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Opinion

Newcastle United: 525 minutes and counting…

9 years ago
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It is 525 minutes of action and when we get to Saturday, it will be 94 days since Newcastle scored an away goal.

QPR might have just been hammered 6-0 by Manchester City but I think there’s a few too many Newcastle fans already counting their black and white chickens ahead of the trip to Loftus Road.

The last five away matches have read:

Leicester 3 Newcastle 0

Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0

Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0

Everton 3 Newcastle 0

Manchester City 5 Newcastle 0

The last away goal was in the 42nd minute of the 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace back on the 11th February.

When you bear in mind that was the only Newcastle effort on target at Selhurst Park it sums up just how badly the team are struggling to create chances, never mind score goals.

With only one away win (3-0 at Hull) in six months (9 Nov 2014 2-0 v West Brom), going to the capital and winning is a tall order.

Our last away scorer may have got back on the pitch on Saturday but John Carver has already confirmed what we could all see with our own eyes, Papiss Cisse is in no condition to start against QPR and will be on the bench at best.

Obviously getting the likes of Cisse and/or de Jong, Aarons etc. couldn’t do any harm, but surely the approach has to be different than we have become used to seeing.

QPR might be rock bottom but they have scored in 12 of their 18 home matches and picked up 20 of their 27 Premier League points at Loftus Road.

Anything but a win for Newcastle will mean they will go into the last match of the season still at risk of relegation.

If John Carver sits back and tries to grind out a goalless draw, then I only see disaster.

The fact Newcastle have conceded set-piece goals in every one of the last five matches, a total of seven set-piece goals in those five games, means there is that extra pressure and almost acceptance that the opposition will score sometime.

I think United have to realistically score at least two to stand a chance of winning, over to you John Carver.

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