Leader of the packHughton sings Newcastle’s praises while Keane thinks Ipswich gave Nolan an early Christmas present.
I was away this weekend. A close friend of mine is off to Australia for at least 3 years, so a bunch of us got together for beer and golf in Oxfordshire (and I use the term ‘golf’ in the loosest possible sense), but I did manage to watch 70 minutes of the Newcastle United match before I was prised away from the TV and man-handled into taxi on Saturday evening. And I must admit my 70 minutes of Toon watching put me in a good mood for the evening.
We’ve had little to celebrate in recent seasons, so I thought I’d milk this victory for all I could and quote some of the match reaction from the two managers. (more…)
Kevin Nolan takes his ball home.Firstly of course, this game will be remembered as a time when Ipswich paid tribute to the great Sir Bobby Robson and renamed the north stand of Portman Road in his honour. Lady Elsie Robson and her sons, Andrew and Paul were in attendance for the ceremony. Also, both teams wore special, commemorative kits for the game, and a musical tribute of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ was held during the half time break in what was a moving event for both sets of fans.
On the game itself, Merseyside hit squad, Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor came up trumps once again as Newcastle United eventually cruised to a 4 – 0 win at Portman Road, including a debut hat-trick for Nolan. Though there were times when he looked like a certain number 9 as he combined opportunism, strength, and good finishing, Ipswich certainly made it alot easier than it should have been with some pretty awful defending at times. This gave Toon in general, and Nolan particular more than enough space to play the game that they wanted. Ryan Taylor also added to the total with a superbly taken free kick for the third, along with some excellent mortar fire, creating several opportunities around the Ipswich goal.
Ipswich’s attack was pretty awful too generally. Being seemingly terrified to crack one off in the box, they had very few chances overall. The midfield were poor too, though perhaps not quite as bad as the rest, they were bullied by a no nonsense Magpie mid section full of enforcers including captain, Alan ‘Slasher’ Smith, who wasted no time rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck into some raw meat as usual. (more…)
It's just Colgate, honestBy all accounts, including our own, the 3-1 win over Plymouth was a bit of a struggle for Newcastle. This is what Hughton had to say after the game:
“There were periods of the game where we made hard work of it.
“For whatever reason, we weren’t able to sustain it and of course the longer the game goes without getting that second one, Plymouth are lifted by the occasion and feel they can get something.”
The substitutions made all the difference though, about which Hughton said:
“I think it’s fair to say Danny and Nile have changed the game.
“When you make changes you hope they make an impact, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.
“Thankfully, they did make a major impact.
“We needed that Kevin Nolan goal and it encouraged the lads.”(more…)
You'd think 'direct' would be our mottoWell that’s certainly how it felt. I’ll cut to the chase on this one because I’ve got my GNR preparations and an early night ahead of me. And frankly most of today’s game was instantly forgettable. From Enrique’s elaborations, to Joey Barton’s wonky radar and then over to a lop-sided and blunted formation, there was much to brush under the carpet come 4.50pm this afternoon.
However, thanks to a timely substitution, the endeavour of young Ranger and the fact that Plymouth were on the whole pretty horrible, we walked away with three points and a slightly flattering scoreline. And given that results went our way, we’re sitting quite comfortably behind West Brom who hammered the Smogs 5-0 at home.
Hughton promoted Geremi and Lovenkrands into the starting line-up amidst raised eyebrows in the Upper Tier of the Sir John Hall stand. Although there was a general acceptance that Butt should be replaced by Smith in the middle of the park. The new fella started on the bench. And once again we went with an uninspiring 4-5-1 approach to the game. (more…)
Megson confessing his desire for Nolan.Current Bolton Wanderers manager, Gary Megson, has come out of the closet and declared his desire for Kevin Nolan to make a return to the Trotters. Nolan had a long spell at the Lancashire club, spending some ten years there from 1999 to 2009, when he signed for Newcastle United in the January tranfer window.
Speaking of his wish to welcome back the Prodigal son, Megson remarked:
“I didn’t particularly want him to go in the first place,” adding:
“It’s just an enquiry, we’ve asked someone to find out if Newcastle would be interested in loaning Kevin back to the football club and we haven’t had a response as yet.
“We’ll see, because we were told that Newcastle needed to move one or two players about due to the fact they had been relegated.” (more…)
