Magpies v Throstles - Who will get the juicy 3 point worm?Good evening Geordies and welcome to our latest “match banter” feature for this evenong’s game, which will be yet another battle of the birds.
First it was Magpies v Canaries, then Magpies v Swans, and now the Mags find themselves battling the Throstles of West Bromwich Albion for a juicy three point worm. “Throstle” is an an English name for the Eurasian song thrush, and though you’d think the poor little song thrushes would have no chance against the mighty Magpies, they have proved to be fairly tricky customers in the past and we haven’t been racking up the results as we did in the earlier part of the season, with no win in our last five games.
Before I forget, please excuse me for the lack of our usual “match preview” feature this week, which was cancelled due to the horrors of Christmas. I shall endeavour to make up for that somewhat by incorporating a kind of mini preview into this article, starting with previous encounters, and then a bit of team news.
Pardew: Problems at the rear.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Saturday 17th Dec, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Lee Mason.
With the Magpies still lickng their wounds after a 4-2 mauling by some powerful Canaries, they return to their nest at St James’ Park to face another bird attack, this time from the Swans of Swansea.
In case you were wondering about the title, Newcastle United are not the only team to have a very promising flying Dutchman between the sticks. Tim Krul’s biggest competitor for the Netherland’s substitute goalkeeper slot (behind Roma’s Maarten Stekelenburg) is Swansea’s £1.5 million bargain buy from Utrecht, Michel Vorm. Like his Dutch compatriot, Vorm has also played a significant role in his team’s good start to the Premiership season. The unfancied Swans have certainly been no ugly ducklings in a fairly respectable 11th place, which is quite an achievement for a team on their budget and in their first season after promotion. However, as in our previous game against those other Premiership underdogs, Norwich City, it will be other areas of Pardew’s back end where attention will be focused, but more on that in the team news… (more…)
Steve: A very natural writer and a great human being..It was four days ago when I learned of the tragically premature death of Steve Thompson, aka “Thomma” to his friends, and in the NUFC blogiverse, “Bowburn Mag”.
He was a writer on this site from it’s inception in 2009, writing a total of 234 articles for us in our first year. It is probably thorough his writing, and of course numerous comments on several different blogs and forums that most will know him. As well as being a genuinely nice person, he was also a natural writer who had the capacity to communicate his real humanity in words and genuinely connect with the reader, which is a rare talent. It was this which inspired me to ask him to write some pieces here when the ‘blog was about to start. Even though all I had to go on at the time were his comments on other blogs, his talent still shone through. Being a keen footballer himself, he also had a very good understanding of the game, and with both of these qualities I genuinely felt that he could have been one of the best sports writers around if his life had taken another path. Sadly that life is over now so we will never know, but he still left some great pieces of writing which encapsulated perfectly his passion for football in general, and Newcastle United in particular. (more…)
Joey Barton: Saying what he sees.Well, Joey Barton did promise on Twitter that he would “tell all when the time was right” and he’s finally kept his word.
Speaking in a long audio podcast interview for the Queen’s Park Ranger’s ‘blog “Open All R’s,” he finally lifted the lid on his time at Newcastle United and his strained relationship with the infamous Ashley / Llambias regime. In the interview, he revealed what he felt were the real reasons why he and other senior members of the squad have been forced out St James’ Park, how the club tried to force him to sign a contract on a fifth of his old wage whilst he was in Walton prison, what he feels were the real reasons behind the sacking of Chris Hughton, how despite his profound hatred of Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias, he still feels a strong affinity with the club and more…
Some (misquoted) sections of the interview have already appeared in the media and other ‘blogs, so I decided to make a more accurate and extensive transcription of all the sections which related to Newcastle United. I’ve have also included the mp3 podcast of the entire interview at the bottom of the piece.
Responding to a QPR fan’s question on what swung it for him to come to Queen’s Park Rangers, Barton began by outlining the reson’s why he had to leave his former club saying:
“I was obviously deemed by the board at Newcastle “Persona non grata” (Person not welcome). They didn’t want me because I asked questions.(more…)
Potty-mouthed tirade against past managersNewcastle United Managing Director Derek Llambias serves up an expletive-ridden speech against Keegan, Shearer, Hughton and Carroll.
Amidst all the furore of stadium renaming, you’d think one of the things our Managing Director would try to do is talk around the fans and sweeten them up to the whole fiasco.
Well that might be what a professional would do but Delboy’s response, it seems, is to get sloshed and launch a foul-mouthed tirade against the various managers he’s appointed and dismissed in the past. Unfortunately for Delboy, he did so in front of Toon fans, some of whom taped it.
On Keegan he said:
“Kevin Keegan can’t take pressure. His f****** head was all over the place. Mike Ashley was selling to the Arabs and they wanted Kevin Keegan. The Arabs wanted him, the fans wanted him — perfect!” (more…)
