Brian Kerr

Yeah, I thought it was a very good game.

Newcastle have nothing really to play for.

They've had a poor season and they were on a very poor run of results until they beat Brighton last week.

They played really well in that match.

But given the situation they were in, I was surprised about the verve, the enthusiasm they played with.

They were aggressive around the middle of the field.

They got at Nottingham Forest, didn't allow them to settle the ball.

And I thought they played very well in Newcastle.

They didn't have the quality in the final tour to let them down on the solo.

Didn't do an awful lot until they had the free kick rattled off the bar.

But once they got the breakthrough, I kind of felt they looked like they were going to win this game.

But then Norwich and Forest upped the game.

The substitutes made a difference.

They obviously have had a tough week, a long week.

Good win against Chelsea last Monday.

Then towards the night, a kind of heavy defeat and fairly dispiriting overall.

The hope they had going into that match to lead them from the first leg ended up getting turned 4-0.

So today it took them a long time to get going, but the manager made good substitutions, they made an impact, and probably just about earned a draw in the end.

Yeah, it'd be certainly hard to replace those two players of such quality.

Guimaraes has been the top scorer from the centre midfield position which probably says a bit about some of the rest of them but you look at the line up today and Anthony Gordon doesn't start in the match and a lot of speculation about him as well and it's a bit surprising you would have thought