Hey Brewer

The Geordies beat the unclean mackems by a score of 2-0 in Northeast England’s biggest (and only) derby.

Sad mackem Bastards AKA 2007-8 SAFC team

Michael Owen scored both goals to continue his run of top flight play and further stake claim to his return to England’ national team. The lowly mackems have not defeated Newcastle since 2000 and today’s outcome secures their place as the 2nd (or 3rd if you count Boro) class team in the NE.

More importantly Newcastle were officially removed from the relegation battle and can now focus on building their team for next year in the top flight. Their performance over the past 6 matches and revitalization under Kevin Keegan has also shown that some interweb’s bloggers, who shall remain nameless, don’t know shit.

Newcastle United earned an invaluable 3 points at St. James’ this afternoon (morning for me) as they defeated Fulham FC.

Newcastle are now 6 full points clear of the drop zone, have 5 teams between them and relegation, and, perhaps most importantly, finally got a damn win. The last EPL win for Newcastle came against this same Fulham side at the Cottage in December. De. Cem. Ber. That win came on Dec. 15th meaning that Newcastle went the entire season of Winter without a victory.

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Newcastle United lost, again, today at Anfield to Liverpool 3-0. Panic has officially, and rightly, set in on Tyneside as the prospect of the Magpies spending the 2008-2009 in the Coca Cola Championship is becoming more and more a reality. Newcastle’s last win was in Dec. on a relatively fortunate penalty kick that was awarded in extra time. Since then Newcastle have not won in 12 league matches. Newcastle could find themselves with virtually no breathing room between themselves and the drop based on tomorrows action. Here are the ugly standings for Toon fans. The club has in that past 18 months had 2 owners, 3 managers, scores of failed players, porous defense, and an inability to score goals. Other than that things are going well. Kevin Keegan’s return has failed to inspire the players and the magic he once brought to save the team seems to have eluded him for this go around. As each week passes and this abortive season comes to an end it looks like a minor miracle will be needed to keep Newcastle from visiting the likes of Barnsley, Hull and Burnley. Sad times for the Toon faithful.

Kevin Keegan took over as manager of Newcastle United in mid-January and the Magpies have mustered exactly 0 wins and 2 goals in 5 matches. (If you don’t follow the EPL I’m sure none of this makes sense but hang with me, I’ll get to baseball soon). Being a Toon fan myself and hailing from the capital of the world, New York City, I got to know many of the ex-pats and die-hard Newcastle fans that were living in the City. Listening to them speak after Keegan was signed to replace Big Sam Allardyce (who was sacked after less than 1 year) you would think Newcastle had finally broke their Chicago Cubs-esque trophy drought that night. I deferred to their knowledge as they brought up stories of Keegan, as a player, saving the team from dropping to the old 2nd Division and then, as a manager, bringing them the closer to a title than anyone has in half a century. But in my mind I asked some simple questions: How is this going to save our season? Is Keegan a defender? Can he keep Michael Owen from pulling a hammy while sneezing? Will he be able to fill the void in mid-field Newcastle have had for years?

This brings me to my larger point: Sports managers/coaches are almost without exception vastly overrated in terms of their impact on team performance.

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