Queens Park Rangers 0 Newcastle United 1

May 3 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

THE Coca-Cola Championship has been a good friend to Newcastle United, but we have always known it was the sort you have to leave behind to get on in life.

Hang around in their company for too long and you are bound to end up in trouble.

After the misery of the drop, has come the joy of promotion.

It is a campaign which has wiped some of the slate clean, for players, management and owner, but for many it will still only ever be a successful damage limitation exercise.

Regardless of your view on that one, there is no doubt it has been a surprisingly refreshing stint in the second tier in which a new sort of Newcastle team has been forged out of the fires of relegation.

Whether it has the steel and the cutting edge to cope back in the Premier League remains to be seen, but they have done everything that has been asked of them this season and a little extra beside.

So we wave goodbye to the Championship with plenty of fond memories and fresh cause for optimism that the blunders of the past can give way to a brighter, positive future.

Not that this trip to Loftus Road will be one of the cherished ones. Newcastle played badly, rarely strung more than a few passes together and rarely created a clearcut chance, while the fans were more interested in carrying on the promotion celebrations in the stands.