Newcastle 1 City 0.

A bad end to a bad week. What a week ago was the basis of a good start to the season has hit an unexpected buffer over the past week with defeat at home to Bolton, being dumped out of the Carling Cup by Doncaster and yesterdays defeat away to Newcastle.
Unsuprisingly, Michael Owen was the goalscorer - continuing his streak of seemingly scoring every time he plays against us, with Stuart Pearce believing he was the difference between the two sides.
Again for me, what is worrying is the lack of goals. Apart from the penalty at Doncaster, we have not scored in open play for the last three games and appear to struggling to find that clinical edge up front. With Andrew Cole again missing yesterday and Robbie Fowler crocked for another six weeks with a recurrence of his back injury it leaves us with just Vassell and Sibierski has serious options up front. It is apparant that we are missing Cole's presence as Sibierski fails to offer as much and doesn't link as well with Vassell as Cole was doing at the start of the season.
It places a big emphasis on next weeks game at home to Everton, who are currently mired in a miserable run of form and we need to get back on track with three points to keep on the tail of everyone else but Chelsea in the Premiership if we are to fulfill the hopes of European qualification this season.