As you will see from the United line-up, it wasn’t an all star line-up but with players like Shearer, Robert and poignantly (bearing in mind his contribution on Sunday) Bellamy, you could always expect the team to have a right go.

Somebody arriving late wouldn’t believe it if you tried to tell how desperate we had been, if they only watched the second half. United absolutely battered them and had more possession, corners and shots in that second half than the visitors, only on second half goals were they equal.

It might have been a game of two halves in terms of our overall team performance but which player kept it going for the duration. Vote for your black & white player of the match.

It is vital that United pressurise City early on, gifting them easy possession will only lead to one outcome and we’ve seen too many of those this season. They are very good but they aren’t world beaters, plus maybe it is time to remind ourselves that our players haven’t become rubbish overnight.

Performances have picked up to an extent recently but only one win in ten matches doesn’t make good reading. Conceding soft goals has been Newcastle’s latest Achilles heel.

Alan Pardew; “We’re having a rough run but I think the work ethic is there and one big result, which could happen this weekend, could change a lot of the picture and we might find ourselves in a good position in the league”.

Not too sure if it is a positive or negative but Gareth Barry will miss Saturday’s match as he serves a one match ban imposed today by the FA.

We’ll just never know as to whether some of our injury problems this season would have not been so severe if decent replacements had been available, allowing players carrying knocks to go on the bench or be rested.

What is said through the week is unimportant once 12.45 comes around on Saturday, the only thing that counts is supporting the team for ninety minutes. It is our job.

That figure in our final home match was actually only one more than when we played the mackems (52,388), so which one of you missed that derby match?