Before I write, I want to thank everyone for the turnout this weekend for the EPL Talk Chat. You honestly have no idea how happy it made me. Anyways enough of the gushing, back to the meat of this post.

Marlon King’s double was enough to see off Newcastle United 2-1.

I have to admit, I’m torn about what direction to take this particular article. Really this should be about how Hull City was able to take advantage of a club in crisis and get a win at St. James’ Park. Instead, I’m more focused on what happened in the stands to start the second half.

As the ‘Cockney Mafia Out’ banner circled the ground to start the second half, I actually got disgusted. Yes everyone in the world knows Newcastle United fans are not happy with Ashley at the helm and they sure as hell aren’t happy with how Kevin Keegan had to leave the club this time around. But to parade around with a sign is just disgraceful to those on the pitch trying their best to get a result for the club that you claim to support. To make this protest even more comical was the fact Ashley or Wise weren’t even there, and it was pretty obvious they weren’t going to be. Yes they didn’t take their venom out on the players, but if you’re focusing your time on taking it out on the board, can’t you argue fans are taking it out on the players by ignoring what they do on the field?

Look, if you want to protest to your club about what is going on there, it’s pretty simple. Don’t buy anymore merchandise. Protest outside the club, don’t show up. If you want to even sing songs of protest to the board, while I’m not thrilled with it, I can even understand that. But to draw attention to yourselves by circling the ground with a banner is about as low as it can go as far as I’m concerned.

What’s even sadder is this game was more or less a side show to the protests on offer at the ground. The game itself though wasn’t that great of a game. Newcastle United had the promising start, but couldn’t take advantage of their three best chances to score inside of half an hour. Then the penalty and I’ve gone back and forth on this one. The way I see it, Peter Halmosi came back into the tackle of Nicky Butt. From my vantage point, it shouldn’t have been a penalty, but I won’t fault Andre Marriner for awarding it. Marlon King did his job from the spot even though Given guessed correctly and Hull had their lead.

The start of the second half was pretty much more of the same for Newcastle. Create chances, but got caught out on one quality counter. Charles N’Zogbia should be taken to task for being caught so far out of position. Marlon King had plenty of space to run in and even with N’Zogbia tracking back, it was too late. King did well to keep composed on the ball and slot home far post.

Xisco I felt had a good game, and got his reward nine minutes from the ninety. It was simply clean up duty as Charles N’Zogbia found space through the traffic to go far post. Myhill dove for it and was simply not able to get up in time as Xisco did well to stay onside and finish.

The ending though has to leave a black eye on the fans who did come out. Danny Guthrie has to know better that you just can’t go in and attack the legs unprovoked. Hell he got away with one hack at Caleb Fagan’s legs, but to blatantly dive in with what appeared to me an intent to injure is a joke.

In the end, Hull City get three points and do the business in the strangest of environments. Newcastle United just have too many issues to deal with right now and while they have enough talent to stay away from true relegation hell, it’s going to be another long season of turmoil for them.

A Few Other Observations:
1) If Geremi is Newcastle United’s best crossing threat, that’s not a good thing.
2) Could Shola Ameobi have had a worse game? At the moment, he doesn’t even look league one standard, even if he is coming off an injury.
3) If Dean Windass doesn’t have a realistic chance weekly to come on, shouldn’t he be smart enough to just step aside and let those who are more able in? It their four matches this season, the only one he’s come on in was during a blowout.

I’ll be back tonight with a review of Stoke City taking on Everton.

If Mike Ashley wants to do the right thing and avoid being run out of Newcastle, he needs to sack Dennis Wise and get on his knees to convince Kevin Keegan to stay at Newcastle United.

King Kev is hardly a master tactician but what he does have is an immense passion for the Tyneside club and a drive to succeed. He has the fan’s best interests at heart, which is more than I can say about Mike Ashley and Dennis Wise.

I had to laugh this morning when I read an article entitled “Dennis Wise Is A Visionary In The Modern Game” penned by Matt Hughes of The Times. As a manager and executive director, what has Wise accomplished? His biggest managerial claim to fame is taking Millwall to the FA Cup Final in 2004, where the London side lost 3-0 to Man United.

In his role as executive director at Newcastle, he’s responsible for transfers, scouting and youth development. What transfers? Six players were transferred out of Newcastle including James Milnar, and five players were brought in. Those five are Jonas Gutierrez, Xisco, Ignacio Gonzalez, Danny Guthrie and Fabricio Coloccini.

These five signings are hardly visionary. Gutierrez dazzled on his first performance for Newcastle but will take time to adapt to the English game. Coloccini seems comfortable in the back, but the jury is still out on him. Xisco and Gonzalez are untested in the Premier League, while Guthrie was a safe bet after playing in the Liverpool reserves.

Does Newcastle really need to pay an executive director such as Dennis Wise a top salary to help make five transfer signings? Couldn’t Keegan have made the same if not better decisions at no additional cost to Newcastle?

Where is the logic in keeping Wise? I don’t see it. Executives at Newcastle would probably say that their continental-style management structure works to support Keegan, but with so few transfers being made and Keegan feeling that he is being undermined by Wise and Ashley, this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Instead, Ashley should sack Wise and give Keegan more power to see if he can turn the ship at St James’ Park. Give Keegan six months to change things around and give the manager more funding in the January transfer window to bring players in who will make a difference. Reports are coming out of England that Keegan has issued an ultimatum to Ashley to get rid of Dennis Wise and vice-president Tony Jimenez and give the control of transfers in and out back to the manager. Let’s hope Ashley agrees with Keegan.

It’s also time for Ashley to face the press and public. He needs to share his vision for Newcastle and put aside his differences with Keegan and give the man a chance. While the team still has a long way to go, Newcastle United this season looks much stronger than they’ve done in many years. Sure, Keegan has got a lot of work to do but let him die trying instead of stabbing him in the back.

Stay updated on the latest transfers in the Premier League today on deadline day, which marks the end of the August transfer window (extended one day because the last day of August was a Sunday):

• Fraizer Campbell (England) joins Tottenham Hotspur from Man United,
• Dimitar Berbatov (Bulgaria) joins Manchester United from Spurs,
• Martin Cranie (England) joins Charlton from Portsmouth,
• Robinho (Brazil) joins Manchester City from Real Madrid,
• George McCartney (Ireland) joins Sunderland from West Ham United,
• Antoine Sibierski (France) joins Norwich City from Wigan Athletic,
• Alexei Smertin (Russia) has had his Fulham contract cancelled by mutual consent,
• Julian Gray (England) joins Fulham from Coventry City,
• Danny Higginbotham (England) joins Stoke from Sunderland,
• Carlo Nash (England) joins Everton from Wigan,
• Albert Riera (Spain) joins Liverpool from Espanyol,
• Collins John (Holland) joins NEC Nijmegen from Fulham,
• Ryan Donk (Holland) joins West Brom from AZ Alkmaar,
• Andriy Voronin (Ukraine) joins Hertha Berlin on a season-long loan from Liverpool,
• Steve Bunn (England) signs for Blackburn Rovers from Northampton Town; amazingly this one of the very few transfers today involving English players in the Premier League,
• Steve Finnan (Ireland) joins Espanyol from Liverpool,
• Rachid Bouaouzan (Holland) joins NEC Nijmegen on a one-year loan deal from Wigan Athletic,
  
• Peter Gulacsi (Hungary) joins Liverpool from MTK Hungaria as a backup goalkeeper,
• Louis Saha (France) joins Everton from Manchester United,
• Nadir Belhadj (Algeria) joins Portsmouth on a season-long loan from Lens,
  
• Vitor Flora (Brazil) joins Liverpool from Botafogo,
  
• Ignacio Gonzalez (Uruguay) joins Newcastle United on loan from Valencia,
  
• Blerim Dzemaili (Switzerland) joins Torino from Bolton on a season-long loan,
  
• Vedran Corluka (Croatia) joins Tottenham Hotspur from Manchester City,
• Roman Pavlyuchenko (Russia) joins Tottenham Hotspur from Spartak Moscow,
• Xisco (Spain) joins Newcastle United from Deportivo de La Coruna,

In a recent development, Manchester City’s new owners have reportedly put a bid in for Dimitri Berbatov in excess of £30 million.

Keep on returning throughout the day for the confirmations of the latest transfers.