The Toon tackle The Trotters!After a brief international break, it’s back to domestic action this weekend as Newcastle United head to The Reebok Stadium – the home of Bolton Wanderers.
I have a lot of time for Bolton to be honest, and most of that is born from one man, a former colleague, and his lad.
The chap in question is called Dave Bates and is an ex-colleague of mine from when I was working for Royal Mail. Both him and his lad held season tickets at Bolton, and they frequently travelled up for the games.
One Saturday, on the way back, they were involved in a motorway pile-up. Dave survived, but unfortunately his lad didn’t. The support that Bolton offered Dave was immense and included personal visits to is home from Bolton chairman, Phil Gartside among other things. The seat was also left empty as a mark of respect. (more…)
Will our former Bolton player do the damage?Newcastle United captain Kevin Nolan insists he has no regrets about leaving Bolton to sign for The Magpies.
The Scouser prepares himself for an emotional return to The Reebok Stadium tomorrow afternoon.
In a clearly emotional and extended interview with The Chronicle, Nolan reflected upon his time with Bolton, his move to Newcastle and his pride at playing for Newcastle United among other things.
“It was a fantastic move for me, and I was delighted when I made it.
We went down, but I wanted to prove it wasn’t the wrong move. And bit by bit, year by year, I can continue to improve and prove that why I came here was because I could see bigger and better things for this club.”
Since arriving Kevin has always always had a positive attitude and said the right things to the press. He spoke about how proud he is to be skipper at United:
“I was Bolton captain for three or four good years, and I really enjoyed it. But when I got the captaincy here, it was probably a bit of a prouder moment, because I know what it means to so many people here with the fan base.”(more…)
Will Newcastle rock The Reebok?Newcastle head to Bolton tomorrow in what could be billed as a battle of the bargain basement if you look at the transfer activity of both sides over the summer.
Neither side spent more than £5 million over the course of the summer transfer window, yet both sides sit in the top-half of the table a third of the way through the campaign.
Bolton have been playing some great stuff in recent weeks, and it’s a far cry from what used to be served up at The Reebok under Sam Allardyce. Owen Coyle is doing a magnificent job in transforming the image of Bolton Wanderers in the eyes of the nation, and they have gone from being known as long-ball cloggers to being recognised as a decent footballing side, which is much better to watch, and I am sure that the Bolton fans will agree.
Andy Carroll looks set to start tomorrow after coming through the England game in midweek without aggravating his groin injury. And it could be Shola Ameobi who partners him in attack as the striker has recovered from his hamstring injury in time for the trip to Bolton. (more…)
Emirates next for Newcastle.Actually, I would prefer Newcastle to be walking away from the next five games with fifteen points in the bag, but being realistic it just isn’t going to happen.
So how do you think we will do?
Next up for United is a trip to The Emirates on Sunday, and whilst I harbour some slim hopes of us being able to take something from the game, there is a very real prospect that we could end up losing, like most teams do when they visit Arsenal.
I’ve got the match down as a loss on my little season planner of where I think we can pick up points from, but as many of you know, my predictions, so it seems, are not the best.
Following on from Arsenal we have two games at home. First up is Blackburn next Wednesday evening, a team who appear hold a voodoo card over us and always seem to be able to get results against us. (more…)
