Carlisle United v Newcastle United – Pre-season match preview.
Posted on July 16th, 2010 | 58 Comments |
Newcastle United’s pre-season campaign kicks off in earnest tomorrow (Saturday) as preparations for the new season finally get underway properly.
Of course there has been lots of training going on behind the scenes, particularly over in Ireland, but tomorrow is our first proper chance to see the lads in pre-season action.
Likewise, the match against Carlisle gives me the chance to get in some pre-season practice, particularly as I look to get back into the swing of the matchday experience on the ‘blog. I’m only practising so we can try to give you the best here at nufgblog.org, so at least that is the sucking up done I guess!
The match at Brunton Park is scheduled for a 1pm kick-off which was brought about through fear of a Geordie invasion and all the alcohol abuse we seem to bring with us on away trips, particularly as it is only a relatively short journey away.
Trying to pick a team for either side will be like trying to pick the winning lottery numbers, difficult, especially as Chris Hughton is taking a full strength squad to Carlisle, minus the injured Danny Simpson and the resting Jonas Gutierrez of course. James Perch could make his debut tomorrow, so that is something to watch out for I guess.
With regard to Carlisle, they have already began their pre-season friendly campaign and this will be their third encounter of the close season, although I am quietly confident that Newcastle will prove to be tougher opposition than Workington Reds and Kendal Town! Defender Danny Livesey will definately miss the game as he sits out due to a groin injury whilst striker Jason Price’s chances of playing tomorrow are rated at 50/50.
Chris Hughton has been speaking of pre-season, and the match against Carlisle United, and this is what he had to say;
“It’s been a really good week and what we did know before we came here is how good the facilities were, which is the reason we came back. The pitches are excellent and the hotel couldn’t have done anymore for us.
“On the training front, I’m pleased with the way things have gone. All you can ask for is commitment and what we have is a group of lads that have come back in good shape. Now we have to take this week in to the rest of pre-season and, of course, the Carlisle game on Saturday.
“Carlisle are probably a little bit more advanced than we are because their season starts a week earlier than ours. But we’ve certainly done enough to be ready for a game and we’ll have had ample training by the time the weekend comes along.”
Overall, it isn’t the result that is important, although it is always nice to win and we don’t want to start losing games just before the season. What is more important is making sure most of the lads have a good run out whilst remaining injury free.
Hopefully there will be some radio coverage of the game tomorrow but anyone hoping of anything more extravagant that that will more than likely be left feeling disappointed. A good run out, a nice win and an injury free match would suit me just fine though.
Howay the lads!
Date: Saturday, 17th July, 2010.
Time: 01:00pm
Venue: Brunton Park, Carlisle.
NUFCBlog Author: toonsy
toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.
Cant wait for the game. Haven’t been to a match there since I saw Gilingham against them when I was about 5 30 years ago. Les hope we see a few goals