FlashpointNewcastle United might face a second successive week of FA disciplinary action following Monday’s game against Arsenal and people have had plenty to say about the Krul v Van Persie row.
There has been some fallout from the Arsenal game, not least as a result of the spat between Tim Krul and Robin Van Persie. Jack Wilshere twitted a warning about Van Poncy’s temper:
“Newcastle can’t say we didn’t deserve it! Why is Tim Krul crying as well? Obviously he doesn’t know about RVP’s temper! Don’t mess with the captain!”
As far as I can gather from the press reports, the row between the two players was as much about Van Persie’s attempts to stand close to Krul for the goal kicks as it was about any alleged time wasting. According to Dutch lip readers on The Telegraph’s payroll, Krul threatened to kick the ball at Van Persie’s head to which Van Persie said “Go on then“. NUFCBlog’s Dutch lip reader is absent at the moment so I can’t confirm any of this.
To be honest, I didn’t really notice an unusual amount of time-wasting by Krul until the commentator mentioned it and the crowd started booing, and in at least one instance the crowd were booing when the ball was still in play, so maybe Wenger needs to give his team a ‘Laws of the Game’ refresher. (more…)
Return of the Mackems.Venue: St James’ Park. Date: Sun 4th Mar 2012. Kick-Off: High Noon. Referee: Mike Dean.
It’s that time again. Time for the Mackems to rise the challenge of walking upright and drag themselves to St James’ Park for what is undoubtedly the best derby fixture the Premier League has on offer.
The Mackems have been somewhat rejuvenated under Martin O’Neill’s leadership although their form has stuttered a bit in their last two games. Then again, our form has suffered a similar dip in the last two games.
But form isn’t always a good indicator when it comes to derby matches anyway. Extra tension creeps in and it can sometimes be about mistakes and about which players rise to the challenge and which shirk away from it.
Both sides have been talking up the game of course. Yohan Cabaye said: (more…)
Goals from Cisse and Jonas not enoughNewcastle United are unable to finish off Wolves despite taking a two goal lead into half-time. Goals from Cisse and Jonas in the first half are neutralised by goals from Jarvis and Doyle in the second.
According to one of the commentators on my feed, this match was taking place at the ‘First Direct Arena’, which made me giggle.
Wolves kicked off and had their first chance in under a minute when Doyle went past Williamson but failed to to guide it into the far corner. Two minutes later Wolves had a free kick after a Williamson foul but all they could do with that was smash it into the wall. A lively first 5 or 6 minutes from Wolves but they hadn’t made it count, which was a mistake we weren’t about to make in the following 10 minutes or so.
The fun started in the sixth minute when Cabaye caught Berra in possession and passed to Ba who tried swiping the ball into the net with his right foot going behind his left. It was on target and produced a great save by Hennessey. However the ball eventually found its way out to Tiote who hammered it broadly in the direction of goal and Cisse managed to toe punt it past Hennessey. 1-0. (more…)
Shola Ameobi - A scapegoat for the ill informed?It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that Northumbria bizzies have been investigating what have been described as “sickening” racist comments about Newcastle United forward, Shola Ameobi, on Facebook.
This comes after recent similar comments about his younger brother and teammate Sammy Ameobi on Twitter. However unlike the case of Ameobi jnr which just seemed to come out of the blue, the Shola case has come on the back of an existing campaign of vilification of the striker from some Newcastle United fans for what they perceive as poor performances. Whilst racism is undoubetedly an awful thing, some of the highly personal attacks which preceded this development have at times tried their hardest to stoop to the same level of nastiness without being overtly racist. Many other stories have already concentrated on the alleged verbal racist attacks though, so I will concentrate instead on the anti Ameobi hysteria which has quite possibly led us to this sad state of affairs. Some of them have been so venomous that sadly it was probably inevitable that it would spill over into racism eventually. (more…)
Oh Coloccini....This match saw the welcome return of Captain Coloccini, and also the absence of Yohan Cabaye – a victim of trial by television and the London FA earlier in the day. Chris Samba was missing from the Blackburn Rovers line-up following the club’s failure to release him during the January transfer window – clearly fit but not happy and therefore not risked by Steve Kean. The Referee was Phil “Yellow Card” Dowd.
First Half
The game kicked off with empty seats all over the ground – it was like a blue “Stadium of Light”. The crowd was given as 20,817. The first bit of excitement came after five minutes when Ameobi was put through by Best but strangely, didn’t have the pace to take advantage of the opportunity. A couple of minutes after that, Ryan Taylor put a great ball through for Ameobi who failed to trap it as it bounced past him unchallenged but luckily for him he was adjudged to be offside.
Things got much better a few minutes later however when United took the lead. Following good passing around the box a shot from Ryan Taylor, which was actually going wide, deflected off Scott Dann and into the net with the keeper going the other way. Blackburn Rovers 0 Newcastle United 1(more…)
