Allardyce Had Better Get It Right Before We Go To Mackem-land!
Last updated : 29 October 2007 By Footy Mad - Editor
The man has not been at Newcastle long, but the penny has suddenly dropped.
He was respected at Bolton, and it was a 'cushy number' because keeping the Trotters in the Premiership was seen as an achievement.
But moving from Toy Town to the 'Goldfish Bowl' is "one giant step for man" and perhaps a step to far for a man who's list of achievements in the game hardly bring us encouragement.
Put it this way ... his next cup will be his first.
He doesn't seem to know the problem on away days, although many who travel away with the team seem to think his boring tactics and "Wing-less Wonders" are doing the cause no good at all.
He approaches away games as though he is frightened of who we play (and we haven't faced anyone half-decent yet), rather than let THEM worry about US.
Allardyce: "We don't want to get paranoid about it but we have to do better. I don't detect paranoia at the moment, but the longer that it goes on, the harder it becomes to turn around.
"This result means that we will get even edgier as time goes on because we're still not able to get a result away from home. We have to learn to take something from these games and build our confidence.
"Had we drawn this game, it would have given us some confidence. But we didn't and I'm getting concerned about it. Our home form has been great, but the inconsistencies are a big problem, and it's something we have to turn around because it's a huge concern. It's something that we must work harder at.
"It's soul destroying when you throw it away.
"Whether we deserved it or not - and perhaps we didn't - we had a point. The point would have been great for us.
"At least we would have gone up the road with something, something we haven't done for a long time. It (Long's goal) was a real killer and I'm so disappointed. You need to have that resilience when you're not at home and, when you don't, you make mistakes and you get punished.
"We've got to become a side that goes back to basics and works out how to stop our opponents from playing.
"If you concede stupid goals like that, you're not going to deserve anything.
"It was a stupid mistake, a basic thing. That's two more goals we've conceded and unless we stop, we won't win games. We killed ourselves with that goal. It's such a basic situation to deal with but we didn't deal with it and we lost. It was another disappointing performance and another disappointing result.
"We've done fantastic at home, we look great there. But away from home we don't look very clever. We have to get players who perform well on a consistent basis, week in week out, not one week okay, the next week not so good."