Roundly criticised since making his debut for the club, Shola Ameobi has been one of the finest surprises of the last two seasons for Newcastle United, and it seems the big Geordie striker has waited to mature into a strong forward, capable of holding the ball up and linking up with other strikers. Last season in the same fixture, Shola was a revelation, muscling out the Man United back-line, and making life difficult for Sir Alex's men throughout the game, including his excellent knock-on for Demba Ba's exceptional opening goal. Against Man United this time, Shola was a second half substitute, and he was less than effective, dropping too deep and not getting the service in key areas that he could have punished the Man United back-line with. It was all a little too late, and the game was already lost by the time Shola made his bow, but he should have been on the pitch from the start, linking up with either Demba Ba or Papiss Cisse, who struggled together, and failed to hold the ball up. That would have been Shola's value yesterday, and Newcastle plainly missed a player of his type to win the ball and allow the rest of the team to build a second phase of attack - instead long balls came up to Cisse and Ba and were knocked straight back up the pitch. A rare tactical error by Pardew. What do you think Newcastle fans?