All the goals from Newcastle United’s FA Cup farce against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns on Saturday, including two from Andy Carroll. (more…)
Andy Carroll has been an important player for us this season so far. Whilst he hasn’t exactly been prolific in front of goal, he has had the knack of unsettling the opposition defenders, perhaps allowing other players scoring opportunities by creating space, like for Lovenkrands on Wenesday evening.
With 4 goals in 18 appearances this season, Carroll is far from the finished article and has attracted his fair share of criticism from fans for an alleged altercation on a night out in Newcastle’s Blu Bamboo bar in the Bigg Market – a hotbead of chavs, slappers and sexually transmitted diseases – and that’s on top of another transgression a while back! I personally feel that if he can knuckle down and work on the mental aspect of his game off the pitch, and learn some composure in front of goal on the pitch, then we are better off keeping hold of him. Manager Chris Hughton seems to be thinking along the same lines, saying:
“They are wasting their time with Andy – He is not for sale!” (more…)
The No.9 shirt is almost as synonymous with Newcastle United, as St James’ Park, the black and white stripes or that deed funny accent we’ve got. It’s been made particularly special in this part of the world because it’s been worn by some of the best players this country has seen. The likes of Gallacher, Milburn, MacDonald, Cole, Shearer have graced that shirt and it will undoubtedly always be a big shirt to fill.
Ironic then, given that the No.9 shirt and the prestige it carries with it is currently up for grabs, that we have a group of strikers who fall somewhat short of the standards we’ve come to expect from our centre-floorboards, and that none of them look like earning that honour just yet, particularly in this current barren spell…..
So how far short have they fallen so far? (more…)
The FA Cup throws the form book out of the window, and even though Plymouth have improved in recent games, that suited them due to their lowly position. Newcastle, conversely at the summit of the Championship, made several changes to protect the squad from a demanding run-in ahead. And so if anything, with home advantage, you’d have been excused for putting Plymouth as favourites. However, Hughton still fielded a strong team, and but for some good goalkeeping and wayward finishing, we did enough to win this game. (more…)
Despite falling short as Keegan had done back in the ’90s, with his wealth of experience, Robson played a brand of football that the supporters could once again get behind. And the football wasn’t just good to watch but effective as we flirted with European and domestic success. But of course, the end of his reign was somewhat soured by it’s nature as many fans welcomed the decision feeling he’d lost the dressing room, and he was unceremoniously dumped by Freddy Shepherd.
2000 actually saw Robson get rid of one of our most infamous and old-fashioned bad-boys, Duncan Ferguson, but the new millenium brought the advent of a new type of bad-boy. The ‘noughties’ became the decade of the ‘naughties’ as Robson built his side around ‘bling boys’, such as the likes of Keiron Dyer, Jermaine Jenas, Titus Bramble and Craig Bellamy. (more…)