Close finish!The first ‘season’ of the NUFCBlog competition finished yesterday and it was pretty close!
First of all, Happy New Year everyone. I hope it’s a good one for you all (and for the Toon of course).
Now, as to the competition, I note that three people were inconsiderate enough to finish in first place, which is a poor show.
Clint can’t claim a prize as he’s a writer here – sorry Clint but congratulations on a good finish. So that leaves El Toro and GeordieMagpie as joint winners, with GrandPooBah in third.
The draw means we have to implement the competition’s version of a Duckworth-Lewis rule, which involves much differentiation and integration. I worked on the calculations for 8 hours last night, using up much time on IBM’s ‘Big Blue’ supercomupter, and found that after much mega-mathematics it resolves down to merely totalling up the first and second prizes and dividing them by two.
Thus El Toro and GeordieMagpie will get £75 each (£100 + £50 / 2) and GrandPooBah will get £25.
Well done guys.The new competition will start in a few week’s time.
Will we finish the year on a high?Newcastle United bounced back from a poor run with a win away at Bolton on Boxing Day. The question is: can that recovery continue with our trip to Anfield in what is undoubtedly a much trickier fixture altogether?
Liverpool are just one point and one place above us in the Premier League which makes this one of those so-called ‘six pointers’ that are revered and worshipped in the land of punditry. Liverpool have not lost at home this season but neither have they dominated, having chalked up just 3 wins from their 9 games at Anfield. Newcastle, on the other hand, have 4 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats both home and away this season.
History
This fixture always attracts a lot of media attention and is usually televised thanks to a couple of 4-3 results back in the 90’s, the first of which often tops polls as the greatest Premier League game of all time.
Douglas for the Toon?Newcastle United are pursuing (at least) two centre-backs according to rumours and Alan Pardew insists that Taye Taiwo isn’t one of them.
The rumour-mill has been doing the usual stuff and the latest has Newcastle interested in a pair of defenders.
The first is Douglas Franco Teixeira who is a 6ft 4in, 23 year old Brazilian who – in the tradition of Brazilians – is simply known as ‘Douglas’. Why do they do that anyway? And why isn’t Wayne Rooney simply known as ‘Wayne’, for example?
Anyway, Douglas started his career with Joinville, which sounds like a cartoon place but, as I’m sure you know, it’s in the Santa Catarina State in the south of Brazil. However, he only played two senior games for them before being snapped up by FC Twente where he’s been ever since, netting 8 times in 108 appearances.
What's the odds of him staying at the Toon?Reflections on Saturday’s game and a look ahead at what might and might not be happening in the January transfer window as far as Newcastle United is concerned.
How did we not win that game on Saturday? Swansea have one of the best defences in the league but luck was certainly on their side too, particularly in the first half where we were totally dominant throughout. I suppose it’s a case of what goes around comes around – I’ll be the first to admit we rode our luck a lot in the first half a dozen games this season.
The return of Colo was welcome and I thought he was fantastic on Saturday. Likewise I was impressed with Santon and Jonas. As to Obertan, Alan Pardew has been springing to his defence after he noticed the crowd getting on his case a bit. Pardew said:
“That’s a bit harsh. Because he is so quick you always want him bursting down the outside. I thought he played well first half. He created three or four situations for us. He is a player who has only played 14 Premier League games, he is learning, his discipline was much better defensively but when you get a 0-0, there can be frustration from the crowd.
“Overall, I though the crowd was very positive and I thank them for that. Yes, we want to win. We want the possibility of the top six. Don’t make me think I am happy with the draw.” (more…)
A chance to get back to winning ways?Hello, good afternoon and welcome to today’s match banter thread for the Newcastle United vs Swansea City game.
Maybe this game will provide an opportunity for us to return to our winning ways.
Swansea are currently 11th but have yet to win away from home in the league this season so, on paper at least, this has all the look of a home win.
However, without at least one and possibly both of the centre-backs who have been the bedrock of our great start to the season out, things are a lot less certain. A point most notable by the fact that we’ve conceded 11 goals in the last 4 games when we only conceded 8 times in total in our first 11 games.
At the time of writing there’s no definite news as to whether Colo will play. As for another important Toon player, this is what Pardew had to say about Cheick Tiote a few days ago:
