Shola Ameobi - A scapegoat for the ill informed?It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that Northumbria bizzies have been investigating what have been described as “sickening” racist comments about Newcastle United forward, Shola Ameobi, on Facebook.
This comes after recent similar comments about his younger brother and teammate Sammy Ameobi on Twitter. However unlike the case of Ameobi jnr which just seemed to come out of the blue, the Shola case has come on the back of an existing campaign of vilification of the striker from some Newcastle United fans for what they perceive as poor performances. Whilst racism is undoubetedly an awful thing, some of the highly personal attacks which preceded this development have at times tried their hardest to stoop to the same level of nastiness without being overtly racist. Many other stories have already concentrated on the alleged verbal racist attacks though, so I will concentrate instead on the anti Ameobi hysteria which has quite possibly led us to this sad state of affairs. Some of them have been so venomous that sadly it was probably inevitable that it would spill over into racism eventually. (more…)
Blackpudding Rovers are n Toon!Good afternoon Geordies and welcome to our latest match banter feature.
This one sees the Magpies hosting the team who have been recently renamed, from “Blackburn Rovers” to “Troubled Blackburn Rovers” because of their trials and tribulations in the relegation zone, and also the rather unfortunate behaviour of some of their fans towards manager Steve Kean, which has almost certainly made a bad situation worse. The cups however are a different matter, with quite a few teams in the past putting poor league form behind them to excel in cup competitions. The last of course being Birmingham City, who did the “double” of winning the League Cup and getting relegated last season. Our cousins from the “Paris of the North”, Middlesbrough, being another example in 1997 when they at made the final of the FA Cup in one of their relegation seasons.
It also shouldn’t be forgotten that it was Troubled Blackburn Rovers who ditched us out of the League Cup too, a 3-4 extra time thriller back in October of last year, with Blackburn’s Gael Givet eventually sinking Toon’s League Cup dreams in the 120th minute. Also, while we may be riding high after our glorious victory over the current Premiership title holders on Wednesday, Blackburn also managed the same feat on new Years Eve. On the other hand however, we did beat Rovers 3-1 in our previous Premiership meeting at St James’ Park the month before. But anyway, I won’t go on for too long here, if you would like an extensive and rather thought provoking look forward the game, DO check out UTD111’s excellent match preview, which really is a cracker this week! (more…)
Hope he lhas a face like this after the game!Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle Upon Tyne Date: 4th January 2012 Kick Off: 8.00PM Referee: Howard Webb Hair by: Rooney of Croxteth
Manchester United make their seasonal pilgrimage to St James’ Park in what could be viewed, for them anyway, as a tough game – particularly as they seem to be in relative disarray.
Wayne Rooney and a couple of the club’s lesser lights (Darron Gibson and Johnny Evans) allegedly went out for a meal and a few drinkies on Boxing Night. This wasn’t against any of the Manchester club’s rules. However, they subsequently committed the crime of looking decidedly shabby and putting in a poor performance in training.
As a result manager Alex Ferguson threw a strop and dropped them for the home game against Blackburn Rovers. ‘Ol Red Nose was rewarded for his tantrum on his 70th birthday by a defeat from the second-bottom club.
If rumours are to be believed, Mr Rooney is hopping mad about being dropped and fined £200,000 but has managed to “keep his hair on”. (more…)
A bad season at the office for Owen Coyle so far.Venue: Reebok Stadium, Bolton. Date: Monday 26th Dec, 2011. Kick-off: 3.00pm. Referee: Peter Walton.
Dear readers, for any of you who were expecting some kind of “normal” match preview for this Boxing Day away game against Bolton, I am writing this after a fairly messy Christmas Eve Party followed by two nights of very little sleep (none at all last night) and a couple of days full of Champagne overconsumption, hence an in depth analysis of the Trotters’ own kind of “Champagne” football isn’t really on my agenda at the moment. However you may get a bit of team news, a bit of history between the two sides and some opiniated waffle this time if you’re lucky.
Stats, previous matches etc…
The two sides come into this game with Newcastle United standing at seventh in the Premiership, with Bolton standing at second bottom. However the two sides do have roughly similar records as Newcastle’s terrific start to this season has somewhat inevitably crumbled into ashes. (more…)
