Doncaster Rovers v Newcastle United – Match banter!
Posted on March 23rd, 2010 | 351 Comments |
All the talk at the moment is around the allegations of a training ground bust-up between Taylor and Carroll, with the latter reportedly just out of hospital and suffering from a broken jaw. However, despite apparently having treatment to an injured hand and his future at the club put into question by press and supporters, Andy Carroll has joined the squad in Yorkshire, but it remains to be seen whether he will be involved in tonight’s game.
This sort of stuff couldn’t have happened at a more critical time for us, as we head into the first of nine remaining tough games. Especially, as the man who appears to be the chief antagonist has been in fine form of late, scoring some crucial goals, particularly away from home. Which means potentially, Hughton will need to rely on either Leon Best or Nile Ranger upfront, or a combination of the two. Assuming Hughton does as most of us would expect and go 4-5-1 with Best upfront on his own, having only scored once in his last twenty three Championship appearances, the distraction could work for or against Best, if we’re relying on him for goals.
Chris Hughton will have arguably the biggest team talk of the year so far to get the team focused. This will be yet another test of his managment skills and ability to deal with adversity. He’ll also potentially have a decision to make over whether to give Barton time on the pitch. Though given Barton’s very own long list of indiscretions, which include sparking a mass brawl at Doncaster in a pre-season friendly while at Manchester City, Hughton might see it is a wise move not to light that particular touch paper.
The one saving grace, perhaps, is that there’s no national TV coverage for this game, so the glare will be down to only the stadium floodlights and not that of the national press and beady eyes of those waiting for us to trip ourselves up. However, there have been no reports coming through that it can be caught via online channels either, so unfortunately that probably means none of us can watch it. But if anyone does happen to find TV/radio links etc to the game for people who don’t have it, I’m sure that would be appreciated. As ever, this can be the place to come together during the match and p*ss and moan, as we usually do.
Doncaster outplayed us for long spells at St James’ and only a late goal from Kevin Nolan stole us all three points. They’re in a great bit of form at the moment, so even without the distractions of the off-field nonsense, this was always likely to be a tough test. Though Andy Carroll may now be a doubt, read toonsy’s most excellent preview article to consider what both teams have to pick from, what Doncaster’s current form has been like and other general bits and pieces regarding tonight’s game. As for the starting line-up, we’ll hopefully get that to you, all in good time…
Howay the lads!
Teams.
Newcastle United: Harper, R. Taylor, Coloccini, Kadar, Simpson, Routledge, Butt (c), Gutierrez, Guthrie, Nolan, Carroll.
Subs: Krul, Enrique, Barton, Best, Pancrate, Ranger, Tozer.
Doncaster Rovers: Sullivan, Hayter, Roberts (c), Oster, Chambers, Woods, Martis, O’Connor, Sharp, Shiels, Wilson.
Subs: Smith, Mutch, Thomas, Hird, Spicer, Lockwood, Mc Daid.
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
i had to smirk at the team preview on co.uk put up earlier today… “steven taylor (knee) remains absent”
anyroad, the match… lets hope CH can get/keep them focused on the task at hand.
donny are in a good vein of form and pushing for play offs-which is mad really seeing their journey from non league only 5/6 seasons ago or something daft.
we cant let them dictate or give them time on the ball, o’driscol plays an attractive game and we need to nip it in the bud
current situation, i think a lot of fans would be happy with a draw, our away form is all over the place so i suppose its not impossible to take all the points.
as ever, who turns up?!