Game on! Newcastle United versus Pilgrims in cup replay.

Posted on January 13th, 2010 | 108 Comments |

Magpies v Pilgrims: Round 3.
Magpies v Pilgrims: Round 3.
After all the furore and bickering on the previous thread caused by the latest NUST gaffe, it’s easy to overlook the fact that we have a match this evening. The club have confirmed, it’s game on at St James Park at 7.45pm as the Toon take on the Pilgrims of Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup 3rd round replay. After an 11 day break Newcastle United will finally be back in action. Having been cooped up indoors for training as snow and ice swept the country, yesterday, the lads managed only their first outdoor session of the New Year.

Argyle have also been twiddling their thumbs as they haven’t seen any action since their draw against us at Home Park on the 2nd January. For that game, Chris Hughton rested several members of the senior squad including Kevin Nolan, Jose Enrique and Steven Taylor. As that group won’t have played since 28th December, it’s almost certain they will find themselves in the starting line-up. Chris is likely to field a senior team to ensure players get match practice before the table topping clash with West Brom next Monday evening. With Smudge seemingly recovered from a minor eye injury Chris will have a full strength squad (excluding Barton) available for selection.

Following cancellaton of last weekend’s Reading match, Hughton commented:

“If I look at our current situation with regards to injuries, then yes, I would have preferred Saturday’s game to go ahead because we have a virtually fully fit squad. But a little bit of a break isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“It allows the lads to recharge their batteries”.He continued “Christmas was a fairly busy period which was followed by a long trip to Plymouth, so this break could be a good thing. We will only know after our next few games.

“I thought we should have won down there, but credit to Plymouth, they dug in and got a replay.We have now got to make sure we make it through to the next round in front of our own fans.”

The winners of the replay at St James’ Park will be away to West Bromwich Albion in Round Four on January 23rd.

Karl Duguid, scorer for Argyle in our 3-1 league win earlier this season insisted confidence was high within the Argyle squad after their recent improved results. He said:

“It’s going to be a tough ask, but we went to Middlesbrough this season and won, and we went to Cardiff City and won, so why can’t we win there?
“It’s away to Newcastle in the FA Cup, and it doesn’t get much bigger than that.”

Duguid also thought there were pros and cons to Argyle’s weather enforced break.

“We are unbeaten in three games and have got into a rhythm, if you like, so you want to keep that going,”

Plymouth’s top scorer, striker, Jamie Mackie will miss the long trip up to the North East due to sickness. Instead Paul Mariner has the option of calling upon
Alan Gow, Ashley Barnes or teenager Joe Mason, all strikers and unused substitutes at Home Park.

Central defender Kari Arnason (leg) is an injury doubt while midfielder Jim Patterson is still ruled out by a hamstring injury.

In theory this should be a win for the Toon, however we don’t seem to do too well when we have had an enforced break and with our recent sluggish on pitch performnces, we need to up the ante a bit. With promotion thoughts on our mind and avoiding relegation a priority for the Pilgrim’s lets see who has the heart for the battle. I’m predicting a 2-1 win for us.

Howay the Lads.

Kick-off: 7.45 PM.

NUFCBlog Author: geordie deb geordie deb has written 38 articles on this blog.

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108 Responses

  1. Just about to jump on the train up to newcy for this, how’s the snow etc up there? Hoping for a good turn out from fans and the players!

  2. Mikey, no snow but cold wind. Fank thuck the game is on, get a good result and performance tonight and it will set us up nicely for the WBA game on Monday, would love to see Danny Guthrie get a run in centre midfield with Nolan playing off Carroll.

  3. Would love to see Danny Guthrie get the hell out of this club.
    Definitely one to let go in the summer

  4. Finally a game of football, it was starting to seem like a thing of past. Not sure I’m agreeing with you budalovesa i think danny guthrie is deffinately a player to hold onto, the lads got bags of talent and is still only young – which stands out in our ever aging midfield.

  6. I think yr mad 2 guthrie is one of our best deliverers of a ball he’s young, hungry, still got a lot to prove but considering he is always played out of position, never moans and still performs I see him as one to build our club around! I think he is one of the few players who can cut it in the prem. Personally, I would get some good money for Nolan and smith in the summer because of their good form in ccc ad replace with a creative midfielder I.e. Skjelbred and play 3-5-2 with Barton, Guthrie and skjelbred as 3 cm?

  7. I heard Kevin Blackwell on TalkSport a minute go say they have accepted a bid of £1.75m for Killgallon and he is talking to the club concerned now.

    Could that be us?

  10. buda @ 3 strange post that lad….why ? , did he refuse you his autograph or something…

    …agree with bigbob , play him in the centre.

  11. Big fan of Guthrie.

    Think he’s honest and hard-working, has quality on the ball and has done well out of position. Could be on another level with some pace but his deliveries have been good this season.

  12. Budalovesa (3) – so who’s your favourite midfielder instead of Guthrie? Butt? Barton???

    Guthrie is not the finished product but he has a bit of “buzz” about him – unlike some of our others – and is learning to improve his delivery – definitely a backward step to get rid.

  13. BBM,

    There’s only Nolan, Butt and Smith of the centre mids that have played in position this year.

    Barton and Guthrie haven’t played in their right position all season – Yet people slag them off for under performing.

  15. If we are going for Danny Shittu, then we won’t get him till atleast the end of the month, as he is at ANC.
    Anyway, Hopefully we are still going to play youngsters like Ranger, Krul and Kadar tonight. I am guessing we are going to see a team like last time against Plymouth. Would like to see Lualua get a game, and now its at home, so why not give him some minutes at right wing, just to test him??

  16. Should be a comfortable win tonight, can somebody please tell me how long before a home match do tickets go on sale? Without plenty of notice train tickers cost a minimum of £86.

  19. BBM – Couple of Quotes from the George Caulkin article on NUST’s website.

    “At some stage, the NUST will seek to purchase a portion of the club from Mike Ashley. For the record, they are well aware that they cannot buy Newcastle outright; the aim is to take a percentage and build from there.”

    If thats the case why do they continually attack him, make up blatant lies, refuse meetings etc – do they expect favourable treatment when they come to speak to him by acting in that way?

    More concerning:

    “To those who ask how fans, with no experience or business acumen, could hope to participate in the running of a club, the answer is this: they wouldn’t. Unlike Ashley, they would attempt to appoint people qualified to do so, with a knowledge of football and what it means to Tyneside.”

    If you are going to negotiate you dont walk through the door and tell the present Owner of 100% of the club how they are going to do things when they buy a MINORITY share! They have to remember going forward – if they are not going to be forever dipping into their pockets for transfers and running the club you want to get Ashley onside not offside.

    I truly believe we will see bigger problems because of this new rationale in the future. No doubt some of the pledges will materialise into an amount of real cash in time (by the way the ludicrous way they have raised it will be a ridiculous burden going forward – one that MA will not accept – Collective Investment Schemes are needlessly expensive to run)

    When the time comes for them to make their approach – such is their obtuse rationale and sense of “power” that they see themselves as far more important than they are – they are also far too subjective to run a company – yet still they havent appointed anyone to run the campaign who knows how to get a levelled message across – they still come over as morons.

    So as things stand, if I were MA, I would politely decline their offer. Thereon the chaos will start and the demos – as NUST demand a share.

    God I wish they were ran properly – there are much better ways to approach this.

  20. @BBM, cheers mate, got to get to a home game soon but it’s not easy with rail prices and things but a months notice should be enough time to get a cheaper ticket, newcastle central here I come, followed by battle hill estate, pub, then SJP, about time too!

  22. Stardust – it is conflicting, and you’re not wrong about the likelihood of Ashley telling them where to go. Maybe they intend to buyout Ashley with another investor or investors?

    I just thought Caulkin wrote an encouraging piece and illustrated the thoughts of many Newcastle supporters. Perhaps even football supporters in general.

  23. I was sent info by the nust, the e-mail said they’re not interested in part ownership as they wanted MA out of the club asap.

  24. Stardust says:
    January 13, 2010 at 11:39 am

    Stardust you’re talking sense!

    Caulkin’s expectation that NUST will seek to purchase a stake in the club assumes that MA, whom they haven’t acquited themelves well towards, would be even interested in selling a portion – let alone to NUST!

    MA’d surely want to sell the club as a whole or at worst, to a person or persons he could trust and work with.

    Unless NUST change its approach to him or thinks in terms of being involved as part of a consortium with other parties, I’d suggest that its wasting everyone’s time and money!

  25. The way I’m understanding this and from what I’m heard from NUST the imopression I get is that their talking to wealthy individuals who I presume will put them majority of the money up and NUST would have a small stakeholding in the club with the wealthy individuals/businesses holding the majority.

    That would be a way of buying the club outright.

    Although this is one of the problems their having as nobody actually knows anything as their not saying anything.

  26. Re my post @ 24, for clarity it should have read:

    *sell a portion (to a person or persons he could trust and work with.)

  27. Lesh – the same logic extends to NUST’s bid failing. I also take that GC has been told that they dont believe themselves (from the interest so far) that they can gain control.

    Stuart – The very worst case scenario for NUST is to buy a portion with other business leads (and the other leads buy the remaining %age). In time their share will dilute and diminish to zero – any business man would simply overspend in the first few years – turn to NUST and say wheres you share – oh you cant afford it – we will pay it for you but your shareholding diminishes by x and so on – if thats the way they are leading people – its akin to the pied piper walking over the cliff.

    If thats the way they are being lead – it show how far out of their depth they are.

  28. budalovesa – While I don’t think Guthrie is quite that bad, he is one player who has actually looked worse when dropping a division. I think all it has done is expose his weaknesses. He is a half decent player but definitely not good enough to be in the starting line up next season if we get promoted, and if he is then i would worry. His lack of pace is a major problem.

  29. It looks like the NUST debate is going to run and run, bottom line is that Ashley wont sell or want them having a say in the clubs affairs. They will never have the money to run the club independantly, so in a nutshell thats it folks.
    As for Guthrie I always said he should be a regular in the team and I stand by that. Do I recall similar things being said about a current Aston Villa regular and real world cup prospect.
    Guthrie is no Beckenbaur or Bobby Moore, “Yet” but he aint a bad player for all of that.
    We should have a strong cup team out tonight and should win comfortably if we can’t then I fear for our promotion prospects.

  30. The points I was wanting to put across with my comment on Guthrie is
    Hughton dodges the tough decision Nolan or Guthrie by asking Guthrie to play wide right were he is ineffective.

    If our players were put up for sale which premier league
    sides would be interested. Bolton,Dull,Burnley etc.
    That is the class of player we have. Our aim must be to be better than that class of team.

  32. Hope we play a strong side tonight, even to freshen the team up for Monday night which could be one of biggest games of the season.

  33. Thank god Chopra is staying where he is. I predict he’ll end up in the 1st or 2nd division next season – he’s just not got that quality that we need.

  35. of course buda….& i’ve just come up the tyne in a biscuit tin.

    …crap excuse for a crap post , never mind let’s run him out of the toon coz he’s played out of position.

  36. Guthrie could do a great job in the centre imo, and puts in a decent shift with no complaints on the right side, what do you want? someone who refuses to play out of position, another kieran dyer?

  37. Kilgallon has rejected the chance to play for Burnley after Sheff Utd accepted a £1.75m bid for him.

    I thought we wanted him?

    Dissapointed we aren’t involved in trying to get him to be honest.

  38. ..@stardust. – why do you hate instead of supporting? How do you have any clue what funds the NUST will raise and who will join up. You rely on pure speculation and the speculation is always doom and gloom. Let them get their plan together before you pull them down. We listened to your tripe last season about the great virtues of ashley and we were relegated, lied to, put up for sale and ridiculed. Take your hate filled opinions and put them in the gutter where you live.

  39. jay jay – You live in Birmingham-ish dont you? What you need rather than early tickets for £86 mate, is to jump in a car with someone who is going up there anyway…. perhaps another blogger! ;)

  40. Stardust: “still they havent appointed anyone to run the campaign who knows how to get a levelled message across – they still come over as morons.”

    Good point, and they really needed to get a ‘fixer’ message out quickly after yesterday’s clanger. The article today is well-written and makes sense on its own but we’re getting conflicting messages, which doesn’t bode well.

    However, I disagree about whether Ashley would sell a stake to them. It would give him much-needed cash, show some movement towards the supporters and give him an alternative exit strategy. It depends really on whether he’s still got anyone likely to come in for the whole lot in the summer.

    Anyway – I was encouraged by the NUST posting today, but it’s a long, long way from rebalancing yesterday’s awfulness.

  41. Whumpie says:
    January 13, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    It depends really on whether he’s still got anyone likely to come in for the whole lot in the summer.

    You wouldn’t be totally suprised if there is someone waiting in the wings to buy the club if were promoted.

    Wouldn’t suprise me either if it’s all agreed in princable.

    We just don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.

  42. Afternoon Stavers.

    Whumpie – if we are promoted the valuation rises, so really with every passing week that promotion is likely – the likelihood of the offer being accepted (if a nominal amount) reduces.

    I still dont understand why they attack attack attack. Not the best way to negotiate – make your opponent hate you first and he will want to deal with you and give you a better deal? Madness.

  43. Kilgallon knows that Burnley will be relegated at the end of the season. Laws is a dreadful appointment for them after Coyle. Maybe we could put a similar bid in and test the waters.

  44. @whumpie – i have no doubt they could raise 500m and you still wouldnt be happy. They will openly admit they dont have the full package in place with the right people at the helm and until then they will make mistakes. They are the mistakes however made with good intentions which we should give a bit leeway to , instead shooting them down before they get started. You and stardust are mindless fools who are trying to stifle their good efforts. Stardust has one agenda and thats pro ashley. I dont know yours yet. Possibly just naive.

  45. ive never known stardust so worried. No expected them to last this long and dusty is concerned they might just pull it off. Why be bothered if you thought otherwise?

  46. sorry about grammar mistakes but im using my phone and its not easy to see what youve just wrote.

  47. Toonsy, yes mate i live in birmingham, but i kind of like the train journey with a few beers on the way of course.

  48. Can we just put all this NUST stuff to bed now? I’ve had enough of it and it bores me. It’s never going to happen and im thankful of that. “Learning as they go” really doesn’t wash with me! Ashley did that and look where it got us! The only difference is Ashley has the cash to pay for his mistakes, rather tha having to ask for more pension money from people.

  49. jay jay – Sod that! How long does it take on the train nowadays? Are you going to Leicester game?

  50. Whumpie says:
    January 13, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    “Anyway – I was encouraged by the NUST posting today, but it’s a long, long way from rebalancing yesterday’s awfulness.”

    But it wasn’t by the NUST, and it denies everything the NUST have been saying so far, which just makes things worse. In virtually everything piece of literature I’ve read by the NUST so far, it says they are planning to takeover the whole club. So who is lying? George Caulkin? or the NUST?

  51. On topic, I worry about our 11 day break. Other teams seem to be able to rest and recuperate. Newcastle seem to forget how to kick a ball!

  54. Toonsy a couple of hours mate, but i’ll have to go early to call in to battlehill to see some family, i’m going to go up for the cardiff game should give me enough time to get a cheap train ticket.

  55. So, Kilgallon’s rejected the chance to play for Burnley after Sheff Utd accepted a £1.75m bid for him. It was only last week he was declaring his allegiance to Sheefield United!!

    At least we know that a bid of £1.75m be acceptable now. However, I’d guess that a bid of £17.50 will be submitted… just to register Toon interest. Ho hum… SNAFU

    Speaking of SNAFU, Stardust’s posting some sensible stuff today. He’s not got his pompous, arrogant head on… Stardust? Stardust, is that really you?

  56. Just a little bit off track for this thread but who’s going up with Forest? Us or WBA? If we beat them on Monday I’d bet us but if we lose . . .
    Forest are far and away the best team in the division.

  57. i am not stavers thats why dusty. Youve got your wires crossed but hey whats new.

  58. georgio – Lets see how Forest bounce back aftr losing last night. Fair enough, Birmingham are in some incredible form but so were/are Forest. A defeat, even against a premier league team, may just knock that air of invincibilty out of them. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see! If we win the next 2 league games it will be a big boost to us, West Brom and Cardiff being 2 teams that will be up there at the end. We still have Forest to play at our place aswell.

  59. Toonsy

    ‘On topic, I worry about our 11 day break. Other teams seem to be able to rest and recuperate. Newcastle seem to forget how to kick a ball!’

    LOL – I agree with you there Toonsy. Have an uneasy feeling about this nice little break they’ve had.Afterwards they always seem a bit too laidback and lethargic. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen tonight

  60. Lol – righto Shinton – you obviously didnt see the link I posted yesterday when you outed yourself on the blog a few weeks ago – twerp lol

    A tip – next time you put your Shinton Head on like Worzel Gummage does his – remember to take Stavers brains out of it and put in Shinton brains (or a can of noodles) to make you a bit more clever.

  61. georgio says:
    January 13, 2010 at 3:23 pm
    Just a little bit off track for this thread but who’s going up with Forest? Us or WBA? If we beat them on Monday I’d bet us but if we lose . . .
    Forest are far and away the best team in the division.
    <<<<<< the scabs wont even go up it will be us as champions then brom and why art forest top if there the best team idiot were 5 points clear of them cud be 8 we have dropped 6 points oot of the last 33 so go support the scabs if u want fella

  62. oh and georgio forest have lost 3 at home and us none and also we have picked up the same amount of points away

  63. Toonsy – I think Forest will actually get a boost from the Brum game. Didn’t see it but apparently they dominated and missed a lot of chances. They have me worried particularly their manager. He did great things with PNE, took Derby up, rescued Forest last season and now . . . we’ll see. Win the game in hand, beat WBA and I’d back us.

  64. I personally think we need a couple of signings to give everyone a boost ahead of the WBA game, otherwise I see a draw.

  65. Hey Batty – take it easy! I think they’re a good team but support the feckers? Cut my DNA in half and it reads Old fart and NUFC.

  66. georgio says:
    January 13, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    “Just a little bit off track for this thread but who’s going up with Forest? Us or WBA?”

    So far, Forest draw far more than we do and WBA are more erratic than us. We are still the favourites to win.

  67. georgio just because they seem too play better football than us it dusent make them a better team dus it we will be promoted near enough when we beat them and the scabs forrest

  68. BATTY;with you on that,by the way batty i always thought you where a sweet guy,DOLLY d offered you a biscuit y/d you told them to EAT it lol. have L/Pool gone mad offered that french guy 12mill signing on fee wonder why they they have money prob?

  69. Off topic, just seen Ricky Hatton on SSN. Man he is fat! Naturally, i’d say that to his face aswell :)

  72. well ganning for tea then off to the game with my son,(drove him mad sincehe was 5)toon toon

  73. Wonder what the attendance tonight will be? Birmingham got 9,000+, Cov got 7,000+.

    I reckon about 20,000.

  74. Birminham going well in the premiership, well priced tickets and crap attendances, just don’t get it.

  75. jay jay – My mate has a box at St Andrews and i sometimes go along with him. I don’t tell him i hate it as it’s all free, but deep down nothing beats St James’.

  76. St andrews is a craphole, plain and simple. and the surrounding area even worse. can’t wait to get up and go to a decent stadium, only been to our matches down here mate in recent years, my workmate dave wants to go, he said being a birmingham supporter he’s never been to a decent stadium! 3 weeks has never felt so long.

  77. toons – I said sub-20,000 like.

    I’m trying to do my bit and I’ve dragged my old man and my pal next door along for the fun :)

  78. Aye aye radgies!!!

    Here! Listen in reet! Ave got some sweet craic for yi’s aal.! Craic not Crack you daftys! Ave snorted aal the crack man!

    Ave just come back from Big Mick’s hoose. Everyone reckons he’s rich like, but a divvent kna aboot that like. He’s only godda 32 inch wide screen. Here man, a chored a 52 incher the other day. Ave already got 3 like, so ave put in the bog so a can watch Jezza Kyle in the morning when am having a Sh*t!!

    Anyways dafty’s, Big Mick and Dekka were roond his gaff when a went roond on me BMX the savvy.

    Big Mick had just started a bong when a went in! Pure mental Big Mick like. Dekka was practicing his rave moves for the weekend. Ha Ha! He reckons he learnt some crackin moves owa Las Vegas like!

    Anyways, a was ganna say, Big Mick telt is some crackin gen like.

    He says, “HERE TROY AVE GOT SOME CRACKIN GEN LIKE!”
    A says, “HOWAY THEN BIG MICK, WHATS THE CRACK? IS YOUR LASS GOT SOME GEAR FOR WU LIKE? OR HAVE YOU CAUGHT DEKKA WI HIS PANTS DOON WI SOME BLOKE LIKE!!ITS NOT HOOTERS IS IT? HA HA HA! PURE DOYLEM!”

    Big Mick just came oot wi it like, “AM GANNA CONVERT THE GROOND INTO A BMX TRACK!! ”

    Hoo lads, he was serious like, a could tell cos he started blowing smoke rings like a pure mental heed like. Hoo man, Big Mick never does that like unless he’s being serious like”

    He telt is not to say nowt like and a winnit, so keep it to yorsels lads, eh!

    Class news that like! BMX’ing at SJP!! pure radge!

    Hoo lads, ave godda gan cos a kna the bizzies are mincing aboot like. They’ve been knockin on me door aal day man! Pure liberty takers, the lotta them! Ha Ha! A pretended to be a dog when the knocked the smorning. Daft radgies! a haven’t even godda dog. It was tekkin off is last year for cruelty. Aal a was deing was using it to pull is on me sledge! A heard one of them say, “HOO THAT SOONDS LIKE A DOG THAT LIKE!”

    Anyways dafties, aal keep yi’s updated when a see Big Mick and Dekka again.

    Laters!!!!

  79. Troy Stavers says:
    January 13, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    “Ave snorted aal the crack man!”

    Troy, any self respecting crackheed like myself will tell you that you smoke crack, you divven’t “snort” it.

  80. I know I am going to reap all kind of crap for this, but I don’t have my American to Geordie dictionary handy…what is a Bizzie?

    As an aside, I love Staver’s posts, quite fun to read…

  84. No…I swear…though, I did study Criminal Justice Administration in college…but no, not a cop.

    Thanks all. As usual, I will be supporting the lads from about 5,000 miles away.

  87. Need some visuals like cos wor troy just dropped off a batch of GHB and got half a bottle of poppers to liven the game up like.

  88. bowburnmag says:
    January 13, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    “I was looking for a lame smiley to illustrate…”

    Bowburn, it’s IMG SRC=”URL of image”, not A HREF=”URL of page” if you’re posting an image.

  89. Tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon !!

    Prediction tonight….DULL,Till the gear kicks in and it will be like a Brazilian showcase :)

  90. SJT

    ‘Prediction tonight….DULL,Till the gear kicks in and it will be like a Brazilian showcase’

    LOL

  97. Troy-A pretended to be a dog when the knocked the smorning. Daft radgies!

    Funny Troy Mate….are E the Byker rat boy from the 80’s-he made a mint oota knocked of bmx’s anall?

    Top lad.

  101. Although to be fair, if the image wasn’t there it’s just really my job to say

    “Hoo ye, that image isn’t there…”

  102. Howay the lads!!!

    Few quid on 2-0 and another few quid on 3-0.

    Soon be off for a sarnie that my old man has kindly made and then a quick beer somewhere. First time in the Gallowgate for over 14 years!

  105. Howay then worky, get the match banter article out so I can have a bit craic before I go!!

    Or are you waiting for team news? Nowt hear owt yet.

  106. bowburnmag says:
    January 13, 2010 at 6:33 pm

    “Howay then worky, get the match banter article out so I can have a bit craic before I go!!”

    You could do it! I’ll do it now anyway, hang on…