A cup...We’re still on course for some silverware this season after the reserves came through a tough test against their non-league foes, to reach the semi-finals of thecup. Newcastle Reserves lined up at home to Newcastle Benfield of the Northern League, in the quarter final stage of their defence of the Northumberland Senior Cup.
Last season saw the second string side beat Benfield 2-1, at the semi-final stage of the competition and at the same ground with goals from Mark Doninger and Wesley Baheng. Newcastle Benfield sit in 8th place in the Northern League and have a spattering of former YTs of various professional clubs (including United) on the books, including one who’s a physio at the town.
At a blustery Whitley Park, Benfield took an early lead, when a speculative shot from Shaun Bell was carried over the fingers of Robinson and went in off the underside of the crossbar, to put the Northern League side 1-0 up. The wind did it’s best to spoil the game but the youngsters of Newcastle tried to combat it with good interplay, though Benfield largely kept them at bay initially. (more…)
Jus' chillin'?Chris Hughton has admitted that he is pretty laidback as the hour approaches and the ‘temporary loan signing’ window shuts at 5pm tomorrow night until February.
It has long been reported that Leon Cort has been on Hughton’s radar but Hughton has been telling the Chronicle that he’s not in any rush to sign players just for the sake of it:
“You never know, but realistically looking at the squad I don’t really expect to bring anybody in during the next month or so.
“Of course, all sorts of things can happen in the next 24 hours, and phone calls will be made on Thursday with players potentially becoming available.
“Some clubs might make a decision that some of the players who weren’t available earlier in the season are now there for loans. But we’ll see.”(more…)
Needs more games?Cold, damp and pretty miserable, and that was just my fatha. Well no actually, the weather did a good impersonation of mid-December (or else I’m just getting auld). And the first half of the Newcastle vs Hartlepool reserve match sort of felt a bit sorry for itself at times. But with the news that Fabrice Pancrate would be gettin a trial run-out in tonights game and Peter Lovenkrands would be getting some much-needed match fitness, the gate was somewhat swelled by it’s usual numbers and the atmosphere was quite vibrant.
Starting off the night by heading to The Strawberry from work, I realised it had been a while since I’d been in for a pint. It might be my last for a while, judging by the funny looks I got from the regulars looking over my shoulder as I opened my IPhone to browse the blog and discovered picture after picture of naked men. ‘Summat funny about him’ the look said, so I finished off my Babycham and headed to the East Stand.
Eagerly grabbing my A4 teamsheet, I sat down to study the first eleven and realised I only knew half of the team. What happened to the reserves being for first teamers down on their luck? It’s not really ‘the stiffs’ anymore is it? Anyway, some ‘Poolies’ behind me, were inferring that it was a strong eleven that they had out, so our youngsters seemed set to face a stern test. (more…)
Guthrie red-cardedNewcastle were beaten by Peterborough and dumped out of the Carling Cup last night. It’s probably for the best given our small squad and the higher importance of the Championship but, despite such pragmatism, it still stings to lose.
I wasn’t at the game, didn’t see it on TV and didn’t listen to it on the radio – I simply followed it on the BBC web site – so I’m not really in a position to write much of a match report. The Telegraph has a reasonable report and I’ll just make a few comments and leave it at that.
One of the things I did notice while following it on the BBC was a very telling statistic: Peterborough had 28 attempts on goal (21 on target) to our 7 attempts on goal (2 on target).
When I prepared that match preview yesterday I mentioned their potent, 3-pronged strike force and they certainly seem to have taught us a thing or two about attacking the goal. With those stats I’m surprised they only got 2 goals and at least Tim Krul must have had a reasonable game to keep more out. (more…)
Carling Cup Round 3Tonight’s Carling Cup 3rd round tie with Peterborough is likely to see a few of Newcastle’s youngsters get an outing.
It’s partly forced on Hughton as Ameobi, Gutierrez and Simpson are injured and Khizanishvili is cup-tied, but I think Hughton will also see this as an opportunity to rest a few players anyway. We’ll certainly want to win of course but in the grand scheme of things promotion is far more important to Newcastle than Carling Cup progress.
On paper we’re 16 places and 12 points better than recently-promoted Peterborough in the Championship, although Peterborough are unbeaten in their last 5 games.
We’ve never managed to beat Peterborough in the two previous League Cup meetings between the clubs and the last time Newcastle met Peterborough in the League Cup was in 1991 when Ossie Ardiles was manager and Justin Fashanu made an appearance for the Toon. (more…)
