Will the Cockerels get a good stuffing?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sun 9th Nov, 2013. Kick off: 12.00 noon. Referee: Chris Foy. UK TV: Sky Sports 1.
Well this one will certainly test the commitment of our away fans.
A 12.00 noon kick off down in the big smoke should see a couple of thousand Geordies or so waking up to pitch darkness with a long dawn trek before them. Something which isn’t an issue for myself as being a Geordie in North London, Arsenal’s stadium is but a leisurely walk away and White Hart Lane a mere tube or mini-cab ride away.
Of course, the Magpies will probably go into this one with more confidence than usual, having just beaten another London giant 2-0. but can they repeat that performance away from home?
Well it could be very difficult. Although Tottenham have a derisory amount of goals for a team who are currently fourth in table (only 9 in 10 games), the other side is that they have been as tight as a gnat’s chuff at the back, only letting in 5 goals. This is the second lowest in the Premier League behind Southampton’s even more miserly 4 goals conceeded. In their 17 games in all competitions this season, they have kept 13 clean sheets. Hence, they could be VERY tough to break down and unlike Chelsea they will also have home advantage of course.
NUFC Blog on metro.co.ukMy latest story on metro.co.uk is now up!
As is usual with the Metro, it now has a veritable cornucopia of titles chosen my their crack team of headline writers, sub-eds or whatever. However, my original title for it was the same as this piece, ie “Sports Direct get free advertising, but what about Dunlop, Firetrap, Cruise etc?” so I’ll stick with that one here.
On the piece itself, well we all know that Sports Direct don’t pay anything for all the advertising at St James’ Park and the club’s Benton training ground. However, some of you who might not follow Mike Ashley’s ever expanding business empire quite as closely as I do may not know that there are several other Sports Direct sub-brands such as Dunlop, Firetrap and Cruise who are also advertising at St James’ Park on a fairly regular basis. (more…)
NUFC Blog on metro.co.ukMy latest story on metro.co.uk is now up!
Entitled “Is Kinnear scouting Ferguson a Sunderland spoof?” or alternatively “Did the Joe Kinnear scouting Shane Ferguson story come from a mischievous Sunderland fan?” (they seem to think that two titles are better than one over there), it originally had the same title as this piece but never mind, at least I’m getting paid!
Anyway, in it I take a look for the origins of Alan Oliver’s laughable story about Joe Kinnear allegedly going to watch Birmingham City’s League Cup victory over Swansea and asking about signing Shane Ferguson. Of course, as Kinnear and all Toon fans know perfectly well already, he is already a Newcastle United player who is currently on loan at the Midlands club. (more…)
NUFC Blog on metro.co.ukDear readers, this is just another quick note to let you know that my latest piece for metro.co.uk was published this morning.
Entitled, well actually it originally had the same title as this piece when I wrote it, but the Metro in their infinite wisdom have decided to retitle it “How Alan Pardew tarnished Newcastle United’s great win over Chelsea.” They are my reflections on Newcastle United’s 2-0 victory over Chelsea on Saturday.
Will Pardew give Mourinho a good slap?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 2nd Nov, 2013. Kick off: 12.45pm. Referee: Lee Mason. UK TV: BT Sport.
Of course, the Chelsea Pensioners will be huge favourites for this one, just as the Manchester Citizens were in Wednesday evening’s League Cup clash. However the Magpies weren’t too shabby at all in that one for the first hour or so and held the Citizens to a 0-0 draw at the final whistle, finally succumbing in extra time. There’s no extra time today so will the Magpies be able to keep a clean sheet against moneybags Chelsea this time?
Meanwhile off the pitch, there has been talk of another protest, this time at Mike Ashley’s banning of the biggest local media house from the St James’ Park media facilities. After that, they also banned fans organisation the Newcastle United Supporters Trust from the club’s “Fan Forum.” This was allegedly for having the cheek to take their own minutes of the meeting, though we all know, it that it was really for their involvement the recent march before the Liverpool gane back on the 19th October. Fans have been urged to take one of NCJ media’s local titles, The Chronic, the Journal or the Sunday Stun to the game and wave it at Ashley and his acolytes in the director’s box just before the kick off. (more…)
