Nolan: Learning from the mistakes of the past.Newcastle United midfield maestro, Kevin Nolan, who has been instrumental in the club’s successful season, has been answering the critics who said that the club wouldn’t make it back to the Premier League at the first attempt. He also sounded very optimistic about Newcastle United’s future prospects, suggesting that promotion and the winning of the Championship could be just the “beginning of something which is going to be brilliant for Newcastle United”.
On the doom mongers he said:
“Everyone is now saying it is easy and we should have done it, but at the beginning of the season, we weren’t favourites to win this league, we weren’t favourites to even go up automatically, so it just shows what we have done.”
“There are a lot of ex-players who wrote us off, a lot of pundits who wrote us off, and we wanted to prove all that wrong, and a lot of papers who did hammer us when we went down, and rightly so.”
Moving on from what was said in the past, Nolan then switched his attention to the undoubtedly difficult task which lies ahead in the Premiership. Nolan mused: (more…)
Has won some vital and unexpected points this season.At the start of the season I found myself wondering what would happen this season. I certainly never really expected such an emphatic rise back to the Premier League. This new found team spirit wasn’t yet formed, our owner still wanted to sell the club, the transfer window was still open so there was always one eye on the exit door as we awaited the departure of the next player, we weren’t even sure of who our manager would be as Chris Hughton was only harbouring the caretaker tag way back then.
I say way back then, but in reality it was only nine months ago. It is remarkable how the feeling around the club has changed so dramatically in such a short space of time. Promotion secured in record time, a team that want to play for the shirt and with eath other, a desire to not give up are all things that have come to the fore this season. We know next season will be tougher at times and we know we need to strenghten the squad in the quest to secure Premier League survival. The fact we can plan ahead already is a bonus and should allow us to steal a march on the teams that are yet to be promoted or teams above that are unsure which league they will be playing in next season. (more…)
Chris Hughton: The sixth manager to gain promotion for NUFC.On the event of Newcastle United’s promotion to the Premier League, I decided to take a look at some of the statistics of Newcastle United’s season in the Coca Cola Championship, and here are some of the results.
Chris Hughton is the sixth manager in Newcastle United’s history to acheive promotion into the top tier of English football. The first was Frank Watt and the Newcastle United Selection Committee of 1892-1929. Watt was the longest serving and most successful manager in Newcastle United’s history, though his teams were selected by commitee. The full list is below.
1897-8: Frank Watt and the Newcastle United Selection Committee 1947-8: George Martin 1965-66: Joe Harvey 1983-84: Arthur Cox 1993-4: Kevin Keegan 2009-10: Chris Hughton (more…)
This empty space needs filling!It was a little under a year ago now back in May of last year when my world caved in. After bearing witness to probably the most gutless and feeble excuse for a performance from a Newcastle team I have probably ever witnessed, we were relegated amid the jeers and cheers of fans around the country. Uncertainty remained around the club, what was going to happen? Would we ‘do a Leeds’? Virtually everyone had the knives out for us. However many numbers of different factors contributed to our relegation didn’t matter, the one thing most of us thought is that the future looked less than rosey.
Fast forward 11 months and things now seem different. The smiles have returned and the feel good factor has been creeping back, a feel good factor that came to head on Monday evening as Newcastle announced their return to the Premier League at the first time of asking in front of a packed St James’ Park and a worldwide television audience.
Gone are the visits to Glanford Park, Bloomfield Road, London Road to be replaced with trips to Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Anfield, venues for which we have now earned the right to play at. Amongst the mutual back-patting however there is still a job that can be done this season and the lads can put on hold the romantic thoughts of visiting those famous grounds whilst they finish the season in style and bring a deserved trophy to Tyneside. (more…)
Destiny calling?Newcastle United head to Peterborough United on Saturday afternoon knowing very well that promotion back to the Premier League could be in the bag by around 4:45pm. All it takes is a win on our part and Bristol City doing us a favour and beating Nottingham Forest at Ashton Gate and the champagne corks can well and truly be popped. This is not just a day of destiny for us, Peterborough United also have their own concerns. They go into this game knowing that if results go the wrong way for them then relegation back down to League 1 would be confirmed.
We could very well end up with a situation where a team gets promoted and relegated on the same pitch although, as said, that scenario is very much dependant on results at Bristol City, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday and the result of our match. Very much a top vs bottom clash then, the sort of clash that looks easy on paper only to end up becoming a banana skin as the underdog will invariably raise their game due to the possibility of taking the scalp of the league leaders in front of the home fans. Indeed that has already happened once this season in a Carling Cup tie at London Road with the hosts running out 2-0 winners on that occasion, something the lads will no doubt want to make amends for. (more…)
