Aston Villa next.Going back 6 games ago, after the Arsenal comeback game, I did a piece on the next 7 games, namely:
Blackburn away Birmingham away Bolton home Everton home Stoke City away Wolverhampton home Aston Villa away.
That brings us from February the 12th to present day.
In the piece, I mused about such things as, how many points we’d get, how important they’d be in light of the games directly after, i.e. our last 6 games of this season including Man U at home, Blackpool away, Liverpool and Chelsea away, the rescheduled Brum fixture and our final game against fellow newly promoted side, West Brom, at home.
Well the 7th game is almost upon us and it’s the return fixture with Aston Villa. Since our demolition of them at SJP in the first game of the season 6-0 a lot of water has passed under both team’s bridges. Villa have had a torrid season wallowing around the bottom end of the league, while we’ve mostly been in the top half. Still, it won’t be one to take lightly. (more…)
Barton: Announced as captain by PardewWith Captain Kevin Nolan picking up his 10th yellow card v Wolves in our great win at SJP on Saturday, and hence the mandatory 2 game ban, and also Alan Smith out with a long term injury, it’s come to pass that our battling Midfielder and many fan’s ‘player of the season’, Joey Barton, has been told he’s going to be entrusted with the Captain’s armband, at least for the next couple of games.
I guess it could’ve gone to Fabricio Coloccini, with him being a very experienced Argentinean international and ever present. But I tend to think Alan Pardew is trying to do what a lot of managers try by giving the armband / responsibility to the player that has the drive, determination and passion that the Captain needs to have. I’m not suggesting Colo doesn’t have said attributes, more that it is the perfect opportunity to allow Joey Barton to step up and show the football world how far he has come since his much reported brushes with authority. Plenty of footballers have been ‘made’ in such circumstances. For Joey to get this honour is a big step for Alan Pardew, but I, for one, think it’s been coming for some time now. The lad never shirks responsibility on the pitch and has shown immense patience over this season, sometimes up against great odds and provacation.
Some will say it’s part of the ‘buttering up’ underway to get him to sign on the dotted line of a new contract, it could be. But it also shows what everyone at the club thinks of his input since regaining full fitness this term and his ability to motivate the rest of the team. It will also force opposing managers, players and more especially, referees and even the odd pundit to reassess their built in and often out of date attitude towards him. (more…)
Lovenkrands after tucking away the third goal.The sun shone and Newcastle made hay at SJP on Saturday!
The Magpies got off to a decent start. As early as the 4th minute when Joey Barton was hacked down around midfield, he picked himself up and from the resultant free kick, curled in an excellent ball to be met by a diving Mike Williamson, with the Wolves ‘keeper just managing to turn it around the post.
It was all Newcastle for the first few minutes, but they were unable to prize a clear opening.
It seemed that we’d got the same ref as last time, with Mike Dean being sucked into Wolves typical tactics like a wet noodle. Whenever a Toon player got close they went to ground, whenever Newcastle had the ball they were chopped down. The refs falling for their ‘gamemanship’ gave me an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach. (more…)
Hungry like the Wolves?Wolves will make the journey north to Tyneside on Saturday, and we’ll be all hoping they get a nose bleed in every sense.
We need to bloody their metaphorical nose on the pitch with a decent win, preferably with a few goals, to claw back the goal differencial that we recently relinquished at Stoke.
Then there’s an actual bloody nose that they deserve, along with the ridiculously one-sided referee of our last meeting down in the Midlands, for the crime against football that they were allowed to perpetrate, particularly on Joey Barton.
Of course Barton brought it all on himself by being an ex-offender and maybe should’ve been jailed for not fighting back, or worse? Protection from that kind of open thuggery is the least we can expect at SJP, isn’t it?
Pardew: Gannin' in the right direction?After a decent start to his managerial contract at Newcastle, Alan Pardew’s team have slumped some what in recent games.
Obviously, recent injuries and suspensions haven’t helped the cause. But questions have also been asked about Alan’s tactics and team formations, from some quarters, in the last couple of games. Some of the formations have been forced by the aforementioned injuries and there’s not a lot can be done in such circumstances. Fans have queried why three CB’s plus wing backs against Stoke city, for instance? So it’s refreshing that Pardew has admitted to failings in such forms and took the blame.
That’s something that doesn’t happen very often.(more…)
