To underscore the astonishment with the squad selection, Justin Hoyte was deployed at left back…ahead of the 3 existing and available ones…Julio Arca was favoured over Mark Yeates. In retrospect it’s daft to not think we’d struggle as badly as we did. Sorry Gary O’Neil, you didn’t boss the midfield…bang on though in being forthright about the deficiencies in attack and defence. Gary Gill was spared with a nagging malady – former Boro right back Curtis Fleming trekked the icy slopes to the press boxes at St James’ Park – here is what we culled from their vantage:

• GON free kick on 12 mins – Lita rises unchallenged, but the header is far off target
• Geordies lead after a questionable tangle in the box – Shola Ameobi appears to have pushed Emanuel Pogatetz before heading a ball towards goal that’s ultimately stabbed home by Marlon Harewood
• Danny Guthrie starts prolifically – delivered the ball leading to the first goal – his free kick is repelled by the wall but drops to Alan Smith, in a monumental scoring drought, who fizzes his shot low and wide
• Hand ball on Steven Taylor? He controls Isaiah Osbourne’s scooped shot onto the post – another in a long line of stonewall penalties denied
• HT – Newcastle 1 – 0 Boro – Curtis Fleming: Boro poor at set pieces – really costing us; Brad Jones continues to induce fear – rooted to the spot too often, and when he’s not something foolish is usually afoot – Mark Drury openly asks: are we really 20 points worse than the Geordies? Go get stuck in!
• Marcus Bent on – Dave Kitson off – ineffectual from the Ginger Ninj-er
• Niggly officiating
• Reported attendance: 49,644
• David Wheater goes close at one end – Newcastle shift the attack and Danny Guthrie is again involved – a cross from the right meets Ameobi again, this time the striker connects – Newcastle 2- 0 Boro
• Is it safe to throw on Luke Williams and/or Jonathan Franks in a hostile derby environment?
• Lita continues his maddening inconsistency – he’s fed a nice ball resultant of a decent move between Osbourne and Bent – LL pounds the effort well over the crossbar
• Hoyte – horribly exposed to failure – makes an enterprising run at the Newcastle back four – silky moves with no end quality that…sadly
• Franks does get on for Lita late – no impact
• Curtis Fleming MOM – Emanuel Pogatetz

Of paramount importance now is a proper return of points from the holiday fixtures – 6 would be exceptional – anything less than 4 a failure…

Leroy Lita was rewarded for a recent spell of good performances with 2 goals – Gary O’Neil, Mark Yeates and Dave Kitson rounded off the scoring. Yeatsie was simply awesome filling in for Adam Johnson – unable to travel to London due to a serious family illness – with his indefatigability. Pilloried for being out of his depths at this level, this was a shift emblematic of his committed approach so desired and appreciated earlier this season. For Kitson, it’s 3 in 2 games, and understandably the club is focusing considerable effort on trying to extend the Stoke City strikers loan. Expect a Save Our Promotion Ginger Retention Scheme to take off any moment now.

The fiver of goals means extended notes from the match:

• QPR were wasteful early – dominated large spells, primarily w/ north London loanees Adel Taarabt (Spurs) and Jay Simpson (Arsenal)
• Fine first half for Yeates – rattled crossbar, earned the free kick leading to the first goal, and surged forward with regularity
• Lita and Kitson really building on what they enjoyed when at Reading – linked up to create good scoring chances – a redux of the Yak and Duke days when opposing managers were quick in the postgame pressers to admit our strikers were hard to handle?
• Second week running that we have an iron-clad pen waived off??!
• Good stuff from Radek Cerny – former Spurs man has worked hard to deny great scoring chances in the first half – Boro could easily have more than 1
• We get that penalty early in the second half – QPR handles it in a busy box – Lita emphatically dispatches it and promptly gets carded for stripping and taunting the QPR dugout
• 2 goal lead lasted mere moments – more capitulation?
• LL gets his brace – Yeates unlocked the striker for his second goal on 60 minutes
• Arca almost gets the 4^th – multiple bites of the apple for the Argey repelled by Cerny – another QPR hand ball infringement goes unnoticed
• Wayne Routledge blows a golden chance for a QPR lifeline – Jonesey commits his most egregious error of the match but gets away with it
• Lita searching for the hat trick – piledrives the woodwork and GON tucks away – 4-1 Boro
• Tough love shown to Didier Digard before replacing GON – GS2 reported extra firm to his Frenchman before the match too
• Yeatsie selfishly gets his for the 5^th as Boro bag the points!!
• Gary Gill MOM: Leroy Lita

Absolutely chuffed w/ the result – Blackpool on Tuesday – more later…

Whatever he may choose, it has to be good enough to produce a result as we endure another international break. There is nothing like extended idle time after a poor result to allow the savages to sharpen their sticks