Brucie’s Tigers are coming – Grrr!Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 21st Sep, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Martin Atkinson (Bradford). UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s game which sees Newcastle United taking on Hull City at St James’ Park.
For a full preview of the game, you can also find an extensive match preview on here for a more in depth look forward to the game with all the teams news, stats and all the usual stuff. On here, I will be updating that with the final team sheets and links to watch the game online etc when they become available.
As I mentioned in the abovementioned preview, if the Magpies win today, it will be the first time they will have managed this feat for almost a year and a half as the last time this happened was back in April 2012, when Newcastle managed a winning run of six games using a very skinny “Christmas Tree” style 4-3-2-1 formation not dissimilar to the style Pardew has used to the side’s last game against Aston Villa. (more…)
Steve “Dreamboat” Bruce returns to SJP.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle United. Date: Sat 21st Sep, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Martin Atkinson (Bradford). UK TV: None.
This week, the Magpies welcome Steve Bruce back to St James’ Park, this time with his promoted Hull City side.
After a long, long run of poor form, somehow, Alan Pardew goes into this game looking for his third Premier League victory in a row after two one goal victories over toothless Fulham and Aston Villa sides. The last time Pardew and Newcastle managed this feat was almost a year and a half ago back in April 2012. It was actually SIX victories in a row, over Norwich City, West Brom, Liverpool, Swansea City, Bolton Wanderers and finally, Stoke City. That was towards the end of the season when we finished fifth and it’s been pretty much downhill ever since! Here’s hoping we can get the same result as the last time Bruce was at St James’ Park. Of course, that time “Agent” Bruce brought his his Blunderland side to St James’ Park for a comprehensive 5-1 stuffing at the hands of Chris Hughton. (more…)
Pardnocchio’s been at it again!With two one goal victories under his belt against Fulham and Aston Villa, Alan Pardew has started getting very cocky again. Speaking in one of his post match interviews after the Villa game he said the following amongst other things:
“Our home form since I’ve been at the football club has been brilliant”
So, I thought I would look deeper at his bullish claim and put it to the test, as going from what I have seen at St James’ Park in Pardew’s time at the club, it certainly hasn’t seemed that way. It has seemed like more like one good season sandwiched by one and a half poor ones.
Before I begin though, it should be remembered (though I’m sure you know already) that a team’s home form is almost always better than it’s away form, and sometimes much better with even mediocre teams getting around a 50% win percentage, though if those teams had a 50% win percentage for ALL their games, they would stand a very good chance of getting into the European places, not at the very top, but like Tottenham, or Pardew’s Newcastle when we came fifth and competed in the Europa League the following season. In that 2011-12 season, Newcastle United won 50% of all it’s Premier League games (19 out of 38), and 51.16% of all games (22 out of 43). So, bearing all that in mind, I have looked at ALL of Pardew’s home games at St James’ Park, both in the Premier League and in cup competitions. (more…)
NUFC Blog on metro.co.ukMy latest piece on metro.co.uk was published earlier today.
It is my usual look back at some of the talking points from the weekend’s game, so of course, this one takes a look at Newcastle United’s 2-1 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday and is called:
Benny crucifying the Villans on 14th September 2013.
Two nine minute videos courtesy of “BenArfa10x.”. The one above shows every kick of Hatem Ben Arfa’s excellent performances against Aston Villa last Saturday. The second (below) highlights his similarly excellent performance aginst Fulham two weeks before. (more…)
