Plymouth Argyle's Home Park Stadium.What better way to recover from your post new year celebrations than an 800 mile round trip down to the West Country, when Newcastle United face Plymouth Argyle in the 3rd round of the FA cup this Saturday?
As a previous six times winner of the competition, albeit the last time over half a century ago, the FA cup still brings out a sentimental streak among many Toon supporters. Who could forget that 1974 cup campaign when Tyneside well and truly had cup fever? Despite being a child at the time I remember the highs (Supermac’s goals, amongst others) and lows (team performance in the final) and the excitement of the build up to Wembley.
Sadly the competition no longer has the same kudos, and of course successes and failures in other areas can have such a dramatic financial impact on football clubs today. With so many teams willing to sacrifice progress in the FA cup to a greater monetary god such as promotion / avoiding relegation / Champion’s League success etc. Who can blame them with the cash implications of any of those having such a major impact on their football clubs? (more…)
Ram-raid!Well let’s hope the lads have worked off the excess turkey they were clearly suffering from against Sheff Wed, before they meet The Rams at St James Park Monday evening. Despite our lacklustre performance on Boxing Day, resulting in a 2-2 draw with Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle United still go into the Derby County game top of the league, a position we will continue to hold going into 2010, regardless of the result against Derby.
Let’s hope Chris Hughton has had the lads training hard today to get the sluggishness out of their systems. Conversely, Nigel Clough won’t be looking forward to taking a patched up Derby County team up to the northeast to meet the league leaders. Clough’s team were booed off as the Rams lost at home to Blackpool on Boxing Day, their second home defeat in a row. He was frustrated with his side against Blackpool and admits he doesn’t know what to expect against Newcastle:
“We seemed incapable of doing the simple things,” said Clough. “We looked very nervous and very short of confidence.”
“The confidence is very fragile and we looked short of ideas. At times we couldn’t pass the ball to a white shirt.” (more…)
Barnsley FC’s mascot, Toby Tyke5pm tomorrow could see Newcastle United 10 points clear at the top of the championship if they manage a win against an in form Barnsley at Oakwell.
The Newcastle players will be looking to give boss Chris Hughton an extra special birthday present if they can notch up an eighth straight win to boot. However nothing can be taken for granted, and this match will certainly not be easy as Barnsley have managed 3 wins and 2 draws from their last 5 games. In fact, since joining the club from Rotherham, manager Mark Robins has seen his side lose only five of his 17 games in charge. However, Robins didn’t seem to be too happy with the Tykes’ last performance, a 1-1 draw with tricky customers, Scunthorpe. Speaking to the Sheffield Star, he said:
“We’ve got a big game on Saturday against Newcastle and there will be 7,500 Geordies coming here so it might be like an away game for us,”
“It’s a game to look forward to but we certainly need to put in a better performance than against Scunthorpe because Newcastle are flying. (more…)
Coventry's Mascot: Micky Quinn?Flying high at the top of the table, 10 points clear of a play off place, Newcastle United face Coventry City on Wednesday evening aiming to extend their winning run to 7 games on the trot.
The Sky Blues, currently languishing in 20th position just above the relegation zone, will not be looking forward to facing an in form Newcastle United, especially as City have picked up only 4 points since beating Watford in late September. Matters will hardly have been helped after manager Chris Coleman slammed his side as ‘selfish’ following their defeat at Scunthorpe last weekend. Hoping to see a reaction from the players it may only demoralise them further.
If Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday have positive results this evening, the Sky Blues will have slid into the relegation zone come kick-off time at the Ricoh Arena. So it seems that nearly two years into his time at the club, Coventry are in the same position as when Coleman took over. He claims to have significantly improved the squad but at the moment the results aren’t playing out for them. To their credit, although the fans aren’t happy, they don’t seem to be calling for his head, having had their fill of watching the managerial merry go round over the years.
A big game could be just what is needed to kick-start an upturn in form for the Sky Blues. Alternatively they may continue their poor form then this game should be there for the taking for Newcastle. Westwood and Best have apparently been their best performers this season along with Clingan and Marcus Hall, so they should be the ones to watch at the 32,000 capacity Ricoh arena. (more…)
The Vicarage Road Dream Team in happier times.And we thought we had problems? The visit of Watford Town to Saint James Park on Saturday will be a welcome distraction for the Hornets, a club rumoured to be on the point of administration as early as Christmas, unless the club can find £5.5M pronto.
The Hornets were forced to go cap in hand to their current chairman for a £1million loan last weekend to help cover their cash requirements for the next two weeks. Maybe previous owner and honorary life president Sir Elton John, who has had a long association with his home town club could throw them some cash to help keep their heads above water. It’s always tough to hear of a long established club having such problems and I’m sure we all wish them well.
Watford have had an interesting history and have managed to yo-yo through the divisions with the best of ’em over the years. It’s hard to forget the period in the ’70s and ’80s when they went from bottom of the old fourth division to runners up in today’s equivalent of the Premiership in 6 years. This was acheived under the management of Graham Taylor during one of his two stints in charge of the club. (more…)
