Villa sign a younger replacement for Shay Given?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sunday 2nd September,2012. Kick-Off: 4:00pm. Referee: Lee Probert. UK TV: None.
Sunday brings Premier League football back to St James’ Park as Aston Villa provide the opponents for a 4pm kick-off. There will be no UK TV broadcast of the fixture so it will be time to scour the internet for links if you’re not attending the match.
Newcastle will look to bounce back from last weeks defeat at Chelsea. While Villa have lost both their Premier League fixtures to date, a 0-1 loss to West Ham, and a 3-1 defeat to Everton last week at Villa Park. Historically Villa have struggled at St James Park, with only one win in the last twelve years. So the omens do look good if you believe records mean something.
Newcastle United Vs Aston Villa History
The way in which the Villans goaded the Magpies back in 2009 when Newcastle were relegated still strikes a nerve with many Toon followers. On Newcastle’s return to the Premier League in 2010 / 2011, Villa provided our first opponents at home, so a chance for some kind of retribution presented itself. Joey Barton, a Kevin Nolan double and an Andy Carroll hat trick helped to inflict a 6-0 mauling for the Magpies. Last season, Papiss Cissé introduced himself in style, controlling Jonas‘ left wing cross and lashing a volley past ex-Magpie Shay Given to secure a 2-1 victory. The last time we lost to Villa at St James’ Park was during the 2004 / 2005 season, where we witnessed Lee Bowyer and KieronDyer fall out very publically and get themselves sent off for fighting after Bowyer felt that Dyer was refusing to pass the ball to him in the game. (more…)
No Joey Barton show this time.Venue: St James’ Park, Toon. Date: Sun 15th Jan 2011. Kick-Off: 1:30 pm. Referee: Chris Foy.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our regular “match banter” feature.
This time the Magpies will be facing the transitional Queen’s Park Rangers under new manager, Mark Hughes, he of the slightly annoying mid-sentence sharp intakes of breath.
Like ourselves, it will be a somewhat depleted QPR on the pitch this afternoon, with key players such as captain, Joey Barton, Alejandro Faurlín, Armand Traoré and Adel Taarabt out through suspension, injury and the African Cup of Nations (x2) respectively. Of course it goes without saying that another Toon old boy, Kieron Dyer, will be also be out to injury as usual. On the QPR’s opening game of the season he was carried off on a stretcher with an injured foot. After a lengthy layoff, he was finally set to make his comeback, then somewhat inevitably injured it again in a reserves game! (more…)
Craig Bellamy: Controversial as ever.Newcastle United old boy, Craig Bellamy, has a long and insightful interview on American site ‘EPL Talk.’
Given while Bellamy was in Orlando, Florida last month, coaching the youngsters at the 2011 Disney Soccer Academy, it covers quite a few topics from Bellamy’s time in the game. This included recollections of his five years at Newcastle (including a spell at Celtic on loan), and working with then manager, Sir Bobby Robson. This section has been transcribed for your reading pleasure below. As usual, Bellamy pulls no punches, accusing the Newcastle United fans for playing a big part in the Sir Bobby’s exit from the club, and saying that there is “no chance” he would ever play for Newcastle again because “there is no one else to play for up there”.
EPL Talk:“Lets talk about Newcastle United. What was was your greatest memory of playing there?”(more…)
Dyer: Naughty boy on Tyneside.Former Toon midfielder, Kieron Dyer, has come out with a warning to Andy Carroll, as the latest episode in the Carroll saga unravels with news of his latest brush with the courts and an incident involving an attack on his new Range Rover.
Dyer, who spent who spent no less than eight years on Tyneside and has had a significant portion of his career ruined by injury, was involved in various incidents while on Tyneside. These included a violent encounter with teammate, Lee Bowyer, on the pitch, also having his car vandalised, as well as “roasting” allegations and a memorable run in with Sir Bobby Robson. He said of his own time at Newcastle:
“They called us the Brat Pack, and I suppose we were at the time. There was myself, Craig Bellamy, Jermaine Jenas, Titus Bramble, Carl Cort – we were young lads who had a lot of money, single, living away from home.
“We were enjoying life off the pitch and we got up to all sorts. But that is the problem you have in a city like Newcastle.
“We were doing well on the pitch and we were intent on enjoying ourselves off it, but we got into too many scrapes. We attracted the wrong sort of attention and there are things I did which I just can’t believe when I look back.(more…)
