Well done Benny!Bolton Wanderers 0 – 2 Newcastle United (Hatem Ben Arfa (69), Demba Ba (71)
Newcastle United were in their all black strip for this game, and enjoyed the backing of 4,000 travelling Geordies who pretty much took over the ground – at least in terms of noise! As a result of the Toon Army being in town, Bolton registered their biggest crowd of the season – 26,080, beating even the crowd for the visit of Man Utd from just down the road.
With games against Liverpool and Man Utd next, Newcastle fans could be forgiven for hoping we would bank 3 points here against the second bottom team. Santon’s knee injury saw the return of Ryan Taylor, and Mike Williamson made a welcome return after long-term injury, back at the expense of Perch and Cabaye, who also returned after his one game suspension.
Bolton looked nervous and edgy as United started the game in familiar fashion – controlling things and pressing the ball early. They continued to dominate as the game progressed, with loud backing from the Toon Army, and almost went ahead in the 16th minute, Ryan Taylor with a free kick over the wall forcing Jaaskelainen to fling himself to his left to palm away. At this stage, Bolton were only making the odd fruitless sortie forward on the break. (more…)
Demba Ba: Scored twice, but it wasn't enough.Going into this game, United were without Steven Taylor, Danny Guthrie and Sylvain Marveaux through injury. Dan Gosling and Yohan Cabaye were both missing through suspension.
Alan Pardew decided to play Haris Vuckic in midfield to replace Cabaye, otherwise the team was unchanged from the Swansea game. This was United’s last home game of 2011 and the mood amongst the fans seemed to be one of expectancy – a good opportunity to get back to winning ways.
The match got off to a lively start with Newcastle stroking the ball around confidently. Within the first five minutes Steven Reid of West Brom was injured and clearly unable to continue. Jonas sportingly kicked the ball out of play and was rewarded with a handshake from opposing manager Roy Hodgson. Reid was replaced by Billy Jones.
A good, open game was developing with nothing much between the sides. Then in the 20th minute, Chris Brunt slotted the ball through to Odemwingie who hit a left foot shot into the net. 1-0 to West Brom. United hit back and had the ball in the net within 3 minutes but Ba’s effort was ruled offside. (more…)
On their way to SJP? Probably not.I was thinking about this recently – if I was sitting down writing my letter to Santa Ashley c/o the Sports Direct North Pole, what would I want as a Newcastle United fan this Christmas?
I suppose the first thing I’d ask is for Santa not to take any of our best players away and deliver them as presents to the boys and girls who’ve been good at other clubs. But knowing the track record of Ashley in dealing with transfer business I don’t suppose that’s very realistic. If the money is right, the presents will be delivered. So I’m left with the line from the current Fosters TV advert ringing in my ears “that thing you’re thinking? It won’t be that!”.
So let’s concentrate on what we could get – the positives. We believe that Santa Ashley has already got Modibo Maiga wrapped up in Christmas paper and hanging in our Christmas stocking. That pressie sounds like a really good one, with the mouth-watering prospect of Maiga lining up alongside Demba Ba as a perfect foil for our top scorer. (more…)
Taye Taiwo in actionIt would appear from various reports in the media that Newcastle United had hoped to resurrect the deal to sign Erik Pieters from PSV Eindhoven during the January transfer window. However the Dutch club are not willing to part with the Holland international according to quotes attributed to their Sporting Director, Marcel Brand.
As a result, speculation is rife that United have turned their attention to AC Milan player Taye Taiwo. He’s a left-footed left back – wouldn’t that be a novelty!
At 26, the Nigerian is probably getting on a bit in terms of the player profile owner Mike Ashley will usually agree to spend money on, however it may be a runner as United are only talking about a loan deal at the moment. Taiwo only joined the “Rossoneri” over the summer, but he’s finding it tough to feature regularly in the team. He has played in just two Serie A games and four Champions League ties so far this season.
According to Italian sources, United are said to be prepared to offer Milan €1m to make the deal possible. They would also get an option to buy him outright at the end of the season.
The Player
After starting out playing for a couple of clubs in Nigeria and then moving to Marseilles, he signed for AC Milan on On 9 May 2011. He made his debut with the club on 24 September 2011 in the home league match won 1–0 against Cesena. (more…)
AVB: "Show a bit more respect" says Pardew.I’ve always had my doubts about some Chelsea fans, most notably their intellectual ability and capacity for absorbing and understanding larger chunks of information. I mean, I can only speak as I find and the one’s I’ve met at various games haven’t really come across as the brightest buttons in the box.
Lately my fears have been confirmed by the London media, who have even had to dumb down the name of the Chelsea manager for them, as they just can’t cope with, never mind pronounce, his name. So the mightily named Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas who is known in shorthand to the rest of the world as André Villas-Boas has had to be further shortened to simply AVB for the benefit of their poor fans.
Why is this significant?
Well, you may have noticed that there is a war of words going on at the moment between “AVB” and United manager Alan Pardew. If you have read some of the Chelsea fan blogs at the moment you will find the strangest, wierdest logic being applied to anything Alan Pardew has uttered on the subject. So my point is, when reading such blogs, bear in mind they are written by people who need to call their manager “AVB”. By the way, I’ve continued to use “AVB” here so that any Chelsea fans reading this can skip the big words and try to follow the story. (more…)
