No Joey Barton show this time.Venue: St James’ Park, Toon. Date: Sun 15th Jan 2011. Kick-Off: 1:30 pm. Referee: Chris Foy.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our regular “match banter” feature.
This time the Magpies will be facing the transitional Queen’s Park Rangers under new manager, Mark Hughes, he of the slightly annoying mid-sentence sharp intakes of breath.
Like ourselves, it will be a somewhat depleted QPR on the pitch this afternoon, with key players such as captain, Joey Barton, Alejandro Faurlín, Armand Traoré and Adel Taarabt out through suspension, injury and the African Cup of Nations (x2) respectively. Of course it goes without saying that another Toon old boy, Kieron Dyer, will be also be out to injury as usual. On the QPR’s opening game of the season he was carried off on a stretcher with an injured foot. After a lengthy layoff, he was finally set to make his comeback, then somewhat inevitably injured it again in a reserves game! (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…)
Magpies host Grumpy's wounded animals this evening.Good evening Geordies and welcome to our latest match banter feature, which sees the Magpies hosting the team who have almost certainly been our fiercest foes in the Premiership down the years. I am of course referring to Manchester United.
This match will be all the more difficult for the Mags too as Manchester United will be allowed to field their twelfth man for this match. I am of course referring to referee Howard Webb, who will be on penalty awarding, sending off and extra, extra time awarding duties for the Red Devils this afternoon. The Manchester club will also come into this game as wounded animals though, having gone down to a shock 2-3 home defeat to Premiership bottom feeders, Blackburn Rovers.
If you would care to peruse some in depth background to the game, I would exhort you to check out UTD111’s excellent and extensive match preview for the game, which really is a jolly good read! May we also remind you that we will also be posting our usual match report, along with match highlights and post match interviews from the game when they become available.
Battling it out for sixth place this evening.Venue: Anfield Stadium, Liverpool. Date: Friday, 30th January, 2011. Kick-Off: 7:45pm. Referee: Lee Probert.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our regular match banter for this evening’s game, which sees the Magpies travelling to Anfield once again to meet Liverpool in a battle for sixth place.
For a more in depth look forward to the game, you can always check out Hugh’s excellent match preview, where you can check up on all the latest team news, squads, stats and stuff like that.
Of course, at least some of the focus this evening will be on ex Toon striker Andy Carroll, who was sold to this evening’s opposition in highly controversial circumstances 11 months ago. With his fellow striker Luis Suarez suspended for one game after giving Fulham fans the finger during Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat at Craven Cottage earlier this month, Carroll should be almost certain to start this evening. It will be interesting to see if he is still the victim of Toon boo boys now it has been revealed that both Derek Llambias and Alan Pardew misled fans over the circumstances of his departure in January. (more…)
Toon tackle the Trotters!Good afternoon Geordies and welcome to our Boxing Day match banter for Newcastle United’s away trip to play the Trotters of Bolton.
Firstly, hope you all had a very happy Christmas and that you all got what you wanted from Santa!
Now getting on with the game, you can always check out our regular match preview for a more in-depth look forward. Here you can check up on all the latest team news, squads, stats and stuff like that. One thing I didn’t feature on that though, which I usually do, is what the managers have been saying in the run up to the game, so I’ll put that here!
Looking forward to the game, Alan Pardew said:
“Hopefully we will get a win at Bolton, although I’m sure Owen (Coyle, Bolton manager) has got other ideas about that.(more…)
