Toon put to the Blade(s).
Posted on November 1st, 2009 | 29 Comments |
His excuse of having had lots of players unavailable for selection due to injury is cutting no ice, even though United had 10 first team players missing for a recent match with Scunthorpe. Probably, the same fans payed homage to him at the end of last season when he led United to the play offs, after narrowly missing out on an automatic promotion spot. Fickle lot us footie fans.
So, the Blades go into this game on the back of a 4-3 home defeat by Cardiff City, having leaked no fewer than 10 goals in their last three games. Senegal striker Henri Camara, on loan from Wigan, made his debut. Meanwhile, the absence of first choice keeper Paddy Kenny due to a nine month ban, and on loan Mark Bunn too, meant that 38 year old Ian Bennett found himself between the sticks for this game. The highly rated central defender Matthew Kilgallon has been linked with ourselves as well as several premier league clubs and he will be looking to showcase his skills if he fancies a move up to the North East. With a similar goals for tally to Newcastle, we will be watching out for top scorers Darius Henderson and Jamie Ward.
As hinted at above, defence seems to be the problem for The Blades as they have conceeded 25 goals so far this season versus our 9. Currently 15th in the table, you would imagine confidence to be low as the team struggle to find a run of good form, so it should be a good time to meet them. It seems like the new faces introduced by Blackwell at the start of the season haven’t yet had the desired impact and that, coupled with injuries and the constant swopping and changing of the team has led to the current poor form. Nevertheless, off the pitch plans are under way to further develop Bramhall Lane which will increase it’s current capacity by 11,000 to 44,000 by developing both The Kop and South Stands.
Newcastle should be boosted by the return of Alan Smith, who always gets quite a bit of stick when playing anywhere in Yorkshire, and we are hopeful that Fabricio Collocini, Steven Taylor and Danny Simpson will return to bolster our patched up defence. Khizanishvilli will be unavailable after his recent red card at Doncaster, although he will probably be quite glad to sit a few games out if his recent poor form is anything to go by.
With Chris Hughton appointed permanent manager during the week, let’s hope his first official game in charge sees us adopting confident, positive tactics to take advantage of their shaky defence who are probably very low on confidence. Hopefully the sullen face of Marlon Harewood doesn’t figure too much unless he is willing to change his attitude and up his workrate. After the poor reception he received last week when he was substituted, he should have the message loud and clear that the fans expect so much more of him. It’s now up to him. Another one flattering to deceive is Lovenkrands who really needs to get his act together and improve his contribution to the team. It seems that since he received a permanent contract his performances have gone down the pan. I understand he has been played out of position the past several games but even so, he should be doing so much better.
Newcastle go into this game knowing that a win will see them go back on top of the table, a spot they relinquished yesterday to West Brom after their latest 5-0 victory. Let’s hope we emulate the result we achieved on our last visit to Bramhall Lane which saw us leave 2-1 victors.
Possible Newcastle United team: Harper, Simpson, S Taylor, Colo, Enrique, Guthrie, Smith, Nolan, Gutierrez, Ranger and Carroll.
Possible Sheffield United team: Mark Bunn, Kyle Walker, Chris Morgan, Matthew Kilgallon, Jordan Stewart, Glen Little, Stephen Quinn, James Harper, Keith Treacy, Ched Evans, Darius Henderson.
Former Toon favourite Gary Speed, who is currently player coach at The Blades, won’t be playing due to a back problem, but I’m sure he will receive a warm reception from the travelling supporters. Let’s hope the Toon Army get behind Chris Hughton. He’s our permanent manager now so I would hope there are no more chants for Shearer as that would be very disrespectful to Chris. Also whether the fans were in agreement or not, he is the man given the responsibility to manage this great club and for that he should have our support.
For those like myself who can’t make this match, it is being shown live on Sky Sports Monday evening.
Howay the Toon.
NUFCBlog Author: geordie deb
geordie deb has written 38 articles on this blog.
Deb agree about Harewood he just looks like a real lazy git Lovenkrands has been poor so far but I dont think he is fully fit well doesnt look fully fit. I would love to see CH starting Carroll and Ranger but dont think it will happen.