Williamson - Another player, another ban?It looks like Mike Williamson could be the latest Newcastle player to face a suspension.
It has emerged that The FA are to have a look at video evidence of the clash between him and Bolton’s Johann Elmander.
Heaven only knows if it was an accidental clash or whther there was any malice in the challenge, but I don’t feel overly confident about Williamson’s chances of escaping a ban. After all, I can’t remember the last time The FA took no action after they decided to have a look at something again.
So it appears that Newcastle face the very real prospect of having another player suspended for the weekend visit of Chelsea, which is far from ideal considering we already have a squad that is depleted through injuries and suspensions as it stands.
Joey Barton will sit out the match as he serves the last game of the three game ban he was awarded for punching Morten Gamst Pedersen whilst Fabricio Coloccini will start his three game ban he picked up for his elbowing incident last weekend. (more…)
Gutierrez - Flattering to deceive in recent weeks?Jonas Gutierrez has promised that the team will try and make amends for the disappointing 5-1 defeat to Bolton at the weekend.
Whether or not the team can do that against a Chelsea side which appears to be going through somewhat of a crisis is a question that will be answered this coming Sunday.
Personally, I don’t hold out much hope of getting a result against Chelsea and feel that the game this weekend could be one of those games where we play really well, but ultimately get nothing from it. Still, at least playing well would be an improvement on what was shown at Bolton last weekend. I can handle defeat, even heavy defeats, but the way that the players seemed uninterested really grated on me against Bolton. It’s like they gave up at 2-0, well in my opinion anyway.
So it’s no wonder that the players want to bounce back, and none more so than Jonas Gutierrez. The pony-tailed Argentine winger has been disappoointing in recent weeks, but he wants to set the record straight against Chelsea. (more…)
Defence used to impress, but what happened?Make no mistake about it, the 5-1 loss against Bolton yesterday was a thumping.
It can be dressed up as much as you like, but there was far too many below-par performances from too many individuals at The Reebok.
Despite that though, I feel that there is an element of our team being the architects of their own downfall, and it has been that way for a few weeks now.
Our defence had started drawing praise from several areas after a string of impressive performances. In fact it’s only a couple of weeks back that our back-four earned rave reviews for their performance during the 1-0 win at Arsenal. They were tremendous that day, as was the rest of the team, but since then something has gone wrong.
The very next game, a 2-1 loss at home against Blackburn Rovers, can be attributed to two of our own errors. Firstly there was Cheick Tiote who tried dribbling the ball out of his own area, losing the ball in the process and paying the ultimate price by conceding a goal. Then there was Mike Williamson and Fabricio Coloccini, who both got bullied and barged around by Jason Roberts who scored the winning goal. (more…)
Keep the faith!As the dust begins to settle after Newcastle United’s humiliating 5-1 defeat to an in-form Bolton Wanderers, many fans will be wondering what happens next.
The answer is that none of us know really, which is a crap answer to be honest, but what we do know is that we have Chelsea next week in what is set to be another tough encounter.
But which Newcastle side will turn up next week? Will it be the side that is motivated and determined to right some wrongs, much like they did against Sunderland and Aston Villa? Or will it be the Newcastle side that turned up, or failed to, yesterday, where they capitulated and never looked really up for it from the get go?
That has arguably been the main feature of our season so far, and not knowing which consistently inconsistent Newcastle side will turn up is making me nervous already.
I guess the bottom line is that we mustn’t get carried away after suffering such a heavy defeat, even though it is hard not to. On the flipside though, we mustn’ get carried away when we dish out the thumpings like we have done at times this season. (more…)
Lee Chung-Yong scoring the second goal.Newcastle limply surrendered to Bolton Wanderers today as they got thumped 5-1 at The Reebok in a match that held very few positives for the Toon Army.
Bolton deserved their win, of that there can be no doubt, but they were helped along by some awful individual performances, some poor defending, and some poor decisions from World Cup final referee, Howard Webb.
One thing that has left me seething is the apparent lack of desire on show from the majority of our players. In fact the only player I would give any kind of credit to is Andy Carroll who managed to bag himself a goal and could have had another had his shot been a couple of inches lower and hit the underside of the crossbar instead.
Newcastle started off quite brightly and kept possesion well without causing any real problems for the home side. The balance of power shifted on 15 minutes though when Bolton were awarded a penalty after Kevin Nolan handballed. (more…)
