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95 Minutes Later

11 years ago
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Seeing Gouffran slam the winner into the back of the Villa Park net is still on replay in my mind’s eye, my mind’s ear has only just recovered from the wild celebration, my mind’s liver? Well, my real liver got a pounding in celebration! GET IN!

It’s amazing that 95 mins of football ago (before Ben Arfa’s thunderbolt against Fulham) we were fuming, upset and generally miserable!

In all fairness, 90 minutes is a long time in football – 90 minutes against Barcelona defined Tino Asprilla, 90 minutes against s**d*rland finished Ruud Gullit, 90 minutes of an 8-0 victory elevated Sir Bobby and 90 minutes in the pub with me after a Toon victory (or draw, or loss for that matter) is more than enough!

Should it have this much influence over us? Obviously no, will it? Obviously yes!

Newcastle fans don’t in reality demand a lot, in fact I genuinely believe we have proved to be ludicrously tolerant. The point I’m trying to make is that success on the pitch ultimately dictates large parts of our moods and therefore lives.

Five Minutes before we kicked off at Vila, I stumbled into Villa Park after singing 100,000 verses of Geordie Alouette concerned about our start to the season, 90 minutes later I jumped out, punching the air singing, “you’re not laughing anymore.”

Our detractors could claim our fickle nature allows us to be influenced so much by one match. I on the other hand see it as reacting to a marked shift in circumstances. I felt the same when leaving Villa Park in the 2011/2012 season, that the performance was one we could build upon and use to gather momentum. That season proved to be the most enjoyable of recent times.

Arguably, the next hour and a half of our season is actually more important with 3 points and a decent performance a must against our old pal the Geordie Mackem, Steve Bruce.

The one common denominator in all of our successful premiership seasons?

Was it tactics?

Nope. Personnel? Certainly not, I don’t recall a Beardsley shuffle in 2012!

Management? Keegan, Robson and Pardew have all had top 5 finishes.

Owner? No comment!

No, the one common denominator is (apart from a packed St James’) momentum! Come on lads, let’s keep it up!

90 minutes in a season, just like one swallow in a summer, isn’t enough. Sometimes though shoots of recovery are to be celebrated, nurtured and drank over all week! GET IN!

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