Making a good point?

A few years ago, under Kevin Keegan, we never ever used to draw matches. It was win or bust - a seemingly constant cycle of thumping 4-0 home win followed the next week by agonising 3-2 away defeat. But not any more - Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool was our sixth of the season in the league. Of course one point is better than none, but, as against Villa early last month, we deserved all three and so the one point haul is all the more frustrating.

Liverpool aren't a bad side, even when deprived of several first-teamers through injury, so we really didn't need to go gifting them the lead as early as the sixth minute, Bramble having one of his horrific rushes of blood to the head in clattering into his central defensive partner Woodgate and allowing Danny Murphy to run through easily and slot home. For the rest of the first half we looked sluggish, Ameobi in particular lacking sharpness in front of goal. The second half was a different story: although Liverpool fans would point to decent efforts by Sinama-Pongolle, Smicer and Hamann, the impetus was with us, partly thanks to the introduction of Solano. Shearer crashed home a penalty after Robert was brought down, and was very unlucky to see a late drive brilliantly palmed over by Kirkland, while we also had two shots cleared off the line with the keeper well beaten and Jenas miskicked comically when well-placed to score.

So, full credit for the rousing second half performance, but our reward in terms of points was scant. It's giving cause for concern that we can't seem to turn one point into a valuable three - something we could be rueing by the time we come to face Liverpool again, at Anfield on the last day of the season.

If after Saturday's result the Premiership was firmly beyond us, the one domestic competition that wasn't was the FA Cup. That was until the draw for the 3rd Round was made on Sunday afternoon, and we were paired with Southampton. Our record away to the Saints is terrible, and even the most optimistic Newcastle fan will have to steel themselves for the worst.

A final word on England's group for the World Cup qualifiers, starting in September. It's been a while since we took on any of the other Home Nations, so the prospect of games against both Wales and Northern Ireland is mouthwatering. Our group could potentially have been much tougher.