A New Dawn? A point at least

On a positive NUFC have started the new season much better than expected, with a point at Sir Bobby's former club at The Hawthorns.
After a minute of celebration for the great man, we got back to second flight football with vigour and certainly entertained the crowd. Both teams showed why the will do well in the Championship, but also were pretty clear as to why they ended there in the first place.
Smith led as a captain should, and Tim Krul came on in the second half for the injured Harper to put in a sterling performance. Ranger got his debut, Carroll was strong up front and Taylor and Duff were solid.
That said the frailties were clear for all to see. Nolan was frankly shocking in midfield, and if Barton has disrupted so much to be back out of the side then Lua Lua must start in the next game. Coloccini struggled, and having been an Argentine international 12 months ago, to see him struggling against a 17 year old kiwi was worrying. Again bring in youth and allow Kadar to partner Taylor next week.
Overall though there was still a lack of coherency and leadership. Newcastle gained a good point, but Hughton does not lead. He missed the obvious substitutions and generally added nothing during the 90 mins.
A better start than expected, but lets remain realistic. We won 3-1 there a few months ago and weren't good enough to stay up, so dropping two points in a league where anyone can beat anyone is a word of warning.