Having plunged well into the depths of the relegation zone after a dismal draw at Hull City, and then defeat at home to Arsenal 3-1, things are grimmer than ever on Tyneside - no surprises there then.

We are now third bottom of the table, with the gap between us and our rivals getting bigger and bigger by the week. It seems no-one, repeat NO-ONE (thanks Mr. Cashley) is going to help us in our bid for survival. Chris Hughton is clueless, Joe Kinnear is ill and equally quite clueless, in my humble opinion, whilst out of our current squad, I have faith in not one of them. Of all that I thought could perhaps save us was Obafemi Martins, but after his weakest of all weak penalties ever against Arsenal, my faith is even lost in him.

A gutsy performance against the world club champions and quite possibly the best team in the world at present, Manchester United, suggests that we have a more than decent chance of Premier League survival this season. Yes, we were beaten once more 2-1, and gained again nothing from a match that we could have easily pinched a point from. Manchester United, unbeaten in the league for what seems like decades, were firm favourites to not only win on Wednesday night, but to absolutely destroy us, particularly as Edwin van Der Sar was still yet to concede a goal in an almost European record of 13 games. One more match and the record was his.

However, in the ninth minute of this entertaining encounter, new signing Peter Lovenkrands was on hand to pounce at the hands of the Dutch stopper, to put is in 1-0 in front early on. Jonas Guttierez shot from just outside the box, only for Edwin to spill the shot surpirsingly into the path of Lovenkrands. This was good stuff from the struggling geordies and we were unlucky not to go 2-0 up towards the end of the first half when injury-free Obafemi Martins shot inches wide, leaving us wondering what might have been.