Archive for category: Malcolm MacDonald.

Who are the top 5 Newcastle United strikers of all time?

May 25th, 2020 | 3 Comments |

Toon flag. — Newcastle United: A long history of great centre forwards.

With the long pause in Premier League action, I thought it might be a good time to go down memory lane and look at some of our favourite players from times past, so I have decided to list five of the top strikers in Newcastle United’s history. All the players selected played at least 150 games for the Magpies at the highest level, which means that great, but more fleeting Newcastle centre forwards such as Albert Shepherd, Albert Stubbins, Andy Cole, Les Ferdinand etc have not been included. The players are listed in chronological order, starting with the most recent players and going backwards in time. (more…)

Manchester United vs Newcastle United match preview.

November 25th, 2011 | 71 Comments |

Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson. — A date with Alex "Chuckles" Ferguson awaits.

Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester.
Date: Saturday 26 November, 2011
Kick-off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Mike Jones (replaces Phil Dowd).

Well, it’s almost time for the second of Newcastle United’s triumvirate of clashes against “the big guns” of Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea. Like the last one, we will also face the further disadvantage of playing away in the hostile environment of Manchester United’s “Theatre of Dreams,” Old Trafford.

Stats, previous matches etc…

Much like our previous Manchester opponents last week, our recent record against Manchester United at their place is rather dire unfortunately. We haven’t won at Old Trafford for over 39 years. In the days when Supermac’s sideburns were growing ever bigger, we managed 2-0 victory in February 1972. Our last victory at St James’ Park was a glorious 4-3 victory under Bobby Robson in September 2001. In our last six games at Old Trafford we have lost five, but did manage to scrape a 1-1 draw in our opening game of the 2008/09 season. (more…)

The next Newcastle number 9?

June 21st, 2011 | 35 Comments |

Who is worthy of the Newcastle number 9 shirt? — Tough acts to follow

On arrival at Newcastle United Demba Ba was handed the number 19 shirt, leaving the number 9 shirt vacant. Does this indicate that there are plans to recruit another striker to fill it or is the shirt going to be retired for a while?

The Newcastle United number 9 shirt is of course sacred. Leaving it unfilled for a while – after Obafemi Martins moved to Wolfsburg – was a deliberate ploy by former manager Chris Hughton who said:

“It’s something I’ve done deliberately. We have a lot of strikers here and I’m quite sure that every single one of them would have wanted to wear the No 9 shirt. As soon as I came to this club I knew what it meant and it’s both my decision and a combination of a few things.

“It can be a heavy number to carry, a burden, and wearing it is an achievement which I want somebody to grow into. I want somebody to earn the right to be Newcastle’s No 9. I don’t want to suggest that the strikers here aren’t worthy of it because each of them has a real strong value.

“I don’t anticipate years going by without one, but I know what the number nine is and I don’t want it to be an issue. The only issue I want is the normal stuff of the team performing well or not performing well, winning games or not winning games, and that’s very much team based.” (more…)

One Chrissy Hughton?

November 1st, 2010 | 39 Comments |

Personally, I’m still buzzing from yesterday’s 5-1 demolition of derby day rivals Sunderland.

As results go they don’t get much better than that, but one thing I found that was a nice extra touch was the widespread backing for Chris Hughton that sounded out from the crowd on a number of occasions yesterday.

In a week where Hughton’s tenure as Newcastle boss had been called into question, mainly by the media, it seemed quite appropriate that the crowd united behind Hughton in front of a worldwide television audience. It was a proper ‘two-fingers’ to the press who have been trying to stir up some trouble where none had previously existed.

Chants of ‘One Chrissy Hughton’ and ‘Walking in a Hughton wonderland’ rang out from various parts of the ground yesterday, although I have no doubt that the media will try to paint us as fickle and suggest that we were only singing those songs as we were winning against our unwashed rivals from down the road. (more…)

Supermac sticks the knife into Hughton.

October 31st, 2010 | 48 Comments |

Derby day fever has certainly caught up with me now, which is why I haven’t slept a wink all night and why I decided to get up at 5am rather than rolling around trying to get to sleep, and getting irritated in the process.

Anyway, I was perusing the ‘comments’ section on the ‘blog to see if I had missed anything and to catch up on the gossip when one thing struck me. It seems that the media bandwagon regarding the future of our manager is rolling on.

Those who listened to ‘The Legends’ radio phone-in during week will have heard Malcolm Macdonald bleating on about Chris Hughton and launching some quite scathing attacks on our current manager. The reason being that he is somewhat annoyed by the team selection that Chris Hughton made against Arsenal in the Carling Cup in midweek.

Now I see things differently and fully backed Hughton’s decision to rest a good number of first-team players in midweek as I wanted our best possible team to be available to play in today’s derby, but I understand that others feel differently and feel that fielding a weakened team during the week equates to us missing out on an opportunity to progress into the Carling Cup quarter-finals at the expense of a team that has scored an average of three goals in every game this season. (more…)