Ankle injury requires surgery.At the holy ground of St. James Park it’s always been a case of “it never rains but it pours”, which is of course the shortened version. The full idiom is “it never rains but it pours toxic waste with the occasional sharp object thrown in to further increase damage.” Not even joking.
Our long standing goalkeeper Steve Harper has already decided to stay on the bench in favour of giving young Tim Krul a chance to impress between the sticks and so far the young Dutchman has done exactly that, and long may it continue! Newcastle United may lack depth in other areas, we have a wealth of gold in our goalkeepers and have done for many years but now it seems it’s time for that young gold to start shining as Ole Soderberg will be on the bench for the important game against Chelsea this coming Sunday. (more…)
Has been Fab-ulous this season!Here I continue with the second of four installments of my player reviews for the title winning season just gone.
Last time out we had at look at how our goalkeepers had been getting on throughout the season, which was pretty easy by all accounts as there isn’t that many of them. Now we step up the difficulty and broaden our review to feature our whole defence and look at how they have performed this season. The back four has been a very strong area for us this season, a strange thing for a Newcastle fan to say following year after year of shabby backlines that nobody really seemed to be able to sort out. Granted we may have been playing against weaker opposition, but we have come out on top of them, miles on top in fact and we head to the Premier League with best defensive record in The Championship safely in the bag. I know we have had loan players in the shape of Patrick van Aanholt, Fitz Hall and Zhurab Khizanishvilli but I am going to discount them for this as they aren’t technically our players and only really played a handful of games for us. (more…)
Routledge: Key man since his arrival.Now the job of promotion has been achieved we can pick start to pick through it and have a look at what we have done right and wrong throughout the season.
The very fact we have won the title would indicate that the right outweighs the wrong through the course of the season, but it’s January that held the key to promotion for me. In the first half of the season we tended to wear opposition down and never really looked like a balanced team, with most of our play coming down the left side with Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique whilst virtually nothing coming down right through Danny Guthrie. That sounds harsh on Danny G, but it wasn’t meant to be. What I was trying to say is that Danny Guthrie is not a winger, although he did get his fair share of assists from crosses and free-kicks out wide. Guthrie is a central midfielder, that is his favoured position which meant he tended to be drawn into the middle of the pitch, forcing us to look more lopsided as a team. Anyway, he was just doing as he was told and it was a case of needs must, so credit must go to him for giving it a go and playing where he is needed, Kieron Dyer should take note! (more…)
(L to R): Hall, Routledge, Williamson, Best, SimpsonJanuary came and went for Newcastle United fans but not with the usual disappointment following zero investment. No, the 2010 January transfer window proved to be an opportunity when even Mike Ashley realised some financial speculation was the right thing to do, not least because it might see a return on his money. But this isn’t a debate about the owner or his intentions. This is a first glance review of the lads we brought in during the January transfer window and what I think of them so far.
It was clear to a lot of us that we needed recruitment in various areas and while some of the gaps were filled, we also got the surprise package of Wayne Routledge. Not all of the players met with universal glee and obviously the jury is out for all of them still. Each were signed for an ‘undisclosed fee’ which seems to be the order of the day in many modern transfers. So it’s difficult to conclude whether they’re value for money or not, but here goes anyway: (more…)
A return to winning ways tonight?Tonight sees a cash strapped Crystal Palace making the long journey to St James’s Park.
With all kinds of gossip surrounding the London club regarding Administration. Another source of gossip is their very talented young winger, Victor Moses, who has been the subject of much transfer speculation as the club seek to balance their books. The word going around is that he will almost certainly NOT be playing in tonight’s match, by order of the Administrator, probably for fear of injury.
As for ‘wor lads, of course much of the gossip will surround our two new arrivals, central defender, ‘Big’ Mike (not that one) Williamson and fleet footed flanker, Wayne Routledge. Will they take their bows before the evening is over? Of course, the other big question is, will Newcastle make a return to winning ways after the weekend ref fiasco against West Brom?
For more background on the game, check out the excellent match preview by Geordie Deb. A full match report by NUFC Blog’s very own man in Level Seven, Bowburnmag, will no doubt make it slow winding way on to these pages in the fullness of time too. (more…)
