Campbell in line for debut?Sol Campbell could be in line to make his Newcastle debut against Blackpool in just under two weeks time.
The Sunderland Echo suggests that Campbell is in line to make an appearance in the reserve derby match that is due to take place at the Stadium of Light tomorrow evening.
If Campbell continues to prove his fitness then the Blackpool game could give Chris Hughton a selection headache, in a nice way, as he will have a lot more options available to him. For what it is worth, I don’t think that Campbell will feature against Blackpool and he will have to earn his place in the team ahead of Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson who have both looked rather solid on our return to the top flight. (more…)
Who says what now?Sometimes football is far too serious and it needs characters to lighten the mood. Step forward Ian Holloway; decent footballer, decent manager, brilliant in interviews and punditry. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed listening to some great quips from the likes of Cloughie, Strachan amongst others, and our beloved Sir Bobby was great with his sometimes brilliant and sometimes bemusing quotes. These are individuals who veer or veered from the normal cliched rubbish but Holloway is really out on his own and he didn’t disappoint in his interview after our defeat to Blackpool, when he suggested Nile Ranger could “catch pigeons” and followed up with ‘if you watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks, one of my favourite films, that’s what Hameur can do’, in reference to Bouazza’s ability.
So I decided to take a look at some of his more interesting quotes and here are a few lifted straight from Wikipedia so god knows how many are true quotes, but I know I’ve heard a few of them. Maybe you’ll have some great quotes of your own from others, and I might be alone here but sorry I just think they’re class. Sort of makes me wish he was wor gaffer! (more…)
Hughton 'bitterly disappointed'I’ve only got the match reports to go on but the general impression I get is that we were both out-thought and out-fought by Blackpool last night, which has got to be something of a reality check in terms of our Championship aspirations.
Chris Hughton had this to say about the game:
“I am bitterly disappointed, Blackpool were better than us in every department, especially in the first half.
“We need to regroup quickly as we have another big game at the weekend.
“We came into the game a lot more strongly after the break but over 90 minutes we were not the better side.”
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway commented as follows:
“I am absolutely delighted, we set off and started to run at Newcastle and passed the ball around them.
“I don’t think they realised what was hitting them. We had to draw on a lot of experience, particularly up front with Jason Euell and Brett Ormerod.
“We have got to keep this going now and prove that it’s not some sort of one-off.” (more…)
Pre-match tableNewcastle can regain the top spot with a point at Blackpool, although we should be expecting 3 points from our visit to Bloomfield Road if we want to match West Brom and Middlesbrough who both won last night.
Blackpool are lingering in the middle of the table having taken 7 points from 6 games. They’ve only lost one match though and that was away to Leicester last weekend.
Before that, their season started with 4 draws: away to QPR, home to Cardiff, home to Derby and away to Watford. Their solitary Championship win came after that when they beat Coventry 3-0.
Blackpool have had a decent Carling Cup run too, dispatching Crewe and – most impressively – Premier League Wigan.
Blackpool strikers Ben Burgess and Gary Taylor-Fletcher have 2 league goals a piece this season, as does midfielder Charlie Adam who is Blackpool’s record signing at £500,000 from Rangers in August this year. (more…)
