A point gained

I’m a strong believer in the old adage that any away point in the premiership is a good point, and considering Newcastle’s recent return to something resembling consistency under Glenn Roeder, a 0-0 draw this evening at St James Park is a very satisfactory return for us.

I can’t comment too much on the actual match because I was at work till midnight tonight, restricted to text updates from friends in the ground for the whole 90 minutes; and I still haven’t seen the highlights. From what I read though we were lucky to still be level at the break, but as the match wore on we came more and more into it, and could have even nicked it at the death.
Still, the point gained this evening keeps us ahead of Newcastle in the table, and it brings our away form into line with our home form this season. 17 points at The Valley, 17 points on the road.

I’ve just been looking through our fixture list, and in my opinion the six home games we have left this year are all winnable. Teams still to visit the Valley this term are Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Everton, Portsmouth, and Blackburn.
Over the last couple of months we have managed to pick up points at The Valley without playing particularly well (the Birmingham and West Ham results spring to mind), if we can turn on a bit of style over the coming weeks in SE7, I see no reason why we can’t make a late charge up the table.

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As a side note, I managed to avoid the Chelsea result throughout my late shift, and have just watched the rerun on Sky.
Messi’s simulation antics aside, Barcelona were superb tonight. There is nothing better than watching such a fluent and coherent attacking force when they are on form, and I found myself willing them on to win this evening even though they were playing English representatives in the Champions League.
The second half performance from the Catalan giants was just awesome. I love watching good football, whoever is playing it, and I just feel that they deserve an honourable mention this evening for their display at a ground (and on a pitch) where good football is always difficult to produce.