One win in eight games for Newcastle United now as Brentford bag first win at St James' Park in over 90 years
I've been writing about Newcastle United as a full-time job for coming up to four years now, and never has my enthusiasm to write about the team I love been as low as it is right now.
Post-match content should be easy. You write about some key incidents in the game, add a bit of colour commentary on top and job done. Then you have a look at what the manager said after the game and write about that.
Newcastle lost 3-2 against Brentford and deserved to lose. The referee was absolutely honking again, and I'm not just saying that for the penalty he gave Brentford, which essentially punished Jacob Murphy for having the audacity to have been born with arms, but also the one he didn't give Brentford in the opening two minutes.
If it wasn't for set-pieces, once again Newcastle would never have scored, while our defence is easier to open than a packet of crisps. And that's about as much as I care to really comment on the game itself.
Who has the time to listen to Eddie Howe's excuses after that?
After watching that rotten performance, I honestly don't even care what Eddie Howe has to say. Nothing he says about that performance can make me think that we deserved anything other than what we got.
Once again, Howe used all three strikers in the one game, and not one of them did anything of note. You could argue that Will Osula was instrumental in Newcastle gettinga penalty, but if he'd made the right pass in the first place, we'd have scored from open play.
Sandro Tonali has given up. His shocking cross that led to Brentford's break and equaliser was disgraceful. Kieran Trippier might as well be a spirit with how easy Brentford's forwards went through him.
We need another season without European football
It may be controversial to say, but I sincerely hope we don't qualify for Europe next season. This campaign has shown, once again, that we're simply not ready to compete in Europe.
Our squad is weaker than spring water, and it won't be solved in one transfer window. Obviously, not having European football to offer makes it significantly harder to recruit. It's that old paradox again, but honestly, Europe is kiling us.
In all honesty, there are only about five players in the current squad I'd keep, and I'd sell the rest off and start again if that were even remotely possible.
Newcastle United are absolutely tragic right now, and there are no fresh ideas coming our way. Let's just view this season as a write-off and hope we can build in the summer and go again next season with fewer fixtures to decimate our squad.
