Swansea: The victims of some pathetic refereeing this season.Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Date: Wed 4th Dec, 2013. Kick off: 7.45pm. Referee: Howard Webb. UK TV: BT Sport.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our latest ‘match banter’ feature for this evening’s game against Swansea City at their place.
Poor old Swansea haven’t had much luck recently. Amongst other things they have been the victims of some of some of the most awful deciosions, and it has usually cost them points, as it did against Valencia and Stoke most recently.
Personally, I think Michael Laudrup needs to be a little more like Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho. They know that match officiating, like parking enforcement is one of those jobs that just attracts the wrong kind of people mostly, little Hitlers. They know that there is no point whatsoever in being nice and respectful to them as that will just make them respect you even less, you have to make them fear you. Swansea are too nice and Laudrup and his players really need to start getting in their faces a bit more. Having written all that, I do hope that the Magpies win this game fair and square this evening, rather than having to rely on some dreadful decision. (more…)
Can we throttle the Throstles for four in a row?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 30th Nov, 2013. Kick off: 5.30pm. Referee: Phil Dowd. UK TV: Sky Sports 1.
Could we be celebrating four wins in a row this evening?
If the Magpies do manage to wrestle a juicy three point worm from the Throstles at tea time, it would be the first first time they have managed such a feat since March and April of 2012. Back then, they beat Norwich, this evening’s opponents, Liverpool, Swansea, Bolton and finally Stoke in a 6 match winning run, before finally succumbing to a 4-0 hammering at Wigan.
Although that was in the Spring before last, the side had an unseasonal 4-3-2-1 ‘Christmas Tree’ formation with a potent ‘delta force’ of Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Hatem Ben Arfa up front. During the West Brom game in that run I jokingly referred to Alan Pardew as ‘Alan Pardiola.’ The Guardian’s North East football correspondent, Louise Taylor, actually took me seriously and the phrase stuck amongst spme fans for a while. (more…)
Alan Pardew: “We’ve got ourselves in a poised position – now we need to capitalise on that, something we’ve not done well in the last 18 months. If we win we can put ourselves right in the mix. For us, it’s a great opportunity and we don’t want to pass on those opportunities. They don’t come around very often in the Premier League. If we get ourselves in a good place with 50,000 (fans) that’s going to make a big advantage and we need to make sure we carry that through.” (more…)
Can we beat two London giants in a row?Venue: White Hart Lane, London. Date: Sun 9th Nov, 2013. Kick off: 12.00 noon. Referee: Chris Foy. UK TV: Sky Sports 1.
Welcome to our regular ‘match banter’ feature for todays early kick-off against Tottenham.
To be honest, I’m running a bit late for this one so I won’t beat about the bush. There isn’t much to say that I haven’t written already in my extensive match preview for this game anyway. You can find all the pre match team news, form guide, interviews with the managers and lots of other stuff there.
Secondly, there are all my usual reminders that I will posting all the team sheets and links to watch the game online any second now, as well as match highlights and a video to watch the whole game when it’s all over for those of you who can’t watch it live so stay tuned. I’d better get on with that now! (more…)
Will Pardew give Mourinho a good slap?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 2nd Nov, 2013. Kick off: 12.45pm. Referee: Lee Mason. UK TV: BT Sport.
Of course, the Chelsea Pensioners will be huge favourites for this one, just as the Manchester Citizens were in Wednesday evening’s League Cup clash. However the Magpies weren’t too shabby at all in that one for the first hour or so and held the Citizens to a 0-0 draw at the final whistle, finally succumbing in extra time. There’s no extra time today so will the Magpies be able to keep a clean sheet against moneybags Chelsea this time?
Meanwhile off the pitch, there has been talk of another protest, this time at Mike Ashley’s banning of the biggest local media house from the St James’ Park media facilities. After that, they also banned fans organisation the Newcastle United Supporters Trust from the club’s “Fan Forum.” This was allegedly for having the cheek to take their own minutes of the meeting, though we all know, it that it was really for their involvement the recent march before the Liverpool gane back on the 19th October. Fans have been urged to take one of NCJ media’s local titles, The Chronic, the Journal or the Sunday Stun to the game and wave it at Ashley and his acolytes in the director’s box just before the kick off. (more…)
