Revenge would be sweet – Newcastle v Bolton match preview
Posted on February 25th, 2011 | 39 Comments |
As I was sat around earlier, practising impersonations of a sprout for my regular stage show, I got to thinking that it feels like about 10 weeks since we last played but it is in fact only 10 days.
The FA Cup schedule meant we skipped a match last weekend, but we’re back to the nitty-gritty of a match day this weekend with a challenging game at home against Bolton Wanderers.
Bolton are one point and one place above us in the Premier League and they gave us a good seeing to back in November at their place, beating us 5-1 and seeing Colo sent off to boot.
History is on our side for this fixture though as we’ve only lost once at home to Bolton in the Premier League, having won seven and drawn two. Furthermore, whilst Bolton have been very strong at home, having only lost two, they’ve been weak away, having only won two.
Elmander is Bolton’s top scorer with 10, followed by Kevin Davies with 8, two of which were penalties against us back in November, and Chelsea loanee Daniel Sturridge has knocked in 3 since joining Bolton at the end of January, so I suppose those are the guys that Colo and Williamson will need to contain.
Zat Knight, Gretar Steinsson, Sam Rickets and Jlloyd Samuel are injured for Bolton whilst we still have Hatem Ben Arfa, Alan Smith, Stephen Ireland, Dan Gosling and Shola Ameobi undergoing treatment. Shola is not expected to be available until next week when we play Everton, so I anticipate Pardew sticking with Best and Lovenkrands up front in standard 4-4-2 formation.
Ahead of the game, Pardew has been saying:
“I see this game as pivotal.
“We’re doing well away but now we need to improve our home form. We’ve got games now where we have the opportunity to do that.
“Many will view this as a game between two mid-table sides but for me this is a big match. They will look at it like us in that it’s a game that’s pivotal in terms of attacking the top 10. If we win we can attack the top 10 but if not then we’ve lost a big opportunity and that opportunity might be Europe.
“We’re on the verge of something exciting and these two games will decide whether we’ve got something to go for or whether we’re going to have a season where we’re just seeing things out, and I don’t want that to happen.”
Bolton manager Owen Coyle has been commenting on the joys of having a few decent players to choose from:
“As a manager it’s the best problem to have.
“If I look at the squad I have available to me now, there’s probably 17 players who all feel they should be in the starting line up.
“The ones that have come in over the last few games have shown their quality.”
Newcastle (from): Harper, Simpson, Perch, Williamson, Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Tiote, Nolan, Gutierrez, Best, Kuqi, Lovenkrands, Ranger, Krul, Campbell, Guthrie, Ferguson (and possibly Saylor and Raylor).
Bolton (from): Jaaskelainen, Robinson, Cahill, Wheater, Muamba, Petrov, K Davies, Elmander, Klasnic, Taylor, Alonso, Rodrigo, M Davies, Cohen, Holden, Steinsson, Blake, Lee, Sturridge, Bogdan.
Kick off is at 3PM on Saturday and Chris Foy is the man in black.
I reckon we’ll win this one. Don’t forget to have a go at our Prediction Competition if you too think you’re a footballing sage.
Toon Toon!
“My Father used to say that revenge is a dish best served cold.” – Michael Corleone.
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.
i fancy us to win this one.