what should be different this time? Are we about to experience another nearly ran season? A recent run of defeats, particularly the crushing dying seconds defeat by Arsenal are ominous. What is going to be different this time around and what is there about the team, the squad and the manager to give the Geordie faithful something to pin their hopes on.

Depth in squad
Well depth in squad is not something that they have in abundance. There is some cover in a few key areas but truth be told that the loss of any of the key personnel at this stage of the campaign could prove cataclysmic. In particular they cannot afford to lose their goal machine Ba.

The loss of striker of his ability at this stage of the game, even if only for a few matches could prove the undoing of the team. It is impossible to see Leon Best stepping in and having the impact that Ba has had in front of goal, were he called to at this stage. His match fitness alone could take two or three games to gear up and even then he is just not the same standard of player.

Are the team good enough?
The team as they are are good enough, they just need to stay fit and focussed. In order to do that you must look to the manager. Pardew is undoubtedly a cool head, good under fire, given the baptism he had at the club he has managed to turn the fans around, but he is untested in this situation.

He has seen a few relegation battles, and been on the wrong side of winning but if he can manage to keep his players fit, settled and driven he has the opportunity to write himself into the clubs history and at least earn himself a contract for the next two years.

Jane Francis is a freelance writer from England who loves football and poker. She moved back recently from New York City due to the shortage of online poker rooms for American players.

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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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This is the game that most of the Toon Army have something to fear of about the moral of team and the strength of our defense in particular. Many times I’ve read that our current position in the Premierships table was nothing but a luck, as they said, we haven’t meet the real test before today.

So, now I’m proudly say that we have a good team, with a very good determination and high spirited lads are willing to fight until the end and never surrender. We are capable of chasing the game in any condition, like today we are twice behind but we can responded very well to end the game 2-2 against this year “European” club opponent.

Before the match, I was feared of their pacey wingers and the skill of Van Der Vaart and Modric. I didn’t take credits to their striker, Adebayor is not the same person as he was couple of years ago when still with Arsenal.

Instead of the first goal was coming from his movement, I see it as our own fault who was failed to stop the ball that coming from the midfield. Steven Taylor also failed to anticipate the lose ball and gave enough space for Adebayor to run into our six yard box, and Taylor last try was bringing down Adebayor inside the penalty box.

In the second half we are starting to look for an equaliser, and it doesn’t have to wait longer than 3 minutes. In a nice United attack, the ball was coming to Gutierrez who runs for it and releasing a delightful cross infront of Brad Friedel goal who was passed through Spurs defenders into Ba’s foot who are free in the area to slot the ball and Friedel into the net.

Since that goal we are looking for more but through a counter attack we are once again failed to stop the ball from the midfield, and this time Jermaine Defoe who came in as substitute for Van Der Vaart, can take the adavance to fire in Spurs second.

Alan Pardew then make two substitutions to taking off Demba Ba and Best who surprisingly very quiet today and bringing on Hatem Ben Arfa and … Shola Ameobi. I’m trying to be honest here, to see Ameobi in I was thought that we will finally got beaten.

But, I was totally wrong, and I apologize to Ameobi who is coming in to rescue the point for United, with his superb goal in the 86 minutes. Just 9 minutes before that goal, Pardew also bringing in another player that I was desperately want to see him playing, Davide Santon to replace Danny Simpson.

Spurs have one other chance to get back into the lead but Krul succeeded to block another strike from Defoe. We also have a great opportunity to win this game through our skipper Coloccini who shot the ball wide in the dying minutes.

In general, I was pleased with this result and to see that we are still in good track. Bring in Wigan next week, until then thanks for coming to this site and Howay the Lads!

Newcastle United (4-4-2):
Tim Krul; Danny Simpson (Davide Santon 77), Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Ryan Taylor; Gabriel Obertan, Yohan Cabaye, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez; Leon Best (Shola Ameobi 71), Demba Ba (Hatem Ben Arfa 71)

Subs not used: Rob Elliot, Dan Gosling, Sylvain Marveaux, Peter Lovenkrands

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2):
Brad Friedel; Kyle Walker, Younes Kaboul, Ledley King (c) (Sebastien Bassong 30), Benoit Assou-Ekotto; Gareth Bale, Jake Livermore, Scott Parker, Luka Modric; Rafael Van Der Vaart (Jermain Defoe 64); Emmanuel Abebayor (Roman Pavlyuchenko 89)

Subs not used: Carlo Cudicini, Danny Rose, Andros Townsend, Giovani Dos Santos

Referee: Lee Probert

Attendance: 46,420

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