Nolan: Still Chicken dancing on a regular basis.Of course, Newcastle United’s game against West Ham on Sunday will see the return to St James’ Park of two ex Magpies, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll, and also an ex manager, Sam Allardyce.
In this piece I intend to concentrate on one of those, Kevin Nolan, who has received much undeserved flak from the less “gifted” sections of Newcastle United’s fanbase since his departure. Though Carroll has almost certainly received even more, that is undoubtedly a whole story on it’s own and as a Newcastle United blogger, I am still suffering from Carroll fatigue, and possibly you are too?
Getting back to Nolan though, below is one example of the kind of thing I’m writing about from so called “fans”. It is from the commments section below a story on the midfielder in local rag, the Chronic.
“Yes kevin Nolan, one word springs to mind that actually rhyms with “Fishbowl” when talking about the south….”**ithole” Thank you for your service, but sorry, you wouldn’t get into this squad ahead of Ben Arfa or Cabaye, get your head out of the smogg air son, big clubs have demanding, passionate fans, that’s why so many can’t handle the pressure up here and depart for debt laden clubs willing to overpay on salaries, smaller crowds, less expectation, and poorer playing standards installed by useless fat Sam!”(more…)
Time to end the Anfield hoodoo!Venue: Anfield, Liverpool. Date: Sunday, 4th November. Kick off: 4:00pm Referee: Anthony Taylor (Manchester). UK TV: Sky Sports.
This Sunday, NUFC attempt to right a good few wrongs against Brendan Rodgers’s Liverpool at the home of the Red Bin Dippers.
Our record at Anfield is marginally better than that at Old Trafford unfortunately in reality its still poor. Since we joined the Premier League back in 1993 we have won only once in the red half of Merseyside and drawn twice from a total of eighteen league games. The one win came in our first season back in 93/94 with goals from Lee and Cole. Back in those days we were given the nickname “The Entertainers” by Sky Sports because of our fluid, positive, attacking play masterminded by KK. Nowadays the task of entertaining has passed on to Pardew and his contribution to open attacking football tends to be in the form of the “hoof” or “long ball”.
Despite having failed to ignite a talented team for more than 45 minutes in any game we’ve played this season, Pardew had his fingers crossed yesterday when interviewed on BBC Sport, as he had this to say: (more…)
Mike Williamson: You're simply the best!He is according to football stats site “whoscored.com” anyway, where he is Newcastle United’s only representative in their Premiership team of the season so far.
In this he joins players such as Robin van Persie, Juan Mata, Gareth Bale and other top players, just nudging out Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen as best centre back, and tying with Everton’s Leighton Baines as best defender in the league full stop, with an overall rating of 7.6 out of 10.
Like Danny Simpson last season, Williamson is a vastly underrated player who may confound some of his armchair critics within the Newcastle United fanbase with his excellent defending statistics. It won’t confound Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew though, who recently said of the big lad:
“Willo’s been brilliant. People forget I’ve never favoured anybody over anybody else, and Willo put in one of his great performances (against the Mackems -wt). He was brilliant for us.”(more…)
Clarke returns to St James' Park.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sunday, 28th Oct. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Chris Foy. UK TV: None.
The Toon return to Premier League action when the Baggies visit for a non-televised 3pm kickoff on Sunday.
The “Boing Boing” Baggies have proved a real thorn in our side at SJP in recent years and Alan Pardew will be looking for a first home win against them in three attempts. Their previous boss Roy Hodgson, who clearly had the advantage over our sad and sorry silver haired sycophant, went on to better things at the end of last season and Pardew will be trying to get the Toon back on track, after a faltering start, just so he can lay some claim to follow “Woy” into the England hot seat in the years to come.
After Hodgson’s departure to Soho Square/Wembley/Burton, the Throstles went out on a limb and found a replacement in former Toon assistant manager Steve Clarke. He managed one game for the Toon against Man Utd losing 1-5 at Old Trafford after sexy football manager Gullitt left the team in the lurch. Clarke’s baptism as a “No. 1” has been relatively successful. After eight games into the season he has guided West Bromwich to sixth place in the Premier League on the back of two wins, three defeats and a draw from their last six games in all competitions. However the Baggies are still looking for their first Premier League away win of the season and have won only one of their last nine away league games (since their 1-0 win at Anfield in April).
