Archive for category: NUFC match reaction and analysis.

This ridiculous Cisse farce has been going on for too long now

November 26th, 2013 | 114 Comments |

Papiss Cisse scoring against Leeds United in the League Cup.
The last Toon goal scored by Cisse which wasn’t ruled out
In case you missed it, Papiss Cisse had yet another perfectly good goal ruled out as offside against Norwich on Saturday, yet another linesman seemingly judging Cisse on his reputation, rather than what he could actually see.

Luckily for Newcastle United, they still won 2-1 and got the three points so all was well that ended well. Even so, that hasn’t always the case and it is getting absolutely ridiculous now, to the point where lazy linesmen are just saying “oh it’s Papiss Cisse, it must be offside.”

I use the word “reputation” above, though it might come as a surprise to some so called fans (and Sports Direct News rent a quote, Malcolm MacDonald) that Cisse is not the most ‘offside’ striker in the Premier League by any means. Romelu Lukaku, Christian Benteke and several others were caught offside more often last season.

However, when it comes to having perfectly good goals wrongly ruled out as offside, Cisse in in a league of his own. He had seven wrongly ruled out last season, including two in one game against Metalist Kharkiv, and one which robbed us of a derby win against Sunderland. This means that he would have scored at least twenty goals last season had those seven goals stood. (more…)


Krul’s record-breaking performance against Tottenham [video]

November 11th, 2013 | 7 Comments |

NUFC Blog on metro.co.uk
NUFC Blog on metro.co.uk
My latest piece on metro.co.uk was published earlier today.

Called ‘Tim Krul – the best performance by any goalkeeper this season?,’ it is my usual look back over the week-end’s game on my other Newcastle United blog. As the title suggests, it is mostly about Tim Krul’s performance in goal on Sunday, which pretty much overshdowed everything else.

Krul’s fourteen saves in one saw the Flying Dutchman breaking the OPTA’s record since they began collecting Premier League stats back in the 2006-7 season.

You can read the story by following the link below.

Tim Krul – the best performance by any goalkeeper this season?

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