Blackburn v Newcastle United match banter!

Posted on February 12th, 2011 | 129 Comments |

Comment Here.
Time to break a dismal run against Blackburn?
Good afternoon Geordies and welcome to the match banter post for Newcastle United’s visit to Ewood Park to take on Blackburn Rovers.

Blackburn have won the last 6 encounters between the two teams, so we’ll be looking to break our dismal record against the Lancashire team. We’ve only scored more than once in one of our last 18 Premier League away matches, which is a worrying statistic, but I’m optimistic today and say a pox on statistics.

Joey Barton is likely to come up against Morten Gamst Pedersen again today, who he punched in the chest during the encounter at St James’ Park in November and received a 3 match ban for his troubles. Joey holds no grudge though and said:

“I apologised profusely for my behaviour and we agreed that the next time we saw each other we’d have a good laugh about it. I said ‘if you want, you can hit me back’, but he just laughed and said that’s not his way. I think he invited me for dinner. He’s a nice guy.

“It was a spur of the moment reaction. Who knows why it happens, but it happened. The best way I know how to deal with it is to apologise and hold my hands up. I never contested the ban, I admitted being in the wrong straight away.

“When you make a mistake you’ve got to be a man about it. There’s no point trying to worm your way out of it. If you mess up, throw your hands up, take whatever comes your way and get on with it.”

Since yesterday’s match preview, Assistant Manager John Carver has been talking about new signing Shefki Kuqi and what the club expects from him:

“He’s a former Blackburn player who did quite well there.

“I bet he’s looking forward to going back but not just that – I think he’s looking forward to putting the black and white shirt on because he knows how big this club is and it’s a great opportunity for him.

“The manager, myself and the staff see him as an impact player to come on if, say for example, there’s 20, 25 minutes of the game left and we’re behind or we need a little bit of aerial power in the box, both offensively and defensively. He can fit that role and give us an extra body in the box.”

Team News

Blackburn: Robinson, Salgado, Samba, Nelsen, Olsson, Hoilett, Jones, Nzonzi, Dunn, Kalinic, Santa Cruz.

Subs: Bunn, Emerton, Grella, Pedersen, Benjani, Roberts, Hanley.

Newcastle: Harper, Simpson, Enrique, Coloccini, Williamson, Barton, Nolan, Tiote, Jonas, Best, Lovenkrands.

Subs: Krul, Ferguson, Perch, Campbell, Guthrie, Ranger, Kuqi.

Game on at 3PM!

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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129 Responses

  4. John Carver:
    “…and give us an extra body in the box.”

    Isn’t that illegal under the laws of the game?

    Why not bring someone on to give us an extra keeper?

  5. NorthernPaul says:
    February 12, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    HWTL I think we can scrape a draw today,

    I was thinking it might be a draw today but i’m hoping we can scrape a win this time.

    HWTL!

  11. workyticket says:
    February 12, 2011 at 2:30 pm
    Paul Toon, this is the right page for the Newcastle game.

    Thanks workyticket

  13. Some idiot on the stream I’m watching is completely ripping into Shefki Kuqi, the Newcastle scouting system, and saying that Newcastle are a “Championship team” without Andy Carroll.

  17. workyticket says:
    February 12, 2011 at 2:48 pm
    Some idiot on the stream I’m watching is completely ripping into Shefki Kuqi, the Newcastle scouting system, and saying that Newcastle are a “Championship team” without Andy Carroll.

    I heard that as well workyticket

    bastard!

  34. Toonarmy says:
    February 12, 2011 at 3:24 pm
    but i suppose its better than cluelesses 8 1 1 setup

    What’s your problem with Hughton toonarmy?

  37. paul toon says:
    February 12, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    “What’s your problem with Hughton toonarmy?”

    He’s a WUM who pretends to be lots of different characters, Paul. Just ignore him.

  39. workyticket says:
    February 12, 2011 at 3:37 pm
    SpencerTheToon says:
    February 12, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    “Any good working streams?”

    See above, Spencer.

    None of them seem to be working, wonderd if there was any more.

  44. SpencerTheToon says:
    February 12, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    “I think it might be my internet playing up”

    Do you have lots of browser windows and/or applications open, Spencer?

  46. JOSE passing today has been un-real,shame jonas is not giveing tiote or barton anything to pass to

  50. Good start second half, if we keep gettin this amt of balls into the box we’ll score sooner or later!!

  53. Toontastico says:
    February 12, 2011 at 4:09 pm
    Good start second half, if we keep gettin this amt of balls into the box we’ll score sooner or later!!

    Aye we should get one soon at this rate Toontastico!

    hope so anyway

  54. icedog says:
    February 12, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    “JOSE passing today has been un-real,shame jonas is not giveing tiote or barton anything to pass to”

    I thought that Jonas was having a decent game today, Ice.

  58. Jonas workinv hard today and has linked v well with Jose, won a few frees and put some good balls in

  65. paul toon says:
    February 12, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    “Lovenkrands is moaning at Enrique, but he’s been great for the whole game!”

    I agree, Paul. He’s probably been the Man of the Match.

  67. icedog says:
    February 12, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    “our mid-field today have just over powered b/burn,we have no one to finsh”

    Aye. we should ahve banged one in by now, Ice.

    Ranger on.

  70. SpencerTheToon says:
    February 12, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    “would shefki not be better with all the crosses were getting in?”

    He can hold it up, Spencer.

  75. Toontastico says:
    February 12, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    “Here we go its all set up for the Flying Finn!!!!”

    I think he’s Kosovan really TT? But he moved to Finland and plays for them.

  77. Fook it, good performance and a point – highlights our glaring need for strikers tho – Loven and Best just arent good enough and dont offer enough

  82. Toontastico says:
    February 12, 2011 at 5:00 pm

    “Aye Worky – “Flyinhg Kosovan” dosent really sound that good tho does it!!”

    Aye, yer reet I suppose!

  83. We played some good football today, and sure enough, since we dont score the mob is out for our strikers… But ffs, all the balls to our strikers were crosses or high balls, what do we suppose Løvenkrands and Best will get out of that against Samba and Nelson?. We really seems short of creativity once plan A dosnt work and for good or bad we just keep lumping the ball up the field in the hope that Carroll might come flying back to put those away… Well he wont, so change the service to our strikers already.

  85. Worky… Thx mate, i am not saying that our strikers are top class, but we aint helping things neither, the way we play the ball to them.

  86. valle says:
    February 12, 2011 at 5:22 pm

    “Worky… Thx mate, i am not saying that our strikers are top class, but we aint helping things neither, the way we play the ball to them.”

    I’m a bit confused ATM, valle. We’ve been relying on Barton’s crossing alot, but he’s playing a deeper midfield role along with Tiote in a kind of 4-2-3-1 formation which suits passing football. Enrique’s attacking play was excellent today as well but he’s a left back. Blackburn were pretty shite today on the defensive flanks, which accounted for some of our dominance.

  87. We bossed Blackburn today, our passing was excellent, and for the majority of the game retained posession well…final third was poor, we lacked class today up front..

  88. Worky… I had a feeling we would go for that formation with Ben Arfa comming back. Jonas is cutting inside way more than he used to as well which points to us using 1 striker and 2 inside forwards on the wings.

    I can really see that formation be immense for us since you got 3 men dominating midfield in Barton, Tiote and Nolan altho Nolan will be a bit higher up the field.

  89. Munich… Our passing was great, it just wasnt suited to the attackers we used… You cant blame this on Best and Løvenkrands, how do you suppose they will win headers against Samba and Nelson?

  90. valle I didn’t say anything about our forwards winning headers against Samba and Nelson. I said we lacked quality up front and we did, Lovenkrands and Best missed real good one on one chances, and we had lots of good ball in there box without playing the correct killer ball. Do you think we had class up front today ?

  91. Munich… No i dont think we have class up front, but i dont agree with your statement of “we had lots of good ball in there box without playing the correct killer ball” neither… We gotta accept what we have and play to it, and we didnt do that.

  92. Munich Mag says:
    February 12, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    “valle I didn’t say anything about our forwards winning headers against Samba and Nelson. I said we lacked quality up front and we did, Lovenkrands and Best missed real good one on one chances”

    Munich, it was only Best up front today really, as it was last time against Arsenal. Lovenkrands, Nolan and Jonas were all playing behind him.

  93. no problem valle, I disagree with you mate, but no probs. I also know we have limited resources up front and need to play with the players we have. I thought we played magnificently today, absolutely bossed the midfield, were really solid in defence, just lacked the deserved 3 points. Blackburn couldn’t have complained if he had came home with a 1-3 win..

    It just goes to show what a really good team we could have when we have our full squad available, and with some sensible investment in the summer. At the same time I’m sure the majority of fans would prefer to see us reaching the supposed safe 40 points a bit quicker to make the fans life a bit more relaxed…! No games are easy in this league, and 3 points go a real long way…

  94. Munich… Its ok to disagree, but i think we both agree that we would have ripped them apart had we had a giant up front, and i certainly hope we have more in attack next season. I also agree that we bossed the midfield and their attack from open play for that matter, which makes me really optimistic with the current tactic when Ben Arfa returns… Imagine him cutting inside instead of Løvenkrands?

  95. valle…agreed mate, I thought at the time that the Ben Arfa injury was a real tragedy for the toon, since the performance we put in the day we won at Everton was a real superb performance, and I was really looking forward to him doing his stuff. I hope for our sake, but more for his own sake that when he returns he still has all of his tricks and skills.

    With AC up front today we would have most certainly won today. But he plays for Livewrpool now…

    What about Enrique today…he was absolutely fantastic…and Collo….brilliant…well done the lads !!!

  96. valle / Munich,

    I think that we’re being a little unfair on Best. In the last gane he won a penalty and scored two perfectly good goals (one disallowed) and has also scored a hat-trick this season.

    With all due respect, I also don’t think it’s not entirely fair to say that we certainly would have won had Carroll been in the team. None of us know that for certain.

  97. Worky… As i said earlier i dont think we played to Best strenght today, so its unfair to judge him on that game alone. But anyway he is an ok player, but certainly not the one i hope will be our main striker for years to come.

    You are right that we cant know for sure if we would have won if Carroll had played, but you gotta admit that we played allot of sweet high balls and crosses into their box today, we simply didnt have a targetman kind of striker to finish them off.

  98. worky…what kind of statement is that…”with all due respect”….of course we don’t know for sure we would have won today with AC…we’re both being hypothetical. But in my opinion I think we would have…but it doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day…

    I don’t think I’m being unfair on Best either, he was good against Arsenal in the second half, today he tried hard, but wasn’t particularly good. ditto Lovenkrands…. I don’t know why you bring the Arsenal game into it, I’m talking about the Blackburn game today…and we lacked quality up front…. But I still think we played brilliantly as a team, but faltered when we reached the front line and never put our chances away……

    Thats my opinion

  99. Two points.

    If we keep putting in performances like that from the left flank we will undoubtedly improve the chances of selling Jose by the end of the season (Kerchingg for the FatMan)

    We had the opportunity to bring in an unattached striker for the last 12 (Yes TWELVE) games of the season. Even then, having pocketed £35m from AC’s transfer, we scrimped on a phucking Swansea reject when Ewerton could have sealed our Premiership survival. WTF is going on in Fatmans mind, does he want relegation again, has he got a bet on somewhere??????

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PVANn4bziY

    Kuqi he aint.

  100. no good talking aboot players we havent got its point-less,you go with what you have which isnt much up top at the mo,which is down to our great management team :( imo

  101. Munich Mag says:
    February 12, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    “worky…what kind of statement is that…”with all due respect”

    Munich, it’s an idiom which usually precedes a statement where you respectfully disagree with someone.

  102. AndyMac…why you posting youtube from 2005 to show us how good Everthon was. I remember him playing for Dortmund, and he was a good striker in a successful team, but was quite lightweight and no world beater….and that was in 2005…if he was any good he would have a club if you ask me….

    At the same time I agre with you regarding Fatman…a real risky move taking the wedge without having a replacement lined up….then of course sod’s law robbed us of Shola….absolutely stupid of him.

    No disrepect to Kuqui monster, but there’s something strange going on there too…ffs he last played in the German 3rd Bundesliga at Koblenz…

  103. sorry worky, you don’t need to educate me about idioms, English is my mother tongue, after Geordie of course…

    I read your statement beginning “with all due respect” to read as I’m not entitlted to my hypothetic opinion that we would have beaten Blackburn today with AC up front…

  104. No MM “with all due respect” basically means I dont agree with you :)

    Re: Ewerthon I just dragged anything from YT to show that pound for pound he was more likely to be the short term answer whereas if Kuqi plays until he’s 50 he wont get a goal for us (unless its a penalty). That I guarantee.

  105. Andymac… From what i gathered from his agents comments, Ewerthon thought he was gonna get a longer deal for a sweet paycheck. Im actually glad we didnt go for that.

  106. Munich Mag says:
    February 12, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    “I read your statement beginning “with all due respect” to read as I’m not entitlted to my hypothetic opinion that we would have beaten Blackburn today with AC up front…”

    Well it certainly wasn’t meant that way, Munich.

  107. Andymac….worky probably appreciates you clarifying “with all due respect” for him…. I don’t mind not being agreed with, thats what blogs are for, provoking dialogue on a common theme……btw to both you and Worky…valle@94 brought the Andy Carroll angle into the discussion…!

    Sorry Andymac, from your earlier post you clearly communicated that Everthon could safeguard our PL position…then posted a 6 year old youtube link to Everthon to prove your point. “With all due respect”, we have Kuqi, unfortunately, whereas Everthon is probably on some beach somewhere playing head tennis….

  108. PS I’m not stupid enough to think a five year old YT clip is enough to show the current credentials of a 29 year old, out of contract striker. However even in the worst case situation, a 29 year old should (note SHOULD) be more than capable of seeing off a 34year old.

    The point is that our front two were toothless today and if you had a choice from two out of work footballers, who would you choose to have an “impact” from the bench ?

    In a way I cant help think that Patsy got outvoted (by the Fatman) even on this relatively small issue of who to bring in for a bag of peanuts and three months B&B in The Osborne Hotel !!!!

  109. no probs Worky…..At the end of the day I’m frustrated at the way things are going at the club. What the players have managed to produce in the last 135 minutes has been absolutely magnificent, so our spirit is intact. But this freakin owner is gonna ruin it all as usual.

  110. Munich Mag says:
    February 12, 2011 at 8:39 pm

    “I don’t mind not being agreed with, thats what blogs are for, provoking dialogue on a common theme”

    So what is the problem, Munich? Whatever it is, I’m sorry as I’ve obviously made you angry in some way.

  112. Andymac…i’m sure “you’re not stupid…” mate, but why did you post the six year old Youtube link to a player out of contract then ? Believe me, I’ve seen the bloke play, and he wouldn’t force Peter Lovenkrans out of our team…but would probably cost a damned site more…

    Also thank you for finally agreeing with me that we were toothless TODAY…and imo lacked quality in the final third….that’s where the whole dialogue started…!

  113. MM siad :

    “But this freakin owner is gonna ruin it all as usual”

    Unless he has a huge crystal ball I cannot see how an “experienced” manager can accept the fact that his star striker is sold before his very eyes only to be told that Kuqi is all we’re stumping up for as we dont want to waste too much of our £35m which is now sitting in the bank daring anyone to drag it out before the end of July 2011 ?

    If it looks like shlte and it smells like shlte then, dear friends, it probably is shlte !!!

    God bless us all, apart from the Fatman who, as far as I’m concerned, can go and stick his head up a dead bears arse :)

  114. naaah worky…no way mate…you haven’t made me angry…no need to apologise ! We got a great result today, and with a bit more class and guile picked up a great win. I can see us maybe having trouble picking up the points we need, as without goalscorers the home games are not a guaranteed 3 points…we know that from earlier defeats against “lesser” teams…

    But seriously mate…no need to apologise…!

  115. Munich Mag says:
    February 12, 2011 at 8:53 pm

    “naaah worky…no way mate”

    Nee botha, Munich.

    If there was a need for a striker, to replace Carroll or otherwise, what I don’t quite understand is why we went and put in a last minute large bid for a winger who left the club previously in acrimonious circumstances. Though this came slightly before, we also brought in another attacking midfielder on loan who isn’t fit to play yet when Ben Arfa, a winger who can also go in the middle is just coming back to fitness himself in the next few weeks.

  117. Canny point the day.
    Good clean sheet away after last weeks idiocy.
    Pity we couldn’t get a goal.
    At least we didn’t let the gets beat us this time, or cheat us.

    Onwards & upwards!

  118. How, Clint!

    I think that there was two sides. We undoubtedly deserved some credit, especially Enrique and a few others for some great attacking endeavour which eventually dominated the game in the second half. However their full backs had a bit of a mare, especially Salgado and especially in the second half. They were well exposed on the flanks and we took advantage, well, almost.

  119. Worky…the need for a new striker wasn’t my agenda mate, and in fact somebody else brought up the fact that we would have certainly won today with Andy Carroll….

    From my side, the issue with AC is all put to bed…I was gobsmacked at the time, and still am….mad timing.

    We’ll see what Ashley gets up to in the summer, hopefully he’ll spend some of the AC cash, but we shouldn’t be surprised at all if he only spends maybe a quarter of the cash…thats his way… I trully believe that Ranger will come good, the lad has such a turn of speed for a big man, and is still only 19. He’ll mature into a ten goal a season man.

    Regarding N’Zogbia, I think he’s a good player, just a bit radged…but HBA will fill his slot anyway once he gets back.

  120. Munich Mag says:
    February 12, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    “Worky…the need for a new striker wasn’t my agenda mate, and in fact somebody else brought up the fact that we would have certainly won today with Andy Carroll….”

    Aye, I know, Munich. I was just adressing a comment to yourself and valle that maybe some of us were being a little unfair about Best in general, especially after his part in bailing us out in the last game. It wasn’t aimed at you specifically or valle, just generally at the moaning about the front player. We all have misunderstandings sometimes. :-)

  121. Munich… i dont know if its me you are reffering to here

    “Worky…the need for a new striker wasn’t my agenda mate, and in fact somebody else brought up the fact that we would have certainly won today with Andy Carroll….”

    But i am quite sure i wrote something in the line of “Its ok to disagree, but i think we both agree that we would have ripped them apart had we had a giant up front”

    Not that it matters i just dont like when people try to pin stuff to me that isnt right, scroll down a bit from my post 94 to find the first guy to mention Carroll as if that matters.

  122. Worky… As i see it, we played some great football today, but our passing into the box is still the same we used when we had “the man we shall not mention” in the team. High balls into the box, there to be won with a solid header, the thing is that we just dont have that type of striker anymore do we? and so i agree with you that the predictable digs at Best today wasnt fair, since he wasnt played as he should have been. I also mentioned this in my first post. I do however still hope that we spend on a great striker in the summer, since i dont see best as our main striker for years to come, do any of you?

  123. valle…sorry mate, I misread your post @94…you mention “a giant”, not “the giant”..which I stupidly misread as a refernce to i.e. AC.

    Sorry that it was made to look like your reference…my misreading caused that, and as you point out I was in fact the first one to inadvertently mention AC…doh. My sincere apologies for the mistake, I’ll be sure to read all the words more carefully in future. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

  124. Munich… No worries mate, its over with as far as i am concerned. But i did say that we would have won if we have had a big targetman playing, when i should have said that we would almost certainly have won. The quality of our crosses and high balls into the box were just that great… Thats of no fault of Best tho, he just wasnt equipped to deal with the passes he got today and he would have done better if he was given a different kind of service from our midfield/wings

    All in all i dont blame anyone tho, not Best, not our midfield and certainly not the manager. I think we showed some stuff that made me a bit more easy about our future. I just like to try an anylize after a game… We all think we are top managers sitting in our armchairs right? ;)

  125. valle …you’re a good lad, and talk a lot of sense. Your analysis is pretty much how I see it too, you make a good armchair manager mate !

    We need to unearth or sign a striker from somewhere, cos we’re a bit weak at the mo. But we’re heading in the right direction. As you intimate, perhaps we need to change the nature of our delivery into the box…a bit more guile would help…cannot wait for Ben Arfa to return..!

    Off to bed, it’s late in Jaarmany…

  126. Today we had everything but goals, and unfortunately goals win games….
    Really was a performance that deserved 3pts today.

    Does anyone have any links for extended highlights of the Newcastle – Arsenal game? My friend was away watching a Barca game last weekend and is dying to see the game!

  127. Munich… Thx mate, i apreciate that! :)
    Yah we do need a striker, and i would imagine it being a strong lad able to win headers and hold up the ball, but who? Players like Hulk and Lukaku would be obvious choices, but i dont know if we will go for that kind of player, since they could be too costly.

  128. Tez131 says:
    February 12, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    “Does anyone have any links for extended highlights of the Newcastle – Arsenal game?”

    I’m sure I updated the ones on here for more extended ones, Tez. I’ll just check…