Newcastle United v West Bromwich Albion Christmas match banter / preview

Posted on December 21st, 2011 | 89 Comments |

Newcaastle United v West Bromwich Albion.
Magpies v Throstles - Who will get the juicy 3 point worm?
Good evening Geordies and welcome to our latest “match banter” feature for this evenong’s game, which will be yet another battle of the birds.

First it was Magpies v Canaries, then Magpies v Swans, and now the Mags find themselves battling the Throstles of West Bromwich Albion for a juicy three point worm. “Throstle” is an an English name for the Eurasian song thrush, and though you’d think the poor little song thrushes would have no chance against the mighty Magpies, they have proved to be fairly tricky customers in the past and we haven’t been racking up the results as we did in the earlier part of the season, with no win in our last five games.

Before I forget, please excuse me for the lack of our usual “match preview” feature this week, which was cancelled due to the horrors of Christmas. I shall endeavour to make up for that somewhat by incorporating a kind of mini preview into this article, starting with previous encounters, and then a bit of team news.

Previous matches, stats etc…

Our last game against West Brom at St James’ Park was a 3-3 thriller in the Premiership, with the one before that being a Desmond 2-2 during our season in the Championship, with the tightly matched teams eventually securing the two top places that year. In the season before that we were both relegated together, however one bright spot of that dark season was that we managed to do the double over the Throstles, winning 2-1 at St James in the first encounter. The next away match against them was also the time of Joe Kinnear’s heart episode, when Chris Hughton took over the lads at short notice to lead them to a 2-3 victory at the Hawthorns. Whilst we’re on the subject of Chris Hughton and West Brom, it was our last away game against them which was used as the pretence for his sacking by the dastardly Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias. It was a 3-1 defeat in December 2010.

In our last six games in all competitions (home and away) against West Brom, our overall record is Won 1, Drawn 3, Lost 2.

As I wrote, these Throstles can be tricky customers, and have also only lost one of their last five away matches, their last being an away victory against troubled Blackburn. However to sign off this section on a high note, the Magpies have only lost once at home so far this season, to Chelsea. Also, the last time the Throstles came to the Magpies’ nest and flew off with a juicy three point worm (well, two points as it was back in those days) was way back in the days of Punk and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977. “God save the Queen, the fascist regime, they made you a moron, potential H-Bomb…” as a certain Mr.J.Rotten once wrote.

Team News

Newcastle United

Whilst it was originally thought that Danny Guthrie’s groin would leave him out of the picture for a few games yet, he is only rated as “doubtful” by several sources for this one, as is Mike Williamson, who has recovered from a long spell out with his ankle/foot injury and a broken arm before that. Ryan Taylor completes the doubtfuls with his ankle.

Of course, Steven Taylor (Achilles tendon) and Sylvain Marveaux (Groin) are still long term knacked, and will remain so for quite some time. Finally, we will also see Dan Gosling sitting out the second game of a three match suspension for his sending off against the Canaries of Norwich, and important midfield fulcrum, Yohan Cabaye is also suspended for this game after picking up five yellow cards, which just about wraps up the Geordie casualties.

West Bromwich Albion

On the Throstles’ side, midfielder James Morrison will miss the game with a hamstring problem and Youssouf Mulumbu and Paul Scharner are both doubtful and will under fitness tests. Finally, George Thorne, Gonzalo Jara and Marc-Antoine Fortune will be returning from loan spells.

Getting back to the usual stuff, I shall endeavour to fill out the teamsheets below once they become available, and if you have any good links for the game, please feel free to share them in our comments section below.

Howay the Lads!

Teams

Newcastle United (4-4-2) Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, James Perch, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Davide Santon, Gabriel Obertan, Haris Vuckic, Cheick Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Demba Ba.

Subs Rob Elliot (G), Ryan Taylor, Mike Williamson, Mehdi Abeid, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): Ben Foster (G), Steven Reid, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Nicky Shorey; Jerome Thomas, Youssouf Mulumbu, Paul Scharner, Chris Brunt (C); Peter Odemwingie, Shane Long.

Subs Marton Fulop (G), Billy Jones, Craig Dawson, George Thorne, Graham Dorrans, Marc-Antonie Fortune.

Kick off: 7:45pm at St James’ Park.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1091 articles on this blog.

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Posted on by workyticket in category: Chris Hughton and Dan Gosling and Danny Guthrie and Derek Llambias and Injuries and fitness and Joe Kinnear and Mike Ashley and Mike Williamson and NUFC Match Banter and NUFC match previews and Steven Taylor and Sylvain Marveaux and Workyticket and Yohan Cabaye , with tags: ,
Comment on this post

89 Responses

  8. thanks worky – Ryan Taylor & Mike Williamson as subs but Perch plays – a fitness issue? or Pardew’s preference? In my view Perch is only a last resort.

    2-0

    HWTL

  19. worky,

    not working mate, ta though.
    Jay, so you use safari?
    That’s what i’m using.

    How’s it started?

  26. If you got Time Warner Cable it’s on FSC @ 0500hrs EST.
    Those poor bug**rs in the UK dont seem to get any games, guess we are spoiled for choice, ah well !
    Where’s Abeid ? is he another Santon ?
    Where’s HBA, are we gonna play the one trick pony Obertan until he’s injured ?
    Got a feeling were gonna lose this one, but then our dear leader would know more than me.

  36. Avatar sirjasontoon says:
    December 21, 2011 at 8:16 pm

    “This ones awesome worky”

    Aye, thanks Sir Jason. Took a while to get that one gannin though.

  37. Should I be worried about the ‘sale now on everything must go’ electronic banner that is looping around the advertisement board?

  43. Aside from Ba, any of our other players going to chip in with some goals this season… Going to miss him in January.

  46. Big trouble here crap defending dont take 3 points tonight then the wheels have come off big style.

  47. Would have hammered them first half with both Ameobi’s and Llovenkrands on the Park…..hahah

  48. another goal conceded from the set piece this game might be to soon for williamson but hell need a bit of height in the center of defence, tho the defending was shocking 3 players at the back post leaving 3 west brom players to score. but of spark is needed ben arfa to give us that

  52. sirjasontoon says:
    December 21, 2011 at 8:38 pm

    “with both Ameobi’s and Llovenkrands on the Park”

    SJT That will prob be the case after January.

  65. PHUQ!

    This is why i don’t do ‘match banter’s’.

    Bollox!

    Missed Cabaye, not good enough in midfield, too many medium length to long balls.

    SHITE!

  66. Shite result.
    I predicted the wheel’s would be off by xmas……came a little bit sooner.

  68. It isn’t Perch’s fault so give ower!

    Reality has finally set in, we were living in a fools paradise early in the season, though of course I wasn’t. :-)

  69. Lame once again, we need rid of perch shola and to get some new players.

    On the upside I just won a £50 voucher in a pro evo 2012 torny! :D

  70. Gaping holes in midfield, nothing joining up.

    Another 2 excellent goals from Ba & Haris was real unlucky.

  71. Well three goals to WBA can’t all be Perch’s fault but I have trouble believing our defense would be quite so fragile with Pieters or Ridgewell in there instead of Perch. Wishful thinking, maybe. What is obvious is that we have exactly one finisher in this team, which is not at all good enough. Plus, we’ve become exceptionally weak on set pieces-that’s down to the coaches.

    Get it f00king sorted. The next couple months are absolutely key-we’ll have to find some depth in January and February to pick up points as the run-in is brutal.

  73. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    December 21, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    “& Haris was real unlucky.”

    Clint are you sure you’re not a Septic?

    REALLY unlucky!

    This message was brought to you by the save the English language campaign. :-)

  74. We’re not the same since our defense broke like.
    We need Willo back, at least.

    We got the whole pace of the game wrong tonight, too languid & casual.

  75. worky,
    don’t get me started on language mate.

    The middle class, tv/radio plebs are ruining english.

  77. Mal,

    we pretty much dominated the game but got too eager at the wrong times, especially pushing for a winner.
    Left holes at the back & got hit on the break.
    Lumped it too often, didn’t get it down & pass quick enough. Didn’t pass & move, stood too far apart.
    Oh! This was supposed to be positives…

    :)

  78. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    December 21, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    “worky,
    don’t get me started on language mate.”

    Nothing wrang with Septics gannin’ on like that but you’re English man! Remember when Madonna tried to be English, and how daft it sounded? ;-)

  79. On the other hand, Bolton away on Boxing Day now looks like an awfully tricky fixture.

    I feel like Santa took a dump in my stocking.

  80. worky,

    libry, milertry, necessry, parst/farst & anything with an over arching vowel. The systematic destruction of vowels, the obliteration of prefixes & suffixes.
    Need i go on?

    :)

  83. Positives tonight:

    Haris Vuckic played well and I am positive that he should be a permanent starter.
    Ben Arfa came on, he looked confident, showed us his class and helped positively to change the game (for a few seconds).
    Collo was positevely frustrating and was often caught lagging by their two pacey forwards.
    I’m positive that defenCe needs fixing.
    I positively hate Mike Ashley and his Sports Diarrhea.com

  84. worky,

    i never class myself as english mate.
    As someone that has never met me fatha, it kinda leaves it wide open where my heritage lies.
    Mother’s side goes back to the border reivers, i’m pretty proud of being from ‘land pirate’ stock.
    But have no clue on the other side, which is cool too.

    :)

  85. What a perfectly disappointing start to xmas once again.
    How come we always get bolton & liverpool at xmas, that fa computer isn’t what i’d call random like.

  86. seen too much of this in the past to get carried away when we were 4th (enjoyed it mind) and too many home games like this to cry into me beer!
    I’ve said all season we over-achieved and 8th was about our level – well here we are, 7th, so get used to it.
    Last season we were 3 quality players short of a decent side – we’ve chopped & changed, got younger players with potential, but as a squad we are still not strong enough, too many championship level reserves and still need 3 more quality players.
    Heaven knows what we’ll do if we get another injury when the african lads are away.
    But, its the same old story, same old NUFC – an average PL team, going nowhere, winning nowt.

  88. Clint – we used to get 5under1and & Leeds regularly, then the clubs complained (Jack Charlton especialy) cos they recconed we would get big gates for them at any time so it would be more profitable to have holiday home games against less fashionable teams.

  89. supermac,

    Ta for that mate.
    The point was more the non-randomness of the fa ‘random’ computer.
    They say it’s random, i contend that.
    :)