Spinderella?In another ‘exclusive’ leak from the club, apparently a ‘senior United’ source has been speaking to The Journal, revealing that Newcastle is losing around £500,000 a week at the moment. Now forgive me for doing some simple maths but that equates to roughly £25m a year, which is coincidentally what the NoTW reported over the weekend as per an earlier article on here.
Which begs the question, is that because there’s some truth in it or is it because Mr Edwards has just rehashed the same thread? As they state in the article, The Journal wrote before Christmas that Ashley was loaning the club £20m cover running costs, following the drop in revenue and the limit on cutbacks to wages, which has enabled Hughton to maintain a decent squad.
Some fairly erudite contributors to this site have estimated that rather than struggling to breakeven, Ashley might even be turning a small profit, with the increase in crowds. And these are the people who aren’t necessarily ‘anti-Ashley’ as it were. Yet the feed from the club is, hardly surprisingly, somewhat different. (more…)
One Chrissy Hughton?On a day when two of this season’s unsung heroes finally got some vocal recognition from Level 7, there was perhaps more to take home than the three points from a comfortable 3-0 victory over Preston. Newcastle supporters have had every right to question the current board, with the owner’s intentions still up for much debate (see here for more details).
For his sins, Chris Hughton is now in cahoots with Ashley and Co. and inevitably suffers by association with his employer and the lasting ill-feeling between board and supporters. But even the most cynical of supporters are conceding that whatever their opinions of what the relationship between Hughton and the board represents, whether he’s just an extension of them or his own entity and doing his own thing, what he’s delivering is winning football. Not always pretty, not always elegant but generally, winning.
So I guess it was inevitable that by it’s nature, the more vocal element in black and white would recognise his contribution in song. That it happened in yesterday’s game was still perhaps a surprise to some, certainly yours truly, although arguably it was already overdue. And that it happened on a day when a new Coloccini ditty was given some air time by the lads and lasses of Level 7, was perhaps just a happy coincidence, or is it that the mood is just slightly brighter all of a sudden? (more…)
Another one for the Bensham Bomber.Apologies for tardiness but with one thing and another, I never got round to my “full report to follow” from last night’s report of the Newcastle v Coventry game. As a result I left out a lot of the gory details. No doubt you’ll have read other reports in the meantime but as I’ve not said much today, here’s what I thought…
Coventry City came to St James’ in some decent form but in all honesty never looked like they had much belief of getting anything out of the game. With Hughton reverting to the 4-4-2 formation that was so successful against Cardiff, but pairing Carroll with Lovenkrands instead of Best, there was a lot of promise of a repeat performance.
However, thirty minutes later and it looked like it might be a frustrating night with Guthrie’s blocked free kick from the edge being the closest we came to breaking the deadlock. Coventry set up stall and defended well and didn’t give us much of a sniff, although mercurial wing wizards Gutierrez and Routledge were just warming up their wands, so to speak. (more…)
Finishing touches!Just as the fans collectively ordered, we bounced back with a fairly emphatic 4-1 defeat of Coventry City. The Sky Blues barely turned up, and save for the obvious lead they took, Newcastle looked untroubled throughout. Solid performances from everyone in black and white but an inspired display from Routledge and Gutierrez was enough to undo them.
With a slightly uninspired first thirty minutes passing by without incident, Coventry created a chance out of nowhere and Clinton Morrison managed to get the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 and send the away fans ecstatic. Not prepared to let the Sky Blues build on a goal against the run of play, we fashioned a half chance which fell to Routledge, who hit superbly across the ball and volleyed into the bottom corner to level things.
It wasn’t long after the halftime break that Newcastle took the lead with a great little move started by Guthrie, who threaded the ball into the box for Nolan, and as the skipper cut the ball back with his left foot, Carroll couldn’t miss with his header. And 17 minutes later, a dubious penalty was awarded for a foul on Routledge, which resulted in a dismissal for a second yellow for the perpetrator. Lovekrands despatched the penalty with some authority. (more…)
Points equal prizes for now?Newcastle face Coventry City tonight, looking for a much improved performance from the showing at Swansea at the weekend. But as per pre-match comments from Hughton, points will no doubt be the preference over performances even at the sacrifice of entertainment, at least for now.
Yours truly will be in attendance and off shortly to frequent a local establishment in search of sustenance before the match, so if anyone is around and wants to buy the beers, I’m your charity. No TV coverage this evening, so if anyone can find radio links etc to the game for people who don’t have it, I’m sure that would be appreciated. Otherwise, you might have to make do with my cynical and protracted match report, all in good time.
As ever, this can be the place to come together during the match and p*ss and moan, as we usually do. (more…)
