Williamson One Of Our Worst Ever Centre Backs?

We've had some shocking centre backs over the past 10 or so years, but is Mike Williamson worthy of having his name in the same category as the Bramble's, the Boumsong's, the Charvet's, the Marcelino's, the O'Brien's, and the Cacapa's?


Based on his 'performances' at Fulham and Spurs where we have conceded 10 goals in 2 consecutive away games, I'm going to say if he keeps up this level of clueless shite, than yes!


His positioning and decision making is absolutely horrendous. Out of the 11 goals we have conceded in our last 3 games, I can honestly say Willo has been responsible for at least half of them, if not most of them.


I mean how can he be so poor at basic defensive qualities such as knowing when to close the striker down, to dropping off and holding the line? I was under the impression Alan Pardew prides himself on his defensive coaching...has he even noticed Williamson's headless chicken performances lately? Or am I the only one, along with John Barnes strangely enough as he explained how poor Willo was for Spurs 2nd goal last night on ESPN.


Lets go back to the Fulham hammering. 2 of their goals were down to Williamson deciding to close down Andy Johnson 40 yards from goal, being turned inside out, allowing Zamora, Johnson and Dempsey to run riot. Another goal they got was when little Andy Johnson picked up a shocking clearance from Krul but then as Willo went to tackle him he got blown away by a little shoulder barge as if Jonah Lomu had just smashed him. Their final goal was purely kamikaze stuff as Willo was so far up the pitch he was actually in Fulham's half when Dempsey got released to run 50 yards to smash in another. Absolutely shocking.


The Villa game was better, because we were at home, however their goal was totally avoidable as N'Zogbia crossed that ball into the 6 yard box, the only thing Willo had to concentrate on was to block the cross out for a corner...he epicly failed, due to being slightly out of position as he watched the ball helplessly flash in front of him for Robbie Keane to tap in from 5 yards out. Very poor.


Then we come to last night's debacle. 2 down after 5 mins. 1st goal, Willo got drawn (again) into closing down the striker, as the ball got switched to Adebayor out wide, instead of Willo getting back into the centre back position he ball watched, which meant our right back Danny Simpson had to fill the gap he left, leaving the back post completely unguarded for Assou-Ekotto to smash in totally unmarked. The 2nd goal was laughable as Santon was caught up the pitch, Colo had to come across to challenge Adebayor, so the only thing Willo had to do was place himself in the centre of our penalty area to block and clear any cross coming in....he failed. In fact, he didn't even get anywhere near it. He may as well had not been there as Saha came in free to smash it in. Total joke. For the third he attempted half heartedly to block Saha's shot, but turned his back like a wimp as the ball went through his legs. Can you imagine what Saylor would have done in that position? The lad would be more than willing to take one in the face to stop a goal. Willo was gutless. Spurs 5th was another example that he doesn't know when to come and when to drop off, as every NUFC defender held a firm line across the penalty spot as Saha nodded a header down...apart from Mr Willo who was stood on the 6 yard box line playing Adebayor onside as he controlled and volleyed in another, with Willo softely 'attempting' to block it. Total shambles of a night's work.


The lad is mediocre. At home against the also rans of the Premier League he is not much of a problem. However, away from home he is proving to be shocking. Maybe it's the high line he doesn't like, or maybe he's just clueless. I don't know for sure, i'm not his manager. But he needs to shape up because we don't have any other option apart from Perch it seems...which makes me throw up a little in my mouth.


Which takes me onto my next point that how NUFC have failed to bring in a centre back in the past 2 transfer windows is an absolute disgrace. We needed cover at centre half back in August with a fully fit squad, throw in the fact Saylor is out for the season, we were desperate for one in January. We failed again. Criminal.


Our season on the whole is an absolute dream and everyone deserves huge credit for being 1 point off 4th place after 25 games. However, if NUFC miss out on the Champions League, or worse the Europa League, just because we were too tight fisted to offer a few million to bring in a decent defender, then the administration should hang their heads in shame as they will have missed out on millions and millions of pound worth of income. 


Typical NUFC, when we are in desperate need for a defender...we bring in a new £10million striker!


Different people, same club.

'Should I stay, or should I...goal'

20th Anniversary!

On this day 20 years ago NUFC changed forever, when Kevin Keegan took charge of his first game against Bristol City. We won 3-0 and the rest is history as they say.


Without Super Kev NUFC would not be where we are here today. We might not be a Premier League top club, we might not be a Premier League team at all, we wouldn't have had the players we have had over the past 20 years, we wouldn't have had glorious highs (and also massive lows) and we certainly wouldn't have a 53,000 seater stadium to be admired by all.


Who could forget the 1993 first division onslaught, or the first season in the Premier league where we finished 3rd, Andy Cole's 42 goals in a season, The Entertainers, Beardsley's comeback, the 12 point lead, Ginola and Ferdinand combination, The 'I will love it' rant, the Howay 5-0 vs Manure and of course the countless unforgettable matches that will forever be looked back upon.


He may have left us far too early and cost us some success in 1997 however what he did for the football club is one of, if not THE, biggest and greatest things ever achieved in our history.


Cheers KK!


Typical NUFC

After the Brighton debacle, it was inevitable that we would go down to Blackburn and win. However, even the amount of luck on our side was cynically laughable. Where has lady luck been?!


Blackburn basically battered our goal and came away with a 2-0 loss. Over 20 shots and 14 corners Blackburn had last night and a penalty kick. We come away with a clean sheet. Unbelievable.


Not that I'm complaining but we could have done with a bit of luck down at Brighton in the FA Cup. In saying that I'm a believer in you make your own luck. We stuck in at Blackburn, we fought for the cause and got the luck you could say we deserved......we got exactly what we deserved at Brighton. F*ck all.


We're now 5th in the league and only 3 points off Chelsea. I've said earlier in the season that we should be aiming for Champions League and see where it takes us. I'm more inclined to just take one game at a time because we know how NUFC works, we'll start to believe and then go and lose against Villa on Sunday.


But I'm not thinking negative. Last night was a good hard fought win. Perch had his best game for us since he signed 18 months ago and even Obertan came on and scored the settler. Now that is a strange game if ever i saw one!


Bring on Villa on Sunday. Bring on Arsenal, Liverpool and even Chelsea for the rest of the season!


Howay!

Its about time she came and gave us a visit