Newcastle United left the Liberty Stadium in Swansea with their tails between their legs last week. All the promise of the opening Barclays Premier League weekend's game against Southampton was quickly forgotten as the gutless, hopeless football shown under the tutelage of both Alan Pardew and John Carver came back with a vengeance. It was a shambolic performance that left the prospect of a trip to Old Trafford to face a Manchester United side - unbeaten with a 100% win record before Saturday's fixture - as daunting as it could possibly be. Every single man in a Newcastle shirt would need to perform to their optimum seven short days after receiving one hell of a beating at the hands of Garry Monk's Swans. It was a 90 minutes that would tell us a lot as to how Steve McClaren's Magpies would fare this season. The 0-0 draw represents huge progress for Newcastle, who would have undoubtedly lost the same fixture a minimum of 4-0 if John Carver was in charge. The away side rode their luck at times and defended immensely - showing the sort of character that we haven't seen since the days of Chris Hughton's group including the likes of Joey Barton, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll. They could have even come away with all three points if Aleksandar Mitrovic's wonderful header was an inch or two lower and if Papiss Cisse's ball was closer to new signing Florian Thauvin. The positives far outweighed the negatives - which is why there are nine heroes and only one villain to look at from an NUFC perspective...
