A typical Toon fan on August 31st?Right, now that we’ve got the football season ‘in the can’, let the ‘silly season’ begin!
After a pretty straight forward first season back in the Premier League what have we learned about the team?
Who’s gonna be walking away to pastures new, who’s gonna be staying, who and what do we need to push up the league next time out?
With the news that Sol Campbell and Shefki Kuqi have been released we’re already 2 bodies down. Admittedly, they didn’t have much input throughout the season, but they will free up some important cash for wages. As the gossip about this player or that coming or going builds in the media and fan sites, what can we really hope for?
It seems we’ve already signed a young French/Tunisian in Mehdi Abeid, with a little help along the way from Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheick Tiote, which bodes well, in my book, as it means that they both seem to be staying to help build a good squad. Of course, it could mean nothing of the sort! (more…)
A good return to the Premiership for the Magpies?When we kicked off this…Er! Sorry!…
Before, long before we’d even kicked off this season, away to Man U, virtually everyone had us down as Championship fodder by the end of the season. Before a ball was even kicked, we had to wade through endless press mongering interspersed with fans bemoaning how we were gonna fail to achieve the standard required to stay in this league.
Most of it, admittedly, was the usual guff and lazy punditry put before us on a regular basis these days, the kind of stuff that’s lacking any real substance or conviction, and is just trotted out when the acronym N.U.F.C. is mentioned. I took with a whole sack full of salt, in fact I looked into buying shares in Siberia, no dice, so i had to just dismiss it as I usually do with that kind of inanity.
The really sad thing though was how a lot of fans didn’t seem to think we would comfortably survive. A bit (lot) like last season in the Championship. But as the games started to tick down, it started to dawn on people that this was indeed a better team than most had decided it was. After the very satisfying battering of Villa at home the hope of Toon fans everywhere must have tangibly lifted, but was dented almost immediately with the home defeat to fellow promotees Blackpool. (more…)
Liverpool 3 - 0 Newcastle UnitedOn a warm Sunday in the North-West in what seemed like little more than a training ground game, Newcastle came away with nothing.
The game started with the air of a bit of a stroll for both teams.
With Newcastle sporting the white away strip, I had a distinct feeling of foreboding about this match.
We started off with a corner to no avail. It took until the 10th minute for anything resembling football to happen, but when it did, it was a bit of quick passing by Liverpool that ended in a shot by Rodriguez that hit Danny Simpson on the elbow and deflected passed a diving Tim Krul into the net.
1 – 0
It took at least another 10 minutes before we had any meaningful play by Newcastle. But when they did string a few passes together we looked the better team, forcing a series of corners and set plays. Jonas was worrying the kid they had at RB (Flaneghan), who had to foul him and ended up yellow carded. Yet we still hadn’t really managed any decent attempt on goal from open play. (more…)
Newcastle United: Still points to play for.So, with just 4 games to go, 2 at hyem, 2 away, it won’t be long until we know if we’ve survived in our quest to stay in the Premiership in our first season back.
After a well fought and excellent point v Man U at SJP and the converse, a lucky point away to Blackpool, it’s a virtual microcosm of our whole season in those 2 games, ie Turn up for the ‘Big’ games, let it all backslide for the ‘Lesser’ ones. Obviously no disrespect to our fellow Premiership contenders (well most of ’em!).
This season has proved that we can compete with the top ten, but find it difficult to stay focused otherwise, taking our foot off the gas and letting teams get the better of us. We could quite easily have taken more points, especially in the early part of this term at home. We seemed to think we just had to show up at SJP and ‘lesser’ teams would roll over.
Hernandez fails to get past Krul.Well what a great game which ever way you look at it!
It was pretty much excitement from the kick off. Newcastle had to start with Tim Krul replacing the injured Steve Harper in goal, but also welcomed back Cheik Tiote from his two game suspension. Steven Ireland started on the bench and Danny Guthrie had a start in central midfield.
Within 2 minutes of kick off, Rooney out burned Tiote down our right and slotted a square centre to the on rushing Hernandez. It looked like he was in, as he got to the ball first, but Krul dived bravely at his feet to make a great stop to christen his fresh gloves. That was perhaps a sign that Newcastle were gonna get stuck right into this fixture.
Almost immediately Newcastle’s midfield started to get a grip on the play, creating chance after chance. Albeit nothing that was as clear cut as we would have liked. Barton found himself with the ball in a great position after some good play but couldn’t find the finsh it deserved. (more…)
