Newcastle United vs Queens Park Rangers Christmas match banter!

December 22nd, 2012 | 69 Comments |

Newcastle United v QPR.
A watershed moment in Newcastle United's season?
Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle.
Date: Sat 22nd December, 2012.
Kick off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leics).
UK TV: None.

Hello good afternoon and welcome to this extra special Christmas match banter for Newcastle United’s home match with the “R’s” of Queens Park Rangers.

To say that this was an important game for Alan Pardew and the Magpies would be an understatement. With The Magpies being pulled ever closer into the relegation quagmire, a fairly daunting pair of away games against Manchester United and a recently resurgent Arsenal follow, not to mention a tricky home tie with sixth placed Everton to complete the Christmas and New Year holiday fixture list. With QPR being one of the few teams which are below in in the table at the moment, hopes have been pinned on this game as the best hope of getting a desperately needed 3 points. However, despite their lowly position at second bottom, even here the momentum is with today’s West London visitors. Even Pardew himself has acknowledged this. Speaking of QPR in a pre match interview he said: (more…)

Metalist Kharkiv: A guide for Alan Pardew (and the rest of us)

December 21st, 2012 | 33 Comments |

Metalist's Brazilian wing wizard, Taison.
Metalist's Brazilian Benny, Taison.
With the news that Newcastle United will be facing Metalist Kharkiv over two legs in the the next round of our Europa League campaign, I thought it might be a good idea to probe this side from the north east of Ukraine.

Going on what Alan Pardew said when he was interviewed about the draw, he seems to know buggerall about them. When probed on how much he know about Metalist, he replied:

“Not much really”

So, Alan, you may find this helpful!

Currently fourth in the Ukrainian Premier Liga (behind Shakhtar Donetsk, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Dynamo Kyiv), they finished third last season as they have for the last six seasons, always behind the big two Ukrainian giants, Dynamo Kyiv and Shaktar Donetsk.

Roughly, they are strong side who are more or less on the same kind of level as our toughest opponents in the group stage, Girondins de Bordeaux, who we beat 3-0 at home and lost to 2-0 at their place. (more…)

Guest Blog: Evening Chronicle Misrepresented 56% of Fans New Survey Reveals

December 19th, 2012 | 63 Comments |

Alan Pardew smiling.
Pardew: 95% backing according to Lee Ryder.
Many thanks to “ToonBano” from the Toon blog www.toonbano.com for his third guest blog here – wt.

A couple of weeks ago, the Evening Chronicle asked fans to take part in what they called ‘The Big Toon Survey’ on how they felt about Newcastle United’s season thus far.

Many fans did as they saw it as a perfect opportunity to have their opinion heard and expressed. As the results of which were counted up and shown in a pie chart form of percentages, what followed the survey was not what they were expecting.

Chief Sports Writer of the Evening Chronicle, Lee Ryder, took it upon himself to write a follow up article regarding the survey’s findings and ran the story some of you may have already seen, ‘Alan Pardew backed by 95% of fans Chronicle Poll reveals‘. If you need reminding or are yet to see it then if can be found by following the link above.

Now as you read on from the highly suggestive headline you will see he goes on to write ‘And it has emerged that 95% of fans see Pardew as the man to lead Newcastle to the next level – with a tiny minority seeing the need for a change in management.’ (more…)