Best gets brace, then pulled off by Pardew.After the kick off of this disappointingly attended home game (42,684), a fairly congested midfield quagmire seemed to be the order of the day in the opening section thanks to Newcastle, who once again got off to a very disappointing start.
Looking on the positive side though, Best almost fashioned a chance for himself in the eighth minute, however possible overelaboration led to the chance fizzling out ion the end. As the game settled down a little though, it was Fulham who were seizing most of the attacking initiative, and indeed they started to ‘boss’ a somewhat disjointed Magpies, who just seemed chasing the ball en-masse without much of a coherent system. It seemed as if the likes of Nolan and Barton were missed to organise the Magpies’ midfield as Martin Jol’s Cottagers were certainly more organised and well spaced at this stage, it was early days though. Howay Captain Colo!
Half an hour or so passed though and it still wasn’t too good, with Fulham still easily having the Lion’s share of possession and making the better passing moves. It was much the same with the minnows of Scunthorpe in the League Cup the other evening though, so there was still hope. (more…)
If Ameobi scores...From the kick off of this League Cup evening game, Scunthorpe came out of the traps giving everything while Newcastle seemed to be treating it as some kind of training game.
Once the dye was cast, the Magpies just couldn’t seem to get back into the first half, except perhaps a little in the last ten minutes. Overall though, it was a dire performance from Newcastle United until the break, and a good one from the ‘Irons’ of Scunthorpe. Uniteds defence was shakier than Shakin’ Stevens at times, and it took less than a quarter of an hour for Scunthorpe’s Dagnall to take advantage. First of all it was a near miss as the ball bounced off Coloccini. The resulting corner saw Dagnall making no mistake the second time though with a fine finish fromm around eight yards to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Scunthorpe were very effective in stopping Newcastle getting any flowing passing movements together, not that the Premiership side were trying particularly hard to show what should have been a gulf in class. In the rare opportunities Newcastle did have, mostly long ball efforts, Scunthorpe defended well and soon counterattacked to keep the pressure on, closing us down much better than we closed them down. (more…)
Somehow I doubt itNewcastle United are allegedly considering a move to take Wayne Bridge on loan if they fail in their attempts to sign Erik Pieters.
This is one from the Daily Mail. They claim we’d consider paying £80k/week to bring Wayne Bridge to Newcastle on a season long loan if we don’t manage to sign Erik Pieters.
Personally, I think that’s poppycock and the Mail doesn’t even attempt to justify its claims in any way whatsoever. It merely states that we will ‘consider a fresh move’ for the player if all else fails.
I rather suspect such ‘consideration’ will amount to about 2 minutes of side-splitting laughter from board room at St James’ Park. Manchester City are apparently not keen to pay any of Bridge’s wages if he goes out on loan and there are even rumours that they want £2m up front merely for the privilege of loaning a player from them.
I really can’t see any of this appealing to Ashley’s methods of running a football club. And rightly so in this case. We need to ‘build’ a team for the seasons ahead rather than just plug holes in it for the short term. (more…)
Likely move, I'd sayErik Pieters is looking all the more likely to join Newcastle United after his recent comments but the hunt for a new striker is looking a bit glum just now.
It looks like PSV’s Erik Pieters is one step closer to becoming our new left-back as PSV boss Fred Rutten is almost conceding defeat in his attempts to keep the player at his club. Rutten said:
“I would lie in the road to stop him leaving but I fear I cannot block his transfer to Newcastle.
“He is a brilliant defender, but, if it is right for him and the club, I cannot say no.”
Many press reports are saying that a £6m deal is in its closing stages and, whilst we might be without a first choice left-back for today’s visit from Arsenal, we should have one in time for the derby game next weekend.
The situation regarding a new striker is less clear, but to be fair we’ve only needed one since January so it’s a 7 month rush job in terms of recruitment.
One of our targets, Eren Derdiyok, has slammed the door in our face saying:
“I did not realise they [Newcastle] were watching me, but it does not make any difference to how I feel about my future.(more…)
Yohan Cabaye in WaterworldIn a match that seemed more suited to swimming trunks and armbands rather than a football kit, Newcastle and Fiorentina braved the atrocious weather in order to win the final friendly of pre-season.
Plumes of water shot up from every foot fall, a wake of rain tracked the ball through it’s journey around the hallowed turf and most annoying of all, the ball had a tendency to stick with each pass. Not the best of days to play football, then.
Contrary to popular belief, rain makes for amazing weather to play football in. You’re constantly moving to keep warm and every tackle gives you a new mark of war as mud tracks along your body and clothes – nothing better on a Sunday afternoon if you ask me. On the other hand, when you’re playing a match against the purple clad Italian giants, a kickaround with your mates doesn’t really seem to come close.
From the kick off Newcastle looked to put the opposition on the back foot and short of a beautiful passing display by the Italians, they never really looked like scoring. There were times when we overcommitted and almost conceded but Tim Krul showed some very safe hands to keep the scoreline level. (more…)
