♫ "Blue is the callah, football is the game!" ♫Venue: Stamford Bridge, London. Date: Saturday 25th August, 2012. Kick-Off: 5:30pm. Referee: Phil Dowd. UK TV: ESPN / HD.
Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea await the Magpies this Saturday, as Newcastle United return to Premier League action in the capital for another live ESPN scheduled encounter.
Alan Pardew will look to build on last weeks 2-1 home victory versus Tottenham Hotspur at a ground in which we are now undefeated for four games. This stretches back to the 2008 / 2009 season where we left with a point after a 0-0 draw.
You can’t help but reminisce about last seasons fixture, where a certain Papiss Cissé opened the scoring with a sublime flick and volley in the first half to put United 1-0 up. Unfortunately for that particular strike, it was completely overshadowed by what he managed to do late into injury time, when he smashed a right-foot volley at an insane angle past Petr Cech, securing Newcastle the three points in a 2-0 victory. If you haven’t witnessed that goal, then I seriously suggest you scroll straight to the bottom of this page right now and watch it before reading any further. (more…)
Highlights from Newcastle united’s Europa League first leg qualifying tie against the Bubble and Squeaks of Atromitos in Athens.
Atromitos’s Denis Epstein dropped an Atromic bomb on the Toon with a well taken 24th minute goal which saw the Silver Supremo sweating for a while. However another fantastic free kick from Ryan Taylor on the verge of half time averted a Greek tragedy, also leaving us with a handy away goal to take into the second leg at St James’ Park.
As usual, I will replace these with better / longer highlights when they become available, but these are the best I can do for the moment.
Atromitos: A stiff test for the bairns.Venue: Peristeri Stadium, Athens. Date: Thursday 23rd August 2012 Kick-off: 6.00 pm UK TV: Premier Sports (Sky channel 428 or Subcription)
So where were you on March 15th 2007?
It’s over five years since the Toon were able to compete in Europe, and on that day, with Take That heading the UK charts with a Morrisson’s Supermarket ad, we ended a roller coaster campaign (with wins over Celta Vigo, Fenerbahce and away at Palermo – Tim K’s senior debut) in the UEFA Cup with a rather dismal perfromance at Alkmaar, losing our two goal first leg advantage in the process.
So five long seasons later we find ourselves back in the European spotlight (well sort of) in a final qualifying round of the Europa League, before hopefully entering the Group Stages. Our opponents on Thursday are FC Atromitos who also begin their European campaign at this stage having finished fourth in last season’s Greek Super League and losing finalists in the Cup. (more…)
Hands off my lads!After the very welcome signing of Ajax’s Vurnon Anita, but also abject failure in the hunt for Lille’s Mathieu Debuchy, Alan Pardew, as well as Cheick Tiote have once again switched the emphasis on to keeping existing players at the club.
Looking at Pardew first, he has said in very recent interviews after the Tottenham game:
“We are on our guard in case some really big bid comes in and we need to react because if someone goes out, another player will come in. But success for me in this transfer window would be losing none of our stars.”
Also saying:
“I worry about losing all my players because unfortunately we’re not Manchester United or Manchester City. We’re always vulnerable. If you ask me do I sleep well at night, I’d have to say, ‘not always’. I’m looking forward to September 1 because by then we’ll all know where we are. We have match-winners in the side.”(more…)
Though it looked like Tottenham were getting the better of us in the first half, it was Demba Ba who opened the scoring around 10 minutes after the break with a superb diagonal finish. However mini assassin, Jermaine Defoe, pulled things back for the visitors after 76 minutes, only for Hatem Ben Arfa to put us back in front after 80 minutes, winning and scoring a penalty for the Magpies in what was a very dramatic second half which also saw the Silver Supremo sent to the stands after pushing the fourth official. (more…)
