Man of the match?Goals from Lovenkrands and Best give Newcastle United all 3 points against Birmingham City.
We were out of the traps faster than a supersonic sprout and within 90 seconds we were one up. A decent run up the wing from Enrique resulted in his cross being blocked, but it rebounded only as far as Gutierrez who provided the perfect cross for Lovenkrands to half-volley past Ben Foster at the near post.
We continued to dominate for about 10 minutes and could have had a second when Lovenkrands played in Nolan but unfortunately his shot was soft and straight at the goalie.
Birmingham eventually started to come into the game a bit more and some uncharacteristically sloppy defending from Enrique saw him dispossessed in dangerous areas a few times, one of which allowed the towering Nikola Zigic to get a shot at goal, forcing Harper to make the save.
There was a worrying moment as Tiote and Coloccini managed to nut each other as both attempted to clear the ball. Both players were grounded for a few minutes but Coloccini’s superpowered hair – which contains hidden air bags – had cushioned the blow enough to get him back on his feet and Tiote – who’s just hard – followed soon after. (more…)
"We do not fear anybody"Newcastle United’s Cheik Tiote has been talking about the team’s attitude to games and the camaraderie in the dressing room.
Cheik Tiote has undoubtedly been one of the stars of the season and, whilst fears abound that he might be sold in the summer, he speaks highly of the team spirit at the club and the relationship between the players.
Tiote believes Newcastle fear no team and can even aim for a 6th or 7th place finish:
“We do not fear anybody. Birmingham is our next game and we go there to win.
“I don’t think there is a team to be scared of in the Premier League.
“Maybe we can finish higher – sixth or seventh? We have to work together and keep playing well.”
He then goes on to praise the togetherness of the squad:
“Everybody here is close. We are all good friends and that is not the same at every club. We work together and have the same hard-working mentality within the group.(more…)
Toon has to brave the midlandsNewcastle United head off to the midlands to face Birmingham City for a second consecutive away match.
The Blues are only two points and four places behind us, with a match in hand, so a home win could see them jump above us in the table. It’s one of those games the pundits would probably call a ‘six pointer’ but I’m not a pundit so I won’t call it that.
On the injury list we still have Ameobi, Ben Arfa, Gosling, Ireland, S Taylor, Smith and R Taylor, although Dan Gosling and Stephen Ireland are reportedly nearing full fitness.
I’m guessing that Alan Pardew will stick with roughly the same team as he used on Saturday, although he may reassess our striking options with both Ranger and Kuqi as possible alternatives to Best and Lovenkrands in the starting line up.
Birmingham have Dann, McFadden and Valles out with injury but otherwise McLeish has a fully fit squad to choose from. One of Birmingham’s main threats is club joint top scorer Nikola Zogic about who McLeish recently said:
“Ziggy has become a fixture in the team as he’s become more aggressive. We know he’s capable of finishing. If we get that type of delivery to him in the box, there’s not a lot of defenders who can live with a guy that size.” (more…)
No contract until we're safeNewcastle United left back Enrique procrastinates on contract while Liverpool allegedly think about a summer bid.
A couple of things are annoying me at the moment. The first is a rat that’s moved in under the decking at the bottom of my garden, which has horrified my wife. It has apparently done this because my wife puts bird food out and nobody told the rat that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I thought about giving the blunderbuss to my personal concierge and asking him to rid me of the rodent, but then I realised I don’t have a blunderbuss. Or a personal concierge.
We stopped with the bird food but that doesn’t seem to have encouraged the rat to move out. Presumably he’s found something else to eat.
So, I called the council and they will indeed remove said rat for a fee but this in itself is a problem. When they say ‘remove’, I think they really mean ‘kill’ because I can’t imagine the council runs a sideline in re-homing errant rats. Now I’ll admit I don’t like the way this rat sits on the decking in broad daylight and gives me an arrogant look, but I’m soft and one thing I can’t abide is cruelty to animals, so I don’t want it killed.
So there’s a stand off. My wife’s telling me to get rid of that rat, I’m reluctant to have it killed, the rat’s giving me funny looks and I’m being sorely tried by the whole situation. (more…)
How is he doing?Alan Pardew has now managed Newcastle United for 10 games, but is he doing a good job?
Chris Hughton divided opinion as a manager with some rating him highly, others insisting he was ‘clueless’ and a plethora of opinions in between the two extremes.
His sacking, though, was a shock. It might have a pleasant shock to those who never rated him but it was a shock nonetheless. There were rumblings in the press before it happened, but I think most fans thought he’d at least to get to see out the season. I think most people appreciated that the constant changes of manager were one of the main reasons for our demise and relegation, and were hoping the club would ease up on the revolving door approach.
Hughton says he still doesn’t know why he was sacked. Ashley said he wanted someone “with more experience” and, beyond a lot of speculation and rumour, that’s just about all we actually know about things.
So in comes Alan Pardew. He didn’t really arrive to a fanfare – more of a squeak – and I think most fans were either unhappy about his appointment or, at best, nonplussed.
We’re now 10 games into Pardew’s tenure as manager and he’s clocked up 3 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses, so what do we think about him? (more…)
