Hughton bringing the Premiership back to Newcastle.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sun, 23rd Sept. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Neil Swarbrick. UK TV: None.
Chris Hughton will make his first public appearance at St James’ Park since he managed a 1-1 draw for the Toon against Chelsea in November 2010.
We all know that shortly after that game, with the team standing in 11th place in the Premier League (after our one year sabbatical in the Championship) Messrs Ashley and Llambias showed Hughton the door to bring in a manager with much “greater experience” (i.e. their own man). Pardew, an unpopular choice as Hughton’s replacement, tried to make the most of his opportunity and said this week:
“Both of us could probably look each other in the eye and say we have done a decent job at Newcastle”. Maybe but…
Now is not the time to drag out the old “should he / shouldnt he” routine but lets hope that Chris, who led us back into the top flight at the first time of asking (accumulating 102 points along the way), as well as bringing Graham Carr to the club, is afforded the same reception as former manager Kevin Keegan experienced on his return with Manchester City all those years ago. (more…)
Toffee trip.Venue: Goodison Park, Meerseyside. Date: Monday, 17th September. Kick off: 8:00pm Referee: Mike Jones. UK TV: Sky Sports 1.
With the international break finally over, we can get back to the nitty gritty of the Premier League when Everton take on Newcastle United at Goodison Park on Monday night.
Both sides have aspirations of finishing in the top 6 yet they both went into the international break on the back of poor performances so no doubt they’ll be looking to bounce back with a win. Its just possible, even at this early stage in the season. We could be in for a classic.
After a good start, Everton came back to reality with a disappointing 0-2 reverse against the Baggies at The Hawthorns having won their two opening games against Man USA and the Villa. Whereas the Toon’s previous showings have been somewhat underwhelming after their initial opening day win against Spuds. Subsequently we lost comprehensively at Chelsea, only 0-2 in terms of result but 3/10 in terms of performance which was followed by a lacklustre 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa. With a less than full capacity at SJP, Toon lost the first half with a typically uninspiring performance but somehow clawed their way back into the game with yet another outstanding individual strike from Hatem Ben Arfa. (more…)
The road to Amsterdam.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Thusday 30th August, 2012. Kick-Off: 8:00pm. Referee: Stephen Studer . UK TV: ITV 4.
With the sides evenly matched at 1-1 after last week’s first leg Europa League tie in Athens, Newcastle United entertain FC Atromitos at St James’ Park this evening to determine which club will take the road towards the Amsterdam Arena (with some welcome additional revenue), and which team will pack away their passports and sun tan lotion for another season.
Should we prevail and make it through to the Group Stages we’ll be one of 48 teams split into 12 groups who will play one another, home and away during the next few months. After which, if we finish in the top two, we’ll move on to the Round of 32 having been joined by the eight clubs finishing third in their UEFA Champions League group.
Europa League Finances
So what exactly is at stake tomorrow evening? While we all know that this revamped second tier competition is the poor man’s version of the Champions League, it is encouraging for all competing clubs to learn they will now benefit from a greater proportion of the “Market Pool” to help add to the official UEFA prize money. (more…)
Atromitos: A stiff test for the bairns.Venue: Peristeri Stadium, Athens. Date: Thursday 23rd August 2012 Kick-off: 6.00 pm UK TV: Premier Sports (Sky channel 428 or Subcription)
So where were you on March 15th 2007?
It’s over five years since the Toon were able to compete in Europe, and on that day, with Take That heading the UK charts with a Morrisson’s Supermarket ad, we ended a roller coaster campaign (with wins over Celta Vigo, Fenerbahce and away at Palermo – Tim K’s senior debut) in the UEFA Cup with a rather dismal perfromance at Alkmaar, losing our two goal first leg advantage in the process.
So five long seasons later we find ourselves back in the European spotlight (well sort of) in a final qualifying round of the Europa League, before hopefully entering the Group Stages. Our opponents on Thursday are FC Atromitos who also begin their European campaign at this stage having finished fourth in last season’s Greek Super League and losing finalists in the Cup. (more…)
Will the Bantam Cocks be like headless chickens this afternoon?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Saturday 18th August 2012 Kick-off: 5.30 pm Referee: Martin Atkinson UK TV: ESPN
Dear reader, hello, good afternoon and welcome to our regular “match banter” feature.
As we we made a bit of a bit of a cock up with the match preview this week, with both “Jimbob” and “AndyMac” doing one, I thought we’d make a bit of a departure from the norm this time. You can see Jimbob’s original match preview here, but for this post, I have also decided to show Andy’s preview in it’s entirety to provide an alternative as it’s also very good, provides even more background for our all important first game of the Premiership, and it can’t do any harm!
I will be doing all the usual bits such as putting the team sheets up when they become available, posting some links for the game and so on. When the game is over, I will also be posting highlights and perhaps a link to the whole game if there’s one around.
So for now, it’s over to AndyMac. – Workyticket.(more…)
