Newcastle United vs Blackburn Rovers match preview.
Posted on September 23rd, 2011 | 28 Comments |
Date: Saturday, Sept 24th, 2011
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Referee: Martin Atkinson
This week will see Newcastle United playing at home for the first time in four games, as Indian chicken mogul owned Blackburn Rovers pay a visit to St James’ Park.
The game will also be notable in that it will be the first one since Newcastle United’s new sign has been erected, flanked by further Sports branding to give the home of Geordie football a further air of class, sophistication and dignity.
Of course, the most famous link between the two clubs in modern times is Alan Shearer, who former Blackburn owner, Sir Jack Walker, famously refused to sell to Manchester United. So it was that Shearer subsequently became a Newcastle player for a then world record fee, and eventually, one of the highest goalscorers in Newcastle United’s history, arguably the highest, depending on whether you think Jackie Milburn’s wartime goals counted or not.
Of course, the days when Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United broke world record transfer fees are long gone now, though Newcastle currently find themselves rubbing shoulders with the kinds of clubs who can still afford such mind numbingly expensive transfer deals, standing as they do in the last of the top four Champion’s League places in the Premiership going into this game.
Stat attack
Although Newcastle currently reside some twelve places above Blackburn in the table, with Rovers hovering above the relegation places at sixteenth, perhaps the most ominous statistic for us going into this game is that Blackburn Rovers have won their last five games at St James’ Park, the last one being a 2-1 Sam Allardyce victory last season. In that game the goals came from Morgan Gamst Pedersen and Jason Roberts for the visitors, with Andy Carroll goal for us somewhere in the middle. The game was also marked by controversy with Joey Barton’s little prod at the abovementioned Pedersen’s midriff, however both parties kissed and made up afterwards.
Our last victory against the Rovers at home came in the 2004/5 season, and funnily enough it was current assistant, John Carver, who was in charge for that game. It was Carver’s only game as caretaker manager so far, inbetween Sir Bobby Robson being moved on and Graham Souness being poached from Blackburn.
Although Blackburn had a poor start to the season, which is reflected in the current position in the league, they also come to St James’ riding fairly high on the back of a draw and two victories in their last three games, the first of these being a 1-1 draw against Fulham. The second was a fairly remarkable and very exciting 4-3 victory over Arsenal, with their last game being a fairly predictable 3-1 League Cup victory over League One’s Leyton Orient.
What the manager’s say
Blackburn’s above mentioned victories at the temple on the hill were in the thoughts of both managers in the run up to the game. Firstly, Alan Pardew said of the winning streak:
“Although they’ve got a great record here, they’re not bringing the same personnel and we’ve certainly got a change of personnel.”
“It’s an amazing stat. I can’t tell you why, all I do know is that for us, it’s an important game because it’ll mean a really great start, rather than a good start, if we win.”
Meanwhile, Blackburn’s manager, Steve Kean alluded to the wins, but paid his respects to Newcastle’s good start to the season, saying:
“We have a great record up there in the last few years but we have to go about the game in the right manner and be very cautious at the back.
“If we come back down the motorway with a win it will have been a great week for us but the important thing is that we respect what Newcastle have done this season.
“They are very tight and well organised. I worked with Alan Pardew many years ago at Reading and he will set up them up very well so it will be tough to break them down, but we have the attacking players to do so.”
Team news
Blackburn Rovers
On the Blackburn side, they seem to be pretty Ok on the injury front, with Morten Gamst Pedersen, David Goodwillie and Michel Salgado returning from injuries. This now leaves Steve Kean with almost a full squad to choose from, with only Ryan Nelsen (knee) and David Dunn (calf) still out.
Squad: Robinson, Dann, Samba, Olsson, Salgado, Givet, Petrovic, Nzonzi, Hoilett, Formica, Goodwillie, Rochina, Lowe, Roberts, Yakubu, Vukcevic, Hanley, Pedersen, Slew, Blackman, Bunn.
Newcastle United
Things aren’t looking quite so good from the Magpie side, with Mike Williamson still out with the ankle injury he picked up at Scunthorpe, the seemingly endless injury woes of Alan Smith continue as he recovers from his hamstring injury, ditto for Haris Vučkić with his hand. Davide Santon has allegedly been trotting around gingerly on his knacked knee in training, but won’t be ready yet.
With much gossip circulating about the return of Hatem Ben Arfa from his second injury at the club, and a 70 minute run out in the Magpies’ victory over Nottingham Forest in the League Cup, Alan Pardew has suggested that he needs to show more in training before winning back a starting place, so he will probably start on the bench. Finally, Shola’s shoulder is doubtful.
Squad: Krul, Elliot, Harper, Simpson, R. Taylor, Ferguson, Coloccini, S. Taylor, Tiote, Cabaye, Gutierrez, Marveaux, Obertan, Gosling, Guthrie, Ben Arfa, Abeid, Ba, Shola Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best, Sammy Ameobi.
Howay the Lads!
Poll
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1096 articles on this blog.
You see, I think that signage for tackydirect.com is Ashley’s idea of a joke.
There is absolutely no need to have ‘sportsdirect.com’ both before and after the ‘Newcastle United’ other than to annoy the fans.
I suppose at least it shows he has a sense of humour, although perhaps not a particularly good one.