West Bromwich Albion vs Newcastle United match banter!

Posted on April 20th, 2013 | 75 Comments |

WBA v Newcastle United.
Pardew really can’t lose this one!
Venue: The Hawthorns, West Bromwich.
Date: Sat 20th April, 2013.
Kick off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Mike Jones.
UK TV: None.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s game against West Bromwich Albion.

Though we are sitting in 13th going into the game and we won’t be relegated if we lose, I think it would be fair to say that Geordies all over will be pressing panic buttons if we don’t get at least a draw this afternoon.

Blaming tiredness for the club’s poor form this season, Pardew seemed almost relieved that European football will not hinder Newcastle United’s form as it has with other clubs in European competition such as Barcelona, Manchester United and of course our Euro nemesis, Benfica. In one of his pre match interviews, he spoke on this, putting the tiredness excuse to bed (so to speak):

“This week there is no excuse. We’ve had the same amount of time as West Brom and hopefully that will be shown on the pitch.”

Then, describing Newcastle United as a club of “extremes,” the Silver Supremo spoke of his critics as “harsh” and “extreme,” adding:

“I was told about this club and the extremes here. I don’t think we have reacted to the criticism we’ve had, we’ve accepted it, we know what we think is wrong, and we need to put it right. I do think one or two things that have been said are a bit harsh and unfair. I thought some of it was over the top.”

However Pardew isn’t the only manager who’s been having problems recently. Steve Clarke’s West Brom have lost their last two games (a 3-1 defeat to West Ham and a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal) leaving them in eighth place in the Premiership. Speaking of West Brom’s woes, Clarke also hoped for a reaction from his lads this afternoon. He said:

“The players are desperate to put the two defeats they’ve just had out the way and get back to picking up more points for the club. Hopefully Newcastle will feel that. Newcastle should be wound up as well after a bad reverse last week in the derby game, so it should be an interesting fixture.”

“It’s very important that we respond in terms of our performance level. I don’t worry about that. I think my team is in much better shape than it was for Sunday.”

So that’s what the managers think, but as the kick off is looming, it’s time for me to get on with my usual reminder that I will be posting team sheets and links to watch the game online as well as posting highlights and a full match video when it’s all over. So for now:

Howay the Lads!

Teams.

West Bromwich Albion (4-4-2): Ben Foster (G), Billy Jones, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Goran Popov, Graham Dorrans, Claudio Yacob, James Morrison, Chris Brunt, Marc-Antoine Fortune, Romelu Lukaku

Subs: Boaz Myhill (G), Steven Reid, Liam Ridgewell, Kemar Roofe, Markus Rosenberg, Jerome Thomas, Shane Long.

Newcastle United (4-2-3-1): Rob Elliot (G), Mathieu Debuchy, Steven Taylor, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Massadio Haidara, James Perch, Yohan Cabaye (C), Jonas Gutierrez, Moussa Sissoko, Yoan Gouffran, Papiss Cisse.

Subs: Steve Harper (G), Mike Williamson, Dan Gosling, Vurnon Anita, Hatem Ben Arfa, Adam Campbell, Shola Ameobi.

Poll

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

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Comment on this post

75 Responses

  4. I love the Yank coverage. Noocassel! Pardoo! Wooh! Yeah! High five! :-)

    Even they’re gannin’ on about the Geordie punching that horse.

  7. Going out now, will be watching this one on your full match replay. Unless I get spoiled that is.

  9. Honestly SJT, that stream I’ve linked to above is top notch and it’s Flash, you don’t need a special player or anything like that. It’s crystal clear like the telly.

  21. Looks as if Cabaye and Sissoko have finally swapped positions. My stream is awful though.

  24. Cisse missing chances like this every game is not good enough. That’s the diffence between him and Ba. Ba didn’t need five chances to score one goal.

  27. Yeah they have been Worky. They’ll be better second half and we’ve missed two clear cut chances. Hopefully it won’t cost us.

  33. Dumb play by Perch, what’s he doing in the lineup anyway ?
    A good first twenty minutes, played some nice football.
    Taylor’s got to stop his tendency to handle the ball.
    Gouffran and Sissoko are playing well, as is Cabaye, wish I could say the same for Cisse, another game where he is blowing opportunities.
    Think we deserve the lead, hope we don’t now put ten men behind the ball, but you know what to expect from Pardew.

  37. Typical second half instructions. Let’s try and defend a one goal lead, pull everyone back and hoof it clear for 45 mins. Obviously those first half chances were going to come back and haunt us. I guess it’s the Europa Leagues fault or injuries today.

  41. Tired from the journey down there SJT.

    Oh yes 4-4-2 Shola Direct time :-) My confidence levels just shot through the roof.

  42. Really think it is time to clear out the manager and most of the players this has been a pathetic season.

  43. Some would have you believe putting Shola on is an attacking change. In fact it’s defensive it gives Pardew an outlet to hoof to out of defence, also Ameobi is a huge lump he can use to defend set-pieces and corners. It’s shut up shop time.

  46. Jimbob says:
    April 20, 2013 at 4:33 pm

    “Some would have you believe putting Shola on is an attacking change. In fact it’s defensive it gives Pardew an outlet to hoof to out of defence, also Ameobi is a huge lump he can use to defend set-pieces and corners. It’s shut up shop time.”

    Aye Jimbob, there is something in that.

  47. Imagine seven more years of this. Seriously.

    Oh FFS he’s moving Jonas to left-back.

  53. I think we should be more direct and bypass the midfield. Try knocking some long passes at Ameobi. I think it may work.

  58. Can’t wait till next season. I think that’s when we’ll see Pardew really kick this team on. Steve Clarke never saw the Ameobi substitution coming second half. Rarely see that change and tactics. I guess those who travelled to the game were in total awe of the second half performance. I especially liked the sub of Gosling in the 94th minute while defending a corner. I know it’s a big no no making a change while defending a corner, and no manger ever does that but I think Pardew’s a class above and may well set a trend with his tactics and decision making. Any aspiring young coaches should really take note of our performances. Perhaps NUFC should do an open training session, or a competition with a chance to work with Pardew on the training pitch for a day. What a treat! Imagine what they’ll learn.

  61. I would have taken a point before the game so it is not all bad news. We only had 8 points from all other away games.

  62. Great first twenty minutes where we played some nice football, edged the first half.
    Then the shit hit the fan, WBA laid the body on us, picked up the pace and we never looked like scoring.
    And oh! is this what Pardew meant by “we must be clever in our use of HBA to get the most out of him” FFS!
    And why did we take off our only goal scorer Gouffran ?
    Can anyone tell me why we are constantly outplayed in the second half ?
    Is it a matter of tactics ?
    Are we not fit ?
    Does the side lack confidence?
    Do we not have a leader?
    And why is it we can look so good, only to look as if we had fielded another side later in the game.
    I just don’t understand what’s going on, with this side.

    What kinda game is Pardew playing with HBA ?
    He was declared fit to play, in of all places an artificial surface in Moscow.

    Obviously slow overweight and outta shape, we were told his injury was aggravated, yeah right!

    After a couple of weeks, there was a miracle and he was fit once more, then he aggravated the injury again and from what we could garner was out for the year, but he was trotted out to-day, mostly in desperation I believe, only to disappear having little or no effect.

    Of course the info fed to the fans concerning him, is vague at best.
    What’s going on ?

    And why is it this club has had such a history of injuries ?

  63. Jimbob: it is the damn inevitability of our second half performances where the other manager makes adjustments. I am sure Pardew is drawing cartoons in that notebook because it certainly never helps us.

    Even Trevor Francis mentioned that as soon as they began to press we fell apart. We were unlucky not to score 3 in the first half and lucky not to concede 3 in the second.

  64. Cripes! We’re 16th now and both Aston Villa and Wigan beneath us have a game in hand. We have Liverpool next, Villa have Man U and Sunderland. Meanwhile, Wigan have West Ham and Tottenham.

  65. GS says:
    April 20, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    “We were unlucky not to score 3 in the first half”

    We were luckier that they didn’t get that penalty, GS, even though as the West Brom players made clear to the ref, the turf scraped up by the foul was well inside our box.

  67. Oh! one more thing.
    As a color commentator this guy to-day, was it Trevor Francis ?
    The SOB drives me crazy, nothing but negativity and criticism, in a constant stream.
    Color commentators are supposed to interject interesting comments during a lull in play, not a continual critique of both sides and the officials.
    One thing I aint gonna miss in the off season, that cnut.

  68. Toonarmylight
    If an infraction was called, which it was, the decision was whether it was inside or outside of the box.
    A free kick or a penalty.
    Now had the defender got the ball first, obviously no infractio would have been called.
    Get it ?

  69. chuck says:
    April 20, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    “The SOB drives me crazy, nothing but negativity and criticism, in a constant stream.”

    Worried about the competition, Chuck? :-)

  70. Well after reading all if this, I’m glad I decided to do something productive with my afternoon… anyone see the BBC stat that we had 47 shots in the 2 games prior to paulo-gate and scored 1 goal! Pish!

  71. subz00 says:
    April 20, 2013 at 8:28 pm

    “Well after reading all if this, I’m glad I decided to do something productive with my afternoon…”

    It started well enough subz, West Brom had a ‘mare of a first half, but then it happened again. With the one goal lead, Pardew stepped in and tried to stick with what he had instead of going for the speedboat. It’s like trying to teach a monkey how to type Shakespeare.

  73. Dead right Chuck (67) That idiot really boils my p!55. Why does he have to do our game every week .? Such a negative knacker end rarely has a god word for the toon.

  75. TOONARMYELITE says:
    April 21, 2013 at 4:43 pm

    “@
    chuck SEEING AS HE GOT THE BALL FIRST YOU NEED TO OPEN YA EYES BUD”

    Actually, you’re both right so divven’t you two kick off again. :-)

    Aye, he did get the ball Toon, but Chuck wasn’t gannin’ on about that. When the incident, foul or not, happened inside the box, the ref gave a free kick outside the box rather than a penalty. Hence, he was a double idiot for giving it as a foul in the first place AND for giving a free kick instead of a penalty.