Blackburn 1-0 Newcastle - Match Reaction

On paper, Monday afternoon’s game away to Blackburn should have been more than a routine away victory for the Toon, however the game sprung up with a completely unexpected conclusion. Facing a side who have been a constant in-and-around the drop zone and a club who are in a state of dismay, being backed-up by the fact the home fans having a sit in protest after the game aimed towards the owners, you’d have expected nothing more than to be taking away the three points as a Newcastle fan, or even as a neutral.

However, this frustrating game turned out to be the ultimate smash and grab for the home side, somehow coming out with the three points from a narrow 1-0 win, which most will say was undeserved.

The stats of the game alone tell the entire story; summed up by Newcastle having 67% of the ball, which being away from home shows that the general intentions of the home side were to sit back and allow us to play, ultimately hoping to snatch a goal, which they ended up doing with around 15 minutes left - Charlie Mulgrew being the goalscorer, again.

From an attacking perspective, the game had a Newcastle victory written all over it, offering 25 shots, in comparison to the home side's mere 5. Once again, hitting the target was difficult for the away side, making only 5 of those 25 efforts count, a factor that has become a growing concern in too many games already this season.

Although Dwight Gayle has 19 goals already this season, finding the net in some games seems virtually impossible and if the game went on all day, you still wouldn’t have seen us hitting the back of the net. Chances came up again and again, the most noticeable falling to Gayle twice and Diame hitting the bar early on from absolutely nothing; but the most decisive point was that no goals were actually scored (officially).

Having two goals disallowed, one for handball and the other an offside decision, throughout the second half, it was only a given at the time that we were going to score, however as we attacked and attacked again, the home side began to feel more confident that they could snatch it, and in all fairness to them, they went and made the most of their opportunity and then saw out the remainder of the game by sitting back on their goal, and even the late attacking subs for Newcastle made literally no difference, another talking point being that Daryl Murphy was called up ahead of Mitrovic, starting more speculation of Mitrovic's departure, something that has been taken as a split decision by fans.

The absence of Shelvey, who is still serving that 5 game ban, was again a key point, highlighting the lack of creativity in our midfield with both Colback and Hayden being more defensively orientated. The general response has been a cry out for a creative and direct attacking midfielder to be brought in during this month’s transfer window, as this continues to be a problem.

The optimism of an immediate bounce back to the premier league has suffered stagnation, some suggesting that we could struggle for the rest of the season if teams can see how to play to our weaknesses and beat us, which is becoming a little too familiar in recent weeks. However, if we were to bring in even just a couple of high quality players this window to improve the side, then it should be expected that we will continue our march and finish in one of the two automatic promotion spots come the end of the season.

Birmingham in the cup awaits this weekend.