Will Toon roll the Royals? Reading v Newcastle United match banter!
Posted on April 13th, 2010 | 232 Comments |
With promotion already secured, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the Magpies still have two targets to aim for: The Championship title, and along with that, what is arguably one of the two most historic trophies in world football. Secondly, just to show off, a final tally of 100 points or more is still up for grabs, with a potential maximum of 104 if we win our remaining few games, which would just be short of what Reading themselves achieved under Steve ‘laughing boy’ Coppell with their record busting 106 points in 2005/6.
The latest incumbent, Brian McDermott, seems to be doing a fine job himself so far after the sacking of Reading old boy, Brendan Rogers. In a story similar to that of our own Chris Hughton, he has been plucked from the relative obscurity of being the Royals’ reserve team coach to be given a chance first as caretaker manager, and now as permanent manager after a string of great results. First came a draw at Bristol, than another draw, followed later by a win against the mighty Liverpool on their home turf at Anfield in a two legged FA Cup tie. After a narrow 2-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest, Reading claimed another Premiership scalp in the Cup, Burnley. A string of Championship victories then followed and Reading could prove to be a very stiff test for wor lads, expecially away from home. Starting from a poor position before McDermott took the reins, they now lie in eleventh, though on current form, they are much better than that.
Our own hero plucked from the coaching staff, Chris Hughton, has been looking back on our last game against Reading in a recent interview, a 3-0 victory at St James’s in our second Championship match of the season. He said:
“I thought it was very important. It was our first home game.
“We were on the back of our first away game at West Brom.
“I think they were probably the two occasions everyone was looking at.
“How would we start the season?
“We got what was felt was a very good draw at West Brom, but what was it going to be like at home?
“What was the support going to be like?
“We had to show our home support this was a league we wanted to take seriously enough to get ourselves back up.
“They had to see all the right things, and they were able to see them that day.”
Looking forward, he said of this evening’s fixture with the Royals:
“We won’t underestimate them. It’s a really difficult place to go. They’re right up there with the form teams in this division.
“Amongst that, they’ve had some big results – like the one at Anfield – early in the manager’s reign.
“What they’ve been able to do is go from strength to strength from then, and the form table doesn’t lie.”
As usual, for more in depth pre match gossip etc, check out Toonsy’s excellent match preview, and if you have any links for match commentary (the game will not be broadcast on TV), please feel free to post it for those outside the Tyneside region.
Howay the lads!
Teams:
Newcastle United: Steve Harper, Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Simpson, Wayne Routledge, Alan Smith (c), Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez, Kevin Nolan, Shola Ameobi.
Subs: Tim Krul, Joey Barton, Leon Best, Jose Enrique, Andy Carroll, Peter Lovenkrands, Fabrice Pancrate.
Reading: Adam Federici, Andy Griffin, Bryn Gunnarsson, Alex Pearce, Ryan Bertrand, Jay Tabb, Bryan Howard, Gylffi Sigurdsson, Jimmy Kebe, Jobi McAnuff, Shane Long.
Subs: Kalifa Cisse, James Henry, Simon Church, Hal Robson-Kanu, Jem Karacan, Ben Harmer, Grzegorz Rasiak.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
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