Made for each other?There aren’t many more popular former Newcastle players of recent time, in the minds of my generation, than John Beresford. Johnny ‘(oooohh Johnny, Johnny)’ Beresford was a major part of the squad that Keegan assembled to put us back on the map in the ’90s. He’s been speaking to Lee Ryder in The Chronicle and suggests he has some helpful advice for Gutierrez and Enrique, and he believes they what it takes to be a successful combination on the left.
Of course Bez had several ‘wingmen’, some more accomplished than others, notably Scott Sellars and David Ginola. And of course, he and Ginola had a bit of a ding-dong over ‘covering duties’ back in the day and Beresford was dragged off and reprimanded by Keegan. It was all water-under-the-bridge soon enough though and explained away as a misunderstanding, well that and the unspoken rumour that Davy G was a lazy git? Never!
Despite Ginola’s reluctance to track back on occasion, they got on well enough and Bez reckons that’s crucial to an effective partnership. (more…)
Sharp as a Blade tonight!Once again, Newcastle United managed to leave us feeling slightly underwhelmed, and yet still went top of the league after taking all three points at Bramall Lane. The fact that we managed to grind out a 1-0 win against the red and white half of Sheffield was largely down to luck at their end, resilience at our’s and some brilliance from Stevie Harper.
After a fairly forgettable first half, in which Sheffield looked probably the more organised and potent force (though I use that term lightly). This despite their having several absences while we had generally a strong squad to pick from, though Hughton again left me scratching my head with his decisions. Not for the first time this season, the opposition seemed to move the ball sharper than us an didn’t look out of ideas once they crossed the halfway line. But for all their endeavour, the score remained 0-0 at half-time.
Newcastle came out and were the better side at the start of the second half and though there should have been a foul awarded as Kevin Nolan robbed Walker, Ryan Taylor nonetheless took full advantage and our second slice of luck was about to occur as his shot from 25 yards took a wicked deflection of Morgan, with Ian Bennett rooted to the spot in the Sheffield goal, the ball nestled into the far corner.
Sheffield threw everything but the kitchen sink at us in the dying minutes but we held on strongly due to resolute defending and some heroics in the goal from Harper. (more…)
Have we been nicking Premiership balls?Just how much can you discuss the same thing, day after day? Well to be fair, we’ve given it a good go but rather than rant on about the off-field stuff, I thought it might be time to reflect on the on-field matters at Newcastle United.
We’re almost a third of the way through our new season in The Championship and surely the players at our disposal must be half-decent seeing as we’re sitting pretty at the top of the table?
Clearly, some of us have different ideas about the quality in our squad and argue that our position is as much to do with luck and the lack of opposition. I’d probably agree with some of that but you can only beat what’s in front of you (to coin a well-worn cliche). Mind you, we could be here all night talking about the entire squad, so I’ll split it out a little.
For what it’s worth here’s my own term review of the the keepers and defenders. I’ve only included the lads who have played at least a couple of games so far – (more…)
"It's time we woke up now"Following Newcastle United’s defeat at the hands of Forest on the weekend, Jose Enrique has been hitting out at the team’s lack of form.
Enrique said:
“It’s time that we woke up now.
“We have been top of the table, which is good, but we need to wake up because we haven’t been playing very well.
“We can’t think we’re in the Premier League – it’s not true.
“We’ve played only 12 games, and there are 34 games left.
“The team haven’t played very well in the last three games – we have two points from nine.”
True enough. We’ve got a game away at Scunthorpe tonight and then home to Doncaster on the weekend. We really should be winning these games against lower table opposition if we’re going to sustain our promotion push. (more…)
Thinking of us?The traditional Sunday trawl of the back pages has begun, except technically I’ve gone all modern these days and access the back pages online (partly because I’m hungover and don’t fancy the walk to the paper shop). Anyway, so what do they have to say?
Well first of all, an amusing story of Freddie Shepherd and his righteous and gallant spirit in not pursuing the two million pounds, that he claims the club owes him from his contract when Ashley took over the club in 2007. This is because until Ashley makes indications that he will be here for the forseeable, Shepherd doesn’t want to jeopardise the sale of the club. He’s all heart is Fred…….In the same article from The Sunday Sun, they also mention the latest takeover news but there is no more conclusive evidence of who the ‘new suitors’ are and it’s just speculation that it’s an Indian-based group, as is the suggestion Moat and Sheard have sat down for a chat about poolin’ resources. Just speculation you say? Well it is Sunday. (more…)
