I said in my post earlier that we could move into eighth if we won today and that we could even have gone above Newcastle. When I wrote that I was trying to create a piece of perspective.
You see, we could have gone eighth, instead, we didn't win but we didn't lose and we've ended up above Liverpool, QPR and Southampton.
But as things stand, we've got one point from three and you could argue, especially looking at Liverpool, that maybe that isn't good enough and that because we picked a manager that had one fairly decent season in the Premier League that we are taking a big risk.
But, you could also argue, after the game today, that we are starting to play better football and that we are starting to see certain players make a name for themselves.
Players today
For today Guzan was my man of the match and he was fantastic. And I don't use that word often, but he was. Whenever a ball came into the box, it was his. The goal for them wasn't his fault an Given wouldn't have got close and I'd go so far to say that with Given today, we might have lost.
But it wasn't just about Guzan today, it was about the team. I haven't seen the stats yet, but we passed the ball around today like we should have done years ago and it was nice, so while I've mentioned Guzan, and I really should mention more, I'm saying it was a great team performance today.
although if my name was Stephen Ireland today, I'd be buying he beers for that miss in the second half, but he was good today too and I'm only writing this because he probably knows he should have scored.