It’s party time! Newcastle United v Ipswich Town – match preview.
Posted on April 23rd, 2010 | 126 Comments |
Should we remain unbeaten tomorrow, then we will have set another three records, one for becoming the first team to gain promotion to the Premier League with an unbeaten home record, another one will see us grabbing the record of the biggest Championship attendance in history, a record we already hold but look set to improve upon, and the final one will see us become the first Championship team to have 1 million fans pass through our turnstiles in a season. Add that to the records we have already set this season, such as being the team to secure promotion in the least amount of games, and the list looks really quite impressive, and indicative of the fact that maybe, just maybe, we do belong in the Premier League, even if the result’s of last season suggested otherwise.
Newcastle manager, Chris Hughton, faces a selection headache ahead of the match as injuries, sentiment, and player form make picking a team far from easy. On one hand he will surely want to put out his strongest team, which with injuries could be hard to achieve. Then we have Nicky Butt who is club captain and could possibly be playing in his last game at St James’ Park before retiring. Surely Chris will want to give Nicky the chance of a final farewell in front of the home fans? Also, young players such as Haris Vuckic, who impressed for the reserves during midweek, will be desperate to make an appearance in a game that in the grand scheme of things is not that important.
Steven Taylor is finally back in training although it is unlikely that he will feature in a playing capacity. Fitz Hall has been ruled out after aggravating a hamstring injury in the match against Plymouth whilst Argentine duo Fabricio Coloccini (hamstring) and Jonas Gutierrez (thigh) will undergo late fitness tests, although it is anticipated that both could feature. I expect the starting XI will be:
Newcastle United: Harper, Simpson, Kadar, Coloccini, Enrique, Routledge, Nolan, Guthrie, Gutierrez, Carroll, Lovenkrands.
I would also like to see players like Butt and Vuckic given some game time, and possibly even Steven Taylor if fitness allows. In short I would like all the players to feature at some point but unfortunately it just isn’t possible.
Moving on to Ipswich, David Healy and Carlos Edwards both miss out through a knee problem and chicken pox respectively. The Tractor Boys are the divisions draw specialist and have drawn 19 of their 44 league games so far this season. Their last match was, unsurprisingly, a 1-1 draw at Portman Road against Doncaster. They lined up for that game with a team of:
Ipswich: Murphy, Wright, McAuley, Smith, Leadbitter, Norris, Colback, O’Connor, Walters, Murphy, Wickham.
Newcastle have been in great form of late and have not lost in 15 games, winning the last eight on the spin. In contrast, Ipswich have struggled of late and have only won two of their last six matches. Roy Keane will have his men fired up and will hope to play the role of party pooper, a role that he will relish after the abuse that, rightly, gets levelled at him by the fans. I can’t see our boys letting us down though and Ipswich have nothing to play for.
My prediction: 2-0
Howay the lads!
Date: Saturday, 24th April, 2010.
Time: 3:00pm.
Venue: St James’ Park.
Referee: Carl Boyeson.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1268102/Kevin-Keegan-proves-hes-cut-TV-advert.html
Good to see KK back with a smile on his face.