On a rare sunny day in the dark underbelly of the North East, Newcastle had to negotiate an early derby game full of expectation amongst the deluded locals.
Such is the optimism after shelling out a fat wedge on a new bunch of fair to middling or overaged players. As was to be anticipated, the dark ones came out with an attitude to try and make amends for last seasons poor performances and results.
Unsurprisingly, they had the lion’s share of the early exchanges. Probably right up to the 15th minute when a Joey Barton header was blatantly ‘saved’ on the line by Larsson, who, incidently, isn’t a ‘keeper. (more…)
In what seems to be somwthing of a tradition now, Newcastle United faced their usual stiff test against one of the ‘top four’ clubs in their first game of the Premiership season.
Those who might have been expecting a repeat of the last fixture against the Gunners were to be disappointed. However, although our last game against Arsenal was a 4-4 rollercoaster and this was a fairly flat 0-0 draw overall, there were similarities besides both teams walking away with a point each. It was strongly arguable that Arsenal dominated the midfield in the first half with their 4-2-3-1 against our 4-4-2. As well as this, the Joey Barton show also played a key role in controversial circumstances resulting in an Arsenal player, the debutante, Gervinho this time rather than Abu Diaby, being sent off and changing the balance of the game somewhat. Plus ça change… (more…)
Joey Barton with the good luck 'stacheJoey Barton recently heeded Danny Simpson’s advise and decided to join Twitter. Joey has been known to be quite forward and somewhat outspoken and of course wasted no time pondering whether or not his biggest fans Robbie Savage and Piers Morgan would be as vicious in a logged and public manner. Of course they were and I assure you, it’s great fun bullying Mr. Morgan but after being bombarded with tweets from fans requesting he sign a new contract, Joey broke his relative silence.
Now I’m not in the habit of reporting the usual waste you hear on Twitter but, as they say, this is from the horses mouth.
I tend to be fairly positive and patient in regards to this club primarily because I understand knee jerk reactions don’t help us in the slightest. I like to wait for all the facts before I make a solid judgement and until then try to remain as calm as I can and stay as level headed as is humanly possible… but then something like this happens and that Zen-like state goes out of the window. (more…)