Newcastle must repeat performance against Spurs

Newcastle's 2-0 victory over Liverpool last Sunday gave Newcastle fans a reason to believe that the worm may have turned with this squad and management team.  It could very well be that there was more good feeling taken from the match than is really there, but that would just fit in with the story of the season so far for Steve McClaren's men.

The reality of supporting Newcastle United in it's current state is that, for better or worse, every result is amplified.  Whether it's the club doing the amplifying of a victory (1-0 v. Bournemouth) or the fans doing the amplifying the impact of each defeat that keeps the club at the bottom of the Premier League we're all desperate to cut to the chase.  "We've turned the corner!" or "We're gannin dooon!" there has been very little room for reaction anywhere in the middle.  The Liverpool victory has changed that.

Heading into kickoff tomorrow, Newcastle are within one match (3 points) of Bournemouth in 14th place.  While Newcastle has been the beneficiary of some poor form from it's closest table rivals – Swansea are 20th on the form table while Villa (19th), Chelsea (18th), Norwich (16th) and the scum (15th) while Newcastle sit in the lofty heights of 13th – they have also managed (to a degree) to pick up results to take advantage of that poor form.

In some ways, however, the match against Tottenham this Sunday could tell us everything we need to know about whether McClaren and Co. are on the right track finally with regards to our club.  The 2-0 victory was our most complete match of the year.  We had seen encouraging play early in the season without the three points to go along with it, but this was the time that the performance and the points finally matched.  (Again, the club would have you believe that Bournemouth was that performance, but hahahaha no.)  It is critical that Newcastle follow the Liverpool result with another strong showing against Spurs.

We have managed to sneak results from White Hart Lane in years past through performances such as Tim Krul's brick wall in 2013.  It is probably not necessary to have something exactly like that to take away from Sunday's match.  A good, stand-up performance will allow the thought that McClaren is finally seeing that progress in a tangible form.  We must keep in mind, however, that our last six matches include losses of 3-0 to the scum, 5-1 to Palace and 3-0 to Leicester.  If we lose another that severely, we will have to accept that it may be time to start asking serious questions of our current management team.