Destination Hawthorns!My next guide takes a look at this weeks FA Cup 4th round match against West Brom at The Hawthorns. We’ve kindly been given the entire Smethwick Road end which has an allocation of 5,500, and with tickets cheap at £20 for adults and just £5 for under-16’s, I’d expect us to fill that! Mind you, even if it was full price we would still fill it, such is the magnitude of our away following!
For the 200 hundred mile trip we’ll head again down the A1 out of the Toon, then down to Leeds where you’ll meet up with the M1. Continue south past Sheffield and Nottingham and leave at Junction 23a (A42/M42). Follow the A42 which turns into the M42 until you meet up with the M6 near to Birmingham airport. Head north on the M6 for a short while until you find the M5 (Junction 7). Join the M5 heading south briefly and leave at Junction 1. Take a left turn along the A41 towards Birmingham and you’ll find the ground is about half a mile up the road on your right hand side. Just be warned that traffic around Birmingham can be pretty sticky at times so it may be worthwile allowing some extra time for your journey. (more…)
Our third tussle with the Pilgrims this season.Another wave of Cup Fever comes to Tyneside in the shape of the 3rd round replay with the Plymouth Argyle. Thankfully, this time, it’s the Pilgrims who have to make the long hike, and wor lads will have the hordes of (probably frozen) Geordie radgies behind them.
In terms of recent league form, The Toon should lord it over struggling Plymouth, especially with home advantage. However, Toon manager, Chris Hughton, has made it clear several times that the Championship and promotion is his prime objective, and that he will not shy away from puppywalking a few junior members of the squad in cup games. Unless, that is, he feels that some of the big boys are out of practice with the big freeze wiping out Newcastle United’s Reading away clash at the weekend. Of course though, if football was played on paper, we probably wouldn’t be playing a replay in the first place!
Anyway, more speculation on that kind of thing is available in Geordies Deb’s excellent match preview of the game, and I will try to post team news etc before the match begins. (more…)
Magpies v Pilgrims: Round 3.After all the furore and bickering on the previous thread caused by the latest NUST gaffe, it’s easy to overlook the fact that we have a match this evening. The club have confirmed, it’s game on at St James Park at 7.45pm as the Toon take on the Pilgrims of Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup 3rd round replay. After an 11 day break Newcastle United will finally be back in action. Having been cooped up indoors for training as snow and ice swept the country, yesterday, the lads managed only their first outdoor session of the New Year.
Argyle have also been twiddling their thumbs as they haven’t seen any action since their draw against us at Home Park on the 2nd January. For that game, Chris Hughton rested several members of the senior squad including Kevin Nolan, Jose Enrique and Steven Taylor. As that group won’t have played since 28th December, it’s almost certain they will find themselves in the starting line-up. (more…)
Hawthorns next junction on 'Road to Wembley'Well it’s not really a bag anymore and we’re not even through to the 4th Round yet, but former Chelsea man Paul Elliott and comedian and Baggies fans, Frank Skinner between them managed to ‘bag’ Newcastle a difficult away tie should we overcome Plymouth in our 3rd Round replay.
Assuming we can beat Plymouth next week to make it through to the next round, we face a difficult trip to the Hawthorns just days after we’ll have played West Brom in our Championship crunch encounter at St James’. Frank Skinner, a big West Brom supporter pulled their ball our first to hand them home advantage, and despite both teams having more focus on promotion, there were easier ties to get.
Most Newcastle fans seem keen to drop out of this competition to allow us to concentrate on regaining Premiership status. However, I’m with Hughton on this one, and there’s nothing quite like a good cup run. I’m even fairly confident we could do quite well, and though we have to beat Plymouth first, I don’t see why we can’t go and win at the Hawthorns. And the last time my old man went to watch the Mags there in the cup, he always tells me it was like half the ground was full of Mags and it was a great day out as we marched on to the ’74 Cup Final. Mind you, the colours are quite similar… (more…)
'Road to Wembley' slightly longer now...John Anderson probably summed it up nicely towards the end of his Radio Newcastle commentary, that both managers would have been happy with a draw before this game. But as the referee blew the final whistle with the score at 0-0, it will surely be Plymouth boss Paul Mariner who will be happier than his Newcastle counterpart Chris Hughton. Obviously this despite the inconvenience for their fans of another 800-mile-round-trip to St James’ for the replay, a week on Wednesday.
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…)
