The season of two halves

Now that the season is drawing to a close it’s inevitable that you look back on the season that was and reflect on the ups and downs of the 9 month grind.  Newcastle United have had a successful return to England’s top flight with a chance to finish in the top half and above their neighbors but it hasn’t been without it’s low points.  One of them was the unceremonious sacking of honorary Geordie, Chris Hughton in December and the subsequent appointment of Alan Pardew.  Considering most of the fanbase was outraged at his dismissal it seems like a logical point to compare the success of the team before and after the decision to compare the job both managers have done this season.  The media perception seems to be that Pardew has settled the team from it’s choatic state during the Hughton reign.  Or in the insightful words of the Match Of The Day pundits:

“He’s done a great job, he’s steadied the ship” – Alan Hansen

Let first take at look at the results Chris Hughton obtained during his 16 league games in charge:

As you can see he was doing a decent job.  He averaged about 1.19 points/game which projects to a 45 points season which is where we are currently at.  He was also in charge during some memorable victories like the 6-0 victory over Aston Villa in the first home game of the season but more importantly he was in charge during the famous 5-1 victory over Sunderland on Halloween.  This victory came after much speculation that he may be sacked if the team did not win the match.  By the way the Lads played, it should have indicated how much they wanted to play for him but sadly that wasn’t enough to convince Ashley.

Now lets take a look at the job performed by Alan Pardew in the last 5 months:

Relatively speaking he’s also doing fine.  He’s currently averaging 1.23 points/game which projects to a 47 point season;  with one game remaining.  If we win on Sunday he will average a 50 point season whereas if we lose it will be a 45 points sesason, the same as Hughton.  In defense of Pardew, he’s done this without the help of our departed #9, Carroll, and significant injuries to Best and Shola.  But when you look at the results they have been anything but consistent.  There were good victories like the 3-1 victory over Liverpool on his first game in charge or the 5-0 drubbing of West Ham at home.  You combine that with results like the 4-0 loss away at Stoke and the embarrassing performance in the FA Cup, a 3-1 loss to Stevenage, and it results in a roller-coaster season that is settling out with safety secured.

It’s hard to fault Pardew for the job he’s done so far as he has basically taken the team inherited from Hughton and continued to get similar results.  This does not make the sacking of Hughton anymore palpable but since that is now in the past we must look forward to next season and hope the results continue to improve.  As most people said on January 31st, a lot will depend how the offseason goes and how much of the £35M received from the Carroll sale is used to improve the squad.  Let’s hope we’re all excited about the prospects of seeing all our new acquisitions performing in the first game of the season and not lamenting the fact that another promise has been broken.

Howay The Lads!