Toon's Greek Odyssey begins!Venue: Peristeri Stadium, Athens. Date: Thursday 23rd August 2012 Kick-off: 6.00 pm UK TV: Premier Sports (Sky channel 428 or Subcription)
Hello and welcome to our regular “match banter” feature on this special evening, which sees Newcastle United embarking on their first European campaign for over five years, when Glenn Roeder slipped us in through the back door of the Intertoto Cup into what was the the UEFA Cup.
We made it to the last sixteen back then, eventually coming a cropper against Dutch side, AZ Alkmaar. Despite being 4-2 up after the first home leg, Alkmaar pulled back the two goal deficit, winning the leg at their place 2-0 and going through on away goals. Lets hope we can take it further this time!
Getting back to this evening though, for all the background stuff you’ll ever need in the run up to this game, check out AndyMac’s excellent and extensive Atromitos v Newcastle United match preview. For even more background, you can also catch Atromitos in action in last season’s Greek Cup final in my previous post. (more…)
Will the Bantam Cocks be like headless chickens this afternoon?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Saturday 18th August 2012 Kick-off: 5.30 pm Referee: Martin Atkinson UK TV: ESPN
Dear reader, hello, good afternoon and welcome to our regular “match banter” feature.
As we we made a bit of a bit of a cock up with the match preview this week, with both “Jimbob” and “AndyMac” doing one, I thought we’d make a bit of a departure from the norm this time. You can see Jimbob’s original match preview here, but for this post, I have also decided to show Andy’s preview in it’s entirety to provide an alternative as it’s also very good, provides even more background for our all important first game of the Premiership, and it can’t do any harm!
I will be doing all the usual bits such as putting the team sheets up when they become available, posting some links for the game and so on. When the game is over, I will also be posting highlights and perhaps a link to the whole game if there’s one around.
So for now, it’s over to AndyMac. – Workyticket.(more…)
Storks v Magpies this time.Date: Saturday, 4th August Venue: Kyocera Stadium, the Hague. Kick off: 5.00pm local time, 4pm UK time UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our latest “match banter” feature.
This match will see more birds in combat as the Magpies of Newcastle clash with the Dutch Storks of ADO Den Haag at their Kyocera Stadium in Den Haag, or “The Hague” in English.
If you were looking for some more in depth background for the game, please check out part two of my previous guide to Newcastle United’s pre season fixtures. To give you some idea of the opposition here though, Den Haag were 15th in last season’s Eredivisie. As I also pointed in the abovementioned pre season guide, rather like Millwall over here, it used to be that Den Haag had more of a reputation for their fearsome fans rather than their football, though they did once have Austrian tactical genius, Ernst Happel, as their coach. He brought them Dutch Cup success in 1968 before moving on to bigger and better things, including a European Cup triumph in 1970 with another Dutch club, Rotterdam’s Feyenoord. (more…)
Another stiff test in Portugal!Date: Friday, 27th July. Venue: Estádio Algarve, Faro, Portugal. Kick off: 8.45pm local and UK time. UK TV: Live on ESPN UK.
Another day, another game, another Newcastle United team!
Newcastle United’s first game since yesterday sees them facing a Portuguese team who have recently seen themselves breaking the domination of the “big three” of Portuguese club football, Porto, Benfica and Sporting Club of Portugal. Last season, they came third in Portugal’s Primeira Liga, and in the season before that, second. Hence, this should provide another stiff test for the Magpies. However, with the two games in two days format of this “Guadiana Torneo”, John Carver jas stated that Alan Pardew plans to field two almost completely different sides. This should see our Silver Supremo wheeling out far more of the “big guns” for this one, as the side who played Olympiacos yesterday featured quite a few of the bairns and squad players, but we’ll see. As usual, I shall be posting the teamsheets below when they become available. (more…)
Two evenings, two games, two Newcastle United teams!Date: Friday, 27th July. Venue: Estádio Algarve, Faro, Portugal. Kick off: 8.45pm local and UK time. UK TV: Live on ESPN UK.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our match banter feature for this evening’s game, which sees the Magpies facing current Greek Superleague champions, Olympiacos, at the Estádio Algarve, Faro, Portugal.
This will be the first game for the Magpies in the pre season “Guadiana Torneo,” with the next, against SC Braga taking place tomorrow. With two games so close together, our Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew, will be fielding two almost entirely different teams for each game, and on this his assistant, John Carver said:
“It’s a little bit different to last week, we’re now three weeks into the pre-season training. Now we go into a competition format and the manager will play two different teams each night.
“Everybody will play some part. Some will get 90 minutes.”(more…)
