Only 90 minutes from the quarter finals?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Thurs 14th March, 2013. Kick off: 8.05pm. Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Germany). UK TV: ESPN.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this evening’s Europa League (home) second leg against Dagestan’s finest, the Guus Hiddink managed Anzhi Makhachkala.
With the first leg in Russia ending as a 0-0 bore draw, even a draw would see us through to the quarter finals, as long as it is a score draw. However it shouldn’t be forgotten that the last time we were in Europe, we fell at this very hurdle to another Dutch old master, Louis van Gaal. His AZ Alkmaar side knocked us out on penalties after the the two legs ended 4-4 on aggregate. He hoping we don’t see a repeat of that!
Speaking in the run up to the game, Hiddink was full of the usual pre match compliments, giving his thumbs up for the new style Newcastle. He said of the team:(more…)
It’s blood and guts time again.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 10th March, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (W.Mids). UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s game between the Magpies and Stoke City from St James’ Park.
Although Stoke are four places above us in the table, their recent Premiership form has been pretty awful to be frank. In their last eight Premiership games, they have lost six and drawn one, winning a solitary game against bottom feeders Reading. To put it sequentially their Premier League record (most recent first) has been L|L|W|L|D|L|L|L. Of course our form was similar until recently, however the record for our last eight games makes slightly better reading now as it is L|W|L|W|W|L|D|L. Whilst that is hardly spectacular, it is an improvement. This slight upsurge in forms means that although we are still 15th, a convincing win by two goals or more would see us rising as high as eleventh (where Stoke are now), although one of the teams we would overtake, West Ham, would still have a game in hand. Even so, it would be great if the lads could pull it off. Here’s hoping! (more…)
Moneybags Makhachkala.Venue: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow. Date: Thurs 7th March, 2013. Kick off: 5.00pm. Referee: István Vad (Hungary). UK TV: ITV 4.
Hello, good afternoon / evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for Newcastle United’s latest Europa League game, this time against Dagestan’s Anzhi Makhachkala in Moscow.
Perhaps the two largest bits of team news for this encounter are that Cisse will be out with some kind of virus, and that Captain Colo has really done his back in something rotten trying to do that fancy bicycle kick against Southampton the game before last. He is back in Argentina and will be out for much longer than was initially suspected. You can see below the 19 man squad that Alan Pardew has taken to Moscow, where Anzhi have to play all their home games despite it being over 1000 miles from their home. This is due to Dagestan being a notorious haven for Mafia crime and terrorism.
Laudrup’s Welsh Wizards.Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Date: Sat 2nd March, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Craig Pawson (S.Yorks). UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium.
Michael Laudrup’s Swans will be basking in the glory of a major trophy win in their last game, something we have been unable to achieve in 44 years – Will this be a good or bad thing for Newcastle United’s prospects? Will Swansea take their foot off the pedal? Or will this just spur them on to aspire for more of the same success? This is a question which will be answered soon in what promises to be a very exciting fixture. (more…)
The Saints are marching in!Venue: St. James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sun 24th February, 2013. Kick off: 1.30pm. Referee: Chris Foy (Meeerseyside). UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our latest “match banter” for this afternoon’s game at St James’ Park, which sees the Magpies pitted against the Saints of Southampton.
As you may recall, our last game against Southampton at their place was something of a dire performance, with Newcastle losing 2-0 to an Adam Lallana goal in the first half, with the coup de grâce performed by Gastón Ramírez an hour into the game. Here’s hoping that things are different this afternoon.
One thing that certainly will be different is that the Saints will be rolling up at St James’ park with a new manager this time, the highly talented young Argentinian coach, Mauricio Pochettino. For those of you who might fancy a bit of light reading in the run up to this game, I have already prepared a little primer on the new man at the helm at St Mary’s, and he could be a very tricky customer indeed. (more…)
