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Another disappointing home defeat for the Magpies as they were sunk by two goals, with Swansea’s leading goalscorer Michu getting his seventh of the season in the 58th minute. A disastrous sliced clearence from Tim Krul in the Newcastle goal fell to the Swans’ Spanish international winger Pablo Hernandez, who then proceeded to bang in an excellent cross straight on to the head of his fellow Spaniard, who headed powerfully past the hapless flying Dutchman. (more…)
P45 for Georges Leekens this week.Venue: Jan Breydel Stadium, Bruges. Date: Thursday, 8th November. Kick off: 6:00pm Referee: L. Banti. UK TV: ESPN.
Well, alot has happened in the world of Club Brugge since since our 1-0 victory against them at St James’ Park two weeks ago.
Back in those dim and distant days, their manager was Georges “Mack the Knife” Leekens (that’s his nickname, honest!) and they were top of the league, having just suffered their first league defeat of the season (1-4 against Zulte-Waregem). Since then however, they have suffered a further three defeats (not counting the one at St James’ Park), and Mack the Knife has been given the order of the boot!
So, will all of this Belgian bedlam be a good thing for our quest to preceed to the next stage of the Europa League ASAP? Or will this make the planning for this game more complex for Alan Pardew? Leekens was sacked following their last game (another defeat to Zulte-Waregem), so our Silver Supremo will be facing a team which will be far more of an unknown quantity under caretaker, Philippe Clement, who is the club’s reserve team coach. Will it be a case of “business as usual” for the team under Clement, or will he strike out with his own tactical ideas to try and arrest the team’s slump in both the Belgian Jupiler League and the Europa League? Of course, there is always the old cliche about the “wounded animal.” Altogether, this will add a bit unpredictabilty to preceedings this evening, both for Pardew and myself in preparing this humble preview. I did as much homework as I could on Brugge in my previous preview, but who knows now?
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…)
Storks v Magpies this time.Date: Saturday, 4th August Venue: Kyocera Stadium, the Hague. Kick off: 5.00pm local time, 4pm UK time UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our latest “match banter” feature.
This match will see more birds in combat as the Magpies of Newcastle clash with the Dutch Storks of ADO Den Haag at their Kyocera Stadium in Den Haag, or “The Hague” in English.
If you were looking for some more in depth background for the game, please check out part two of my previous guide to Newcastle United’s pre season fixtures. To give you some idea of the opposition here though, Den Haag were 15th in last season’s Eredivisie. As I also pointed in the abovementioned pre season guide, rather like Millwall over here, it used to be that Den Haag had more of a reputation for their fearsome fans rather than their football, though they did once have Austrian tactical genius, Ernst Happel, as their coach. He brought them Dutch Cup success in 1968 before moving on to bigger and better things, including a European Cup triumph in 1970 with another Dutch club, Rotterdam’s Feyenoord. (more…)
