Goodbye from NUFC Blog!Venue: Carrow Road, Norwich. Date: Tues 28th Dec, 2013. Kick off: 7.45pm. Referee: UK TV: None.
Hello, good evening and welcome to my last match banter!
Please forgive me if it doesn’t follow the usual script but this piece is really just a way of saying thankyou and farewell to everyone who has read and contributed after almost five years of blogging on Newcastle United here.
A few years ago my ex-friend and colleague, Hugh, left the site suddenly. I’ve managed to struggle along on my own since then, but I now have other things to do with my life, and in the last few days, the abovementioned Hugh has also informed me that he’s going to cut off the server on the 21st February. (more…)
Can we throttle the Throstles for four in a row?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 30th Nov, 2013. Kick off: 5.30pm. Referee: Phil Dowd. UK TV: Sky Sports 1.
Could we be celebrating four wins in a row this evening?
If the Magpies do manage to wrestle a juicy three point worm from the Throstles at tea time, it would be the first first time they have managed such a feat since March and April of 2012. Back then, they beat Norwich, this evening’s opponents, Liverpool, Swansea, Bolton and finally Stoke in a 6 match winning run, before finally succumbing to a 4-0 hammering at Wigan.
Although that was in the Spring before last, the side had an unseasonal 4-3-2-1 ‘Christmas Tree’ formation with a potent ‘delta force’ of Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Hatem Ben Arfa up front. During the West Brom game in that run I jokingly referred to Alan Pardew as ‘Alan Pardiola.’ The Guardian’s North East football correspondent, Louise Taylor, actually took me seriously and the phrase stuck amongst spme fans for a while. (more…)
The last Toon goal scored by Cisse which wasn’t ruled outIn 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…)
With so many France internationals in the Newcastle United team nowadays, I just thought I’d post a live stream for this evening’s crucial World Cup Qualifier between France and the Ukraine so you can see how the likes of Cabaye, Remy and Sissoko get on. Alas, there will be no Ben Arfa as he is about as popular as Eichmann at a Bar Mitzvah with current France manager Didier Deschamps, who was Benny’s manager when he went on strike at Marseilles.
The kick-off will be at 8.00pm UK time and the show should start around 7.45pm. (more…)
‘Iron’ Mike: A defensive colossus?Despite the heroics of Tim Krul on Saturday, as well as those of other more ‘glamorous’ Newcastle United players such as Loic Remy, Yohan Cabaye etc throughout the season, if we look at the results both before and after he came into the team, it could be argued that Newcastle United’s most important player this season so far has been Mike Williamson.
After a couple of outings in the League Cup against Morecambe and Leeds, ‘Iron’ Mike was finally introduced to the club’s Premier League campaign as a half time substitute (for Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa) against Everton. This was after another disastrous first half display by the Magpie defence against Everton, with the club already 3-0 down. That was 5 1/2 games into the season and as Newcastle United have now played 11, with Williamson on the pitch for exactly the same time as he has been off it in Premier League games, I thought it would be a good time to look at the staistics for Newcastle United with and without Williamson.
The difference has been obvious watching the games with a transformed back four. Even in that Everton game alone, the bleeding was staunched immediately with Newcastle keeping a clean sheet in the second half, giving them a platform to go on and stage a comeback with two goals, though, alas, it wasn’t quite enough on that occasion. (more…)
