Newcastle United vs Blackburn Rovers F.A. Cup match banter!
Posted on January 7th, 2012 | 106 Comments |
This one sees the Magpies hosting the team who have been recently renamed, from “Blackburn Rovers” to “Troubled Blackburn Rovers” because of their trials and tribulations in the relegation zone, and also the rather unfortunate behaviour of some of their fans towards manager Steve Kean, which has almost certainly made a bad situation worse. The cups however are a different matter, with quite a few teams in the past putting poor league form behind them to excel in cup competitions. The last of course being Birmingham City, who did the “double” of winning the League Cup and getting relegated last season. Our cousins from the “Paris of the North”, Middlesbrough, being another example in 1997 when they at made the final of the FA Cup in one of their relegation seasons.
It also shouldn’t be forgotten that it was Troubled Blackburn Rovers who ditched us out of the League Cup too, a 3-4 extra time thriller back in October of last year, with Blackburn’s Gael Givet eventually sinking Toon’s League Cup dreams in the 120th minute. Also, while we may be riding high after our glorious victory over the current Premiership title holders on Wednesday, Blackburn also managed the same feat on new Years Eve. On the other hand however, we did beat Rovers 3-1 in our previous Premiership meeting at St James’ Park the month before. But anyway, I won’t go on for too long here, if you would like an extensive and rather thought provoking look forward the game, DO check out UTD111’s excellent match preview, which really is a cracker this week!
What the managers said
Alan Pardew: “We’ve got a quick turnaround to Blackburn, and it’s my job to make sure we are right for that game. We have to be as fresh as we can be and make sure we are focussed on the game, because Blackburn are going to make sure it’s not an easy game for us. A cup run brings momentum to a football club, and for us we want to continue our momentum so we want to win the game.”
Steve kean: “We will put out a strong team. We all accept that the league is our top priority, but we will be doing all we can to get ourselves in the hat for round four.”
NUFC Blog Prediction Competition
Apologies in advance to regular readers of this ‘blog, but I’m about to nag everyone once again about our second Prediction Competition of the season. For those of you who don’t know already, the first prize will be £100, with a second prize of £50 and a third of £25. The competition is open to all registered members of the site, but if you aren’t registered, it is a very simple process which only takes a minute a or so to complete. The first matches to predict on are next weekend so don’t be late!
Finally, it just remains for me to give the usual reminders that I will also be posting the official teamsheets when they are available, that we will be publishing the usual highlights / post match interviews along with a report, and lastly, this game is not being televised in the UK. If you have any good links to the game, then please feel free to post them in the comments below.
Howay the Lads!
Teams
Newcastle United (4-4-1-1): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Davide Santon; Gabriel Obertan, Mehdi Abeid, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Hatem Ben Arfa, Leon Best.
Subs: Rob Elliot (G), James Perch, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi.
Blackburn Rovers (4-4-1-1): Mark Bunn(G), Adam Henley, Grant Hanley, Gael Givet (c), Martin Olsson; Simon Vukcevic, Steven Nzonzi, Radosav Petrovic, Morten Gamst Pedersen; Ruben Rochina; David Goodwillie
Subs: Jake Kean, Jason Lowe, Jordan Slew, Josh Morris, Mauro Formica, Nick Blackman, Yakubu.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1093 articles on this blog.
Howay the Lads…get some links posted chaps :)