As we go into another crunch game against third placed Huddersfield with 34 games gone, Benitez’s team is currently one point ahead of where Hughton’s team were at the same stage with 73 to 72 (as you can see below). (more…)
Date: Sat 12th January, 2013.
Kick off: 3.00pm.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our latest “match banter” for this afternoon’s “Battle of the Bird’s” as the Magpies travel to Norfolk to take on the Canaries of Norwich City.
City of course are managed by Alan Pardew’s predecessor at Newcastle, Chris Hughton, who was sacked in controversial circumstances back in December 2010. With Pardew currently in dire straits and Newcastle having the lowest points total after 21 games in their Premiership history so far, it would not be beyond the bounds of possibilty for Pardew to be sacked if the Magpies were to capitulate to Hughton’s Canaries. If that happened, the situation would not be without a little irony. However, Hughton has had a poor run of results recently too, with Norwich having lost four of their last five games. Two of these have been against daunting opposition (Chelsea and Man City), with one of the others, against West Ham, being rather controversial in terms of refereeing decisions. The other being a narrow 2-1 defeat at West Brom. Despite this though, the Canaries are still currently perched three places above the Magpies in twelfth with 25 points, five more than Newcastle. Our last game at St James’ Park earlier in the season resulted in a narrow 1-0 vistory to the Magpies though, with a 20th minute strike from the now dearly departed Demba Ba making the difference between the two sides. (more…)
Date: Sun, 23rd Sept.
Kick off: 3:00pm
Referee: Neil Swarbrick.
UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” for today’s game against Norwich City at St James’ Park.
Of course, this one sees the return of an old face, Alan Pardew’s predecessor Chris Hughton, with whom we gained promotion from the Championship. Unfortunalely though, I do not have any time to dwell on that as I am running very late with this piece! I will only say that I hope he gets the welcome that he deserves this afternoon, but that the lads emerge victorious nonetheless!
On his return for the match, the man himself had this to say:
“It’s one that on a personal note I am looking forward to, but it’s about our performance. It’s a difficult place to get a result. (more…)
At one stage it was thought that Chris was in the running for the West Bromwich Albion job, but that all cooled down and it looks like Norwich could now be his destination.
This could be a really good move for Chris, who has once again proven himself to be a good manager by taking Birmingham to last season’s playoffs on a shoestring budget due to limited resources. Birmingham’s financial problems are well known, and Norwich must be a better opportunity for him. And of course, the catering is better at Norwich given that Delia Smith makes all the pies personally, erm allegedly! ;-) He would also be taking over a good, competent squad left behind by one of the English Premier League’s up and coming managers. And to be fair, he currently fits into that category comfortably himself.
Birmingham City released a club statement this morning which read: (more…)
Chris was relieved of his responsibilities in December 2010, a moved that was greeted with a certain degree of incredulity by the United faithful, as he had actually done a very good job in pulling the team together and winning promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.
He was replaced by Alan Pardew, a move which it is fair to say was also greeted with a degree of scepticism by the fans. (more…)