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Newcastle won a match! It wasn't pretty. At least the second half wasn't. If the the first half was a walk in the park, than the second half was 45 minutes on a Stairmaster. Slog it out, wait for the whistle, and escape with three points. Here's what's being said about the match.
As discussed earlier in the Instant Reaction thread, our own Mothership thought Villa deserved the win. They say that the first goal was offside and our second goal was a goal of the year candidate, because as you know, goal of the year candidates shouldn't count.
Lee Ryder from Chronicle Live says Newcastle could not have shown more life on the night, contrasting the Magpies' performance to the 2009 side that went down "without a fight".
The Guardian takes a look at it from Aston Villa's perspective and says that yes, their season could have gotten worse and it did. I don't think the Guardian thinks highly of Newcastle.
Also from the Guardian: the match in handy graph form.
Since all the match reports are some variation of, "Wow, Aston Villa is bad. And, oh hey, Newcastle beat them," let's move on to other things.
The Mag speculates that we've seen the last of Xisco, the striker has been off to Spain on loan and probably isn't coming back
Coloccini says he's committed to Newcastle. He says the open letter posted on San Lorenzo's official website was indeed his, but the letter's meaning got lost in translation.
The Journal looks at what Newcastle's spending spree might mean for the younger players with the club.
Apparently, Alan Pardew's secretary was happy to type up this week's team sheet.
Next up for Newcastle is a home match against Chelsea. Chelsea are at Reading today and will be without Petr Cech, who is out after suffering a calf strain in the FA Cup.