Even though a natural born pessimist, I’m fairly confident it will happen… | OneFootball

As we go into the second international break of the season, how are you all feeling as Newcastle United fans?

Still pessimistic?

Glass half full?

There are some among us that would have you believe the good ship Newcastle United has run aground.

I’m not one of them.

In fact, positivity is still front and centre.

Yes, the performances we are witnessing (Manchester City game apart) as Newcastle United fans are a little drab and uninspiring, that’s something that nobody can hide from, but that’s not a genuine concern for me.

I’ve seen Newcastle sides come out of the traps at the start of a season and win game after game in style and I’ve also seen us have some of the most appalling starts imaginable. Miserable festive returns, poor run ins, you’ve all seen and experienced them, so the fact that we’re just going along sailing steady is of honest relief to this supporter.

I would assume Pep Guardiola knows a thing or two about football and after our excellent game against them the other week, he came out with some pleasantries and a telling comment that the source of our problems last season was our horrendous injury list. Funny that he could see and acknowledge it but some painted the situation as the management not getting the best out of the severely depleted squad. Strange.

I remarked before the Man City game that the tactic this season seems to be to almost hold something back in games. I suggested heavily that this was a reaction to last season’s aforementioned injury crisis.

Tuesday morning saw an article appear on The Mag by Eddie James which seemed to echo my theory that if you better the previous season’s results, that stands you in incredibly good stead for the current season’s achievements and it’s a theory that more than holds water.

Some will rightly point out that if other teams better their own results from their respective campaigns then it means little. However, all WE can do is IMPROVE on what went on last season. You have to take the chance on others improving their lot and hope not many of them achieve this.

Going back to August, we took a point from Bournemouth down on the south coast where we lost last season. This was following on from beating newly promoted Southampton at St James’ Park. We could only draw at home to newly promoted Luton Town last season. Improvement all round.

Eddie Howe and his management team will have known that against Manchester City we would couldn’t simply sit back and play the same way we have done in other games this season, as the tide would likely have been too great. He will also have known that without the missing Rodri and De Bruyne they could at least be got at more readily than with those two excellent players in the side.

The result was a nice healthy point against a side we lost to last season AND a top four side at that.

We followed that up with an admittedly poor display down at Goodison Park but crucially came away with a point on the road from a place we lost 3-0 last season. People moaning about our away form? Well at both Bournemouth and Everton we have improved on two of those games. Fine margins and small “victories” are what’s needed.

This season we are sat on the same amount of points as last season (12) after seven games and are progressing in the League Cup, despite having had to start a round further back due to a lack of European football.

As other teamw in the top half start getting into the thick of European (and domestic) cup campaigns, we onboard the SS Newcastle have less choppy waters to navigate.

We have a home tie against a good Chelsea side to come and here’s hoping for another cup run.

However, first up is Brighton at SJP, the side that probably ended our realistic chances of Europe last season with a 1-1 draw. It was as disappointed as I can recently remember being after that game in May and for me nothing less than three points will suffice this time round. That will continue the improvement and set us up nicely going into November.

All we can do is improve ourselves and, the Fulham game apart, we are doing that game on game. The performances are of little consequence if the aggregate points improvement are maintained against last season’s same fixtures.

We’ve got to this point this season largely without both our first and second choice strikers, not to mention the missing Sven Botman and maybe, just maybe, as the season progresses and (hopefully) the injuries stay relatively clear, we can come on stronger and stronger.

Even though a natural born pessimist, I’m fairly confident it will happen…