This was a game of contradictions, both in terms of team selections and tactics and the actual result itself, but overall it was a good point well earned.

Looking at the last six games for Saints it would appear that the season is fast falling apart, five points from these half dozen fixtures and three of them gained in the oldest of the run could tell the story of a team where the wheels have fallen off in spectacular style.

However that would not be the truth of the matter and although the point at St James Park isnt great in making our current form look decent, it certainly is a good one in how following on from the draw with Man City we have stopped the rot and showed we have the spirit to battle on through adversity.

Of course some of that adversity is caused by injury, but a look at the starting line up against Newcastle suggested that perhaps we had got the selections wrong as well, to be blunt Saints lacked balance and as more respected pundits than myself have commented, why did we leave our best player on the bench, after a dozen games where a dozen players were used to distraction, suddenly Mauricio Pochettino has developed a squad rotation habit it seems.

But if the manager made a mistake in his initial team selection, the good news is he soon saw the folly of his ways and dealt with it at the break, as poor as Saints were in the first half, they were as good in the second.

To be truthful though in that first half although we lacked penetration we rarely looked like conceding bar an effort that Chambers did well to read and clear off the line, until the opener after 27 minutes, sadly it was another defensive error this time from Hooiveld who failed to deal with a ball he really should have and Gouffran pounced to round Gazzaniga and slot home.

Saints went in at the break feeling that it was harsh to be behind, yes it had been one way traffic for periods but the deficit had been of their own making and the question really was why Hooiveld playing in the first place, was Fonte still injured or was he dropped, surely it couldnt be the latter, but the fact that he was on the bench meant the question was not answered decisively.

But Pochettino to his credit realised that his initial selections hadnt worked and he made a double change at the break, off went JWP & Osvaldo and on came Schneiderlin and Lallana and suddenly the dynamics of the Saints side changed, they looked positive going forward and at the heart of it was Lallana, like Fonte the question was why was he on the bench in the first place, Lallana's second half performance suggested that it was nothing to do with injury.

Saints started creating chances including a superb long range effort from Steven Davis and usually Jay Rodriguez was involved somewhere, in the 65th minute he started and finished a neat move, J Rod picked up the ball in the centre of midfield drove at the Newcastle defence, exchanged a nice one two with Davis and then swept the ball past Kruhl in the Newcastle goal with a neat finish.

From then on Saints looked the more likely team to win it the only real scare again being of our own making when Gazzaniga miscued a back bass and left Remy one on one with him, luckily he put his shot wide when it looked easier to score.

Apart from that Saints closed the game out well and deserved the point, strangely neither keeper had much to do though apart from regulation stops.

Key points of the game from a Saints perspective.

Gazzaniga - yes h made a kicking error late on, but overall he grew in confidence as the game went on and in the closing minutes came and got a couple of dangerous crosses, he showed enough to suggest that having come through two tough games relatively unscathed that if he can keep getting more confident then we dont need to worry till Boruc returns.

Hooiveld - Not good enough and like Yoshida prone to lapses in concentration and error, Fonte is capable but we really do need to look at investing in another central defender.

Cork- Another solid game which suggests that Wanyama coming straight back into the team might not be a formality, the Kenyan is a better defender, but Saints didnt look weaker defending with ork and he certainly offers a lot more in the way he can control a ball and move it forward faster.

Osvaldo - A dilemma for Pochettino, once again the Italian misfired, the experiment to play both him and Lambert again failed miserably with the end result that neitehr plays to their full capabilities, even in the second half Lambert spent too much time in the midfield and not enough up front, with respect we have better midfielders if we want him to do this, Rodriguez showed that he is the inform man and his pace causes the opposition problems, how long before the manager is brave enough to use Rodriguez as the central lone striker.

Photo: Action Images

slynch added 11:23 - Dec 15 Pochettino said that Lallana and Fonte had mild injuries and he did not want to aggravate them by making them play 90 minutes. Schneiderlin was recovering from a worse injury and was in a similar position.
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NorwegianSaint added 12:00 - Dec 15 Agree with another good write up. I have been keeping an eye on Forren here and I just can't see why we didn't keep him... Do we put another bid in? Lol! But he is better than Hoover and Maya, in fact I would say he's as good as Fonte on a good day. Take a look at our last games.... Stoke, a mistake by Artur. Hull, a mistake by Wanyama. Arsenal, a mistake by Artur and the referee. Chelsea, a lucky equalizer and Boruc injured. Villa, mistakes by Maya and Cork. Man city, any number of players should have stopped the cross. Newcastle a mistake by Hoover.... who's turn next week? Twelve goals against of which seven or eight were avoidable. I hope things even themselves out as we are not getting too much luck. BUT.... What a team we have and eight English players involved yesterday. I hope I see the day when we play an all English team and give everyone a "helllll of a beating!!!"

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Fordy added 12:41 - Dec 15 Agree with most of that. I am not sure about JRod upfront on his own. He is suited to playing in that position away from home when we are doing plenty of defending. Particularly like yesterday where the home team are defending with a high line. Osvaldo doesn't seem to have the pace or movement to get in behind. Nor does he hold the ball up particularly well. Yet, JRod will run into the channels behind the defenders all day long. As we don't tend to hit it long and tend to break as a unit he can probably get away with not holding it up as well as the other two. However, JRod loves having space to run into. At home against packed defences he will only get that by having Osvaldo or Lambert taking defenders away. In these instances I am not sure his best position is alone up front.

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Bulgarian added 14:01 - Dec 15 Pochettino plan: I guess it was a game of plans A and B. Poch realises that in mid December Lalla, or anyone couldn't be at his very best for the whole 90 minutes, this is why he chose Lambert/Osvaldo. Of course we looked tame and on came AL & MS. I suppose in the next 3 or 4 games will see similar scenarios. Gazza - a nice lad and a lucky one as well. I don't blame him, but our results with him on goal depend heavily on his potential mistakes out of nowhere. Worrying tendency - the self-inflicted damage. As if we have returned to last year's scenario: we show true determination after we have conceded. Overall - If we are to step a level up we should have won ManC and Newc. The players proved we have the spirit and potential, we just need to materialise them.

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Toussaint added 14:26 - Dec 15 Our player`s are all being monitored by high-tech computers and rested when their % starts to burn,not sure about Fonte tho ,he looked pissed-off At times JRod was the lone striker and Lambert had to drop to stop them breaking out with the bll , all-in all a well earned point and another strong performance Agreed Hov and Joshida need to be up-graded for us to reach the next level

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BlackRod added 15:09 - Dec 15 Yes, a good report. First time I've been to St James's and I'll take my binoculars next time. Hooiveld can be relied on to score an own goal/give away a penalty/make a blunder at some point during a game. Fonte has limitations too and is largely propped up by Lovren. Gazzaniga isn't ready for the Big Time yet. The number of goals conceded in recent games tells its own story. Evidence so far is that Osvaldo can't adapt to the English Premier, which is probably more skilful than he's used to. Ironic that he and Ramirez, our two most expensive signings are overshadowed by players who were in League 1 a few years ago. Drawing a line through that form it mat be worth putting a few bob on England next summer.

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GeordieSaint added 16:22 - Dec 15 Decent point in my derby game! The toon won't lose too many at home this season.
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simmo400 added 18:43 - Dec 15 Osvaldo is poor. Lambert should start. Agree our best player this season is a joke. If Fonte is injured why on the bench ? Silly mistakes costing us.
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schatfield added 19:23 - Dec 15 agree with most here. Osvaldo cant simply adjust to this league, he looked like he would never get close to scoring yesterday. Lambert is out of form badly at the moment, and agree JRod up front on his own should be tried. Hooiveld playing sends shivers down my spine, as does our young goalie, i know he may have potential, but at the moment, he is scary....
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Sango123 added 04:22 - Dec 16 Overall, i think a point away to Newcastle who is on decent form is a good result. The lineup is weird. Dropping Lallana and Fonte seems weird since we are only playing once a week and our next fixture is 8 days later. Sadly Hooiveld who came in to the lineup made another error to add to the catalogue of own goals and mistakes he made in the premier league. At 30 years old, i dont think we should be keeping him as he is clearly not premier league class. For Gazza, he is clearly not first choice gk at the moment. The only good thing is he is still young and has more time to develop. For Osvaldo, he seem to have problem fitting into the system and adapting to the premier league. The biggest problem is i dont think he can play with Lambert. Despite our possession this season, we score very little. We really need to create more clear cut chances. If we truly want to push for Top 6, we need more goals to our game. Only Tottenham whose goal scoring issue is well documented has score less than us in the top 10.

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ExiledSupporter added 11:59 - Dec 16 Agree with most of the comments here...but we do have a big shopping list! Personally I think neither Osvaldo nor (sadly) Lambert are now good enough, but I have to favour Lambert because of his history with us; however I very much feel that Rodriguez should be played as the central striker now, surely that was part of the thinking about why we bought him ie. as a medium term replacement for RL? He threatens in the channels better than any of our other players. But if we do that we will need another striker in any case (assuming we sell one or other of the above two over Jan) because we need someone to understudy/challenge JR. But JR won't be as successful as he could potentially be unless we have a No.10 as a playmaker who can thread the ball through to his feet. Ramirez potentially could do this, but playing in the Prem. seems as beyond him as it does Osvaldo. So sell Osvaldo and Ramirez and invest the money more usefully as suggested. Easier said than done I realise! Alteratively, if we can't get Ramirez up to scratch then when Wanyama returns, why don't we try to play Cork in the No.10 role, not ideal but perhaps an option worth pursuing in extremis? Yes we need another defender, but I had thought Fonte would do well enough until the summer, but if we lose Lovren (or Shaw) for any length of time I think we might very much implode and slip seriously down the table in a scenario where we score few and start shipping many goals due to repetitive individual failings. There is often a team that plummets down the table in the second half of the season and unpredictably end up in a relegation struggle. We must not let it be us. I'd also like to think we could find someone who could cross the ball regularly and well enough to pressurise opposition defences. Currently we play too much through the middle and have insufficient width to stretch opponents across the pitch. I'd bring back Puncheon if there is no other better alternative...don't know if this is viable. So quite a few players needed to bolster a squad that has some considerable strengths, but some obvious weaknesses in key positions...sounds as tho' the club credit card is going to get a bashing in January.

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Whatsforpud added 15:34 - Dec 16 Before the game, Lambert said that he and Osvaldo could form a partnership. He probably said that to increase his chances of starting the match. Some teams choose to have one up front, others choose 4-4-2. Personally I prefer to see a pair of strikers linking together, but am still not sure if Osvaldo has produced enough to warrant automatic inclusion. I say that in spite of him scoring one of the goals of the season. Since the time when Lallana played wide left, and Puncheon played wide right, we have been able to stifle a lot of the opposition as we are concentrating our play in the middle. It seems to have the effect of helping the defence (joint best defence) more than the attack.

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IanRC added 16:22 - Dec 16 Not sure I agree with all of that again. Decision not to start Fonte and Lallana but have them on the bench was bizarre. Really think MoPo has moments of madness occasionally. I think Cork is at least Wanyama's equal and no way should he be dropped automatically when Wanyama is fit. Don't know what to say about Jos. He didn't have too bad a game except for that appalling lapse but surely Fonte has to start if fit enough for bench. Interesting to see comments about Forren above, why o why did we not give him a chance.

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davepid added 08:40 - Dec 17 Ok MP lucky to still be in job given the sackings going on everywhere else- 2 pts from 5 games is poor. At half time on Saturday our 68percent possession had produced 2 shots at goal. Everton and. Chelsea with 65 had produced 6 and 7 shots respectively . That and the growing evidence that we gift a goal a game makes me recall our form of the last 10 games of last season. But having said that the goal was great , last year JRod would have hammered that straight at the keeper. He's learnt to place his shot or header in the corner . Coyr.

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TeamCortese added 19:56 - Dec 17 I think getting a draw at Newcastle away is not a bad result considering they've been on a run that includes wins over Man Utd and Chelsea. Personally I think we need another centre back of a similar quality to Lovren (to partner him). Fonte, Hoover, and Yoshida are not good enough. We also need wingers to add an extra dimension to our attack. I personally think we should go in for Zaha, Memphis Depay (the dutch dude we look at over the summer) or possibly Oxlade Chamberlain. Lastly I think MP needs to take more risks sometimes. We can be too defensive sometimes and that stifles our creativity as a team. At the moment our most creative player is Lallana and he can't do it all by himself. MP needs to model the team more around Osvaldo/Lambert and J Rod.

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