Archive for category: Richard Akenhead.

Canaries v Magpies – Norwich City v Newcastle United match preview.

December 9th, 2011 | 8 Comments |

Delia Smith - "Where are ya?"
A drunken hooligan invades the pitch at Carrow Road.
Venue: Carrow Road, Norwich.
Date: Saturday 10th Dec, 2011.
Kick-off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Pies: D.Smith.

The Magpies of Newcastle United will be looking to pick themselves up after a tough trio of fixtures and recent injury woes as they visit the Canaries of Norwich City.

Even though this is an away game, some may have thought this would be an easy three points, until recently that is. The loss of Fabricio Coloccini with a thigh strain, as well as Steven Taylor for the whole season with a knacked achilles tendon puts a new complexion on matters as our lack of strength in depth has eventually been exposed. Like ourselves, Norwich have been something of a “surprise package” in the Premiership so far. Though Norwich City’s entire first team squad is worth far less than the amount Mike Ashley received for Andy Carroll alone, they are currently sitting quite comfortably at 11th in the table. That is quite an achievement for such a modest squad who were expected to be rooted at the bottom of the table, and not to be sniffed at, especially in the light of our recent circumstances injurywise. More on that below however…

Stats, previous matches etc…

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The Mackem behind Newcastle United’s current success.

October 20th, 2011 | 86 Comments |

Richard Akenhead.
Richard Akenhead: Building superhuman Magpie machines.
When you look at Newcastle United’s great start to the Premier League campaign, it certainly isn’t due to some great tactical masterstroke. We have been playing the same old 4-4-2 with lots of endeavour down the flanks and a pretty high pace, much like many other Premiership teams.

However, one of the things which has been very noticable are the great fitness levels and work rate put in by the lads throughput the games, and a significant part of this may be due to a student from Northumbria University and his PhD research project, which has been part funded by Newcastle United.

Sunderland born Black Cat’s supporter, Richard Akenhead, is a PhD student at Northumbria University who has been using the latest technology including “GPS” (Global Positioning System) and miniture accelerometers to help build Steve Austin like superhuman football machines who can run faster and longer. The fruits of this work now seem to be showing, with both Newcastle’s midfield and defence currently being ranked as the most hard working in the Premiership in terms of distance covered during matches. Newcastle United midfielder, Yohan Cabaye was recently named as the most hard working player in the Premiership after covering a distance of 83.5km over our first seven games, or 128.9 metres per minute. Since the Tottenham game that figure is now 95.1 km according to the Premier League Index. (more…)