Can we throttle the Throstles for four in a row?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 30th Nov, 2013. Kick off: 5.30pm. Referee: Phil Dowd. UK TV: Sky Sports 1.
Could we be celebrating four wins in a row this evening?
If the Magpies do manage to wrestle a juicy three point worm from the Throstles at tea time, it would be the first first time they have managed such a feat since March and April of 2012. Back then, they beat Norwich, this evening’s opponents, Liverpool, Swansea, Bolton and finally Stoke in a 6 match winning run, before finally succumbing to a 4-0 hammering at Wigan.
Although that was in the Spring before last, the side had an unseasonal 4-3-2-1 ‘Christmas Tree’ formation with a potent ‘delta force’ of Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse and Hatem Ben Arfa up front. During the West Brom game in that run I jokingly referred to Alan Pardew as ‘Alan Pardiola.’ The Guardian’s North East football correspondent, Louise Taylor, actually took me seriously and the phrase stuck amongst spme fans for a while. (more…)
Pardew really can’t lose this one!Venue: The Hawthorns, West Bromwich. Date: Sat 20th April, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Mike Jones. UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s game against West Bromwich Albion.
Though we are sitting in 13th going into the game and we won’t be relegated if we lose, I think it would be fair to say that Geordies all over will be pressing panic buttons if we don’t get at least a draw this afternoon.
Blaming tiredness for the club’s poor form this season, Pardew seemed almost relieved that European football will not hinder Newcastle United’s form as it has with other clubs in European competition such as Barcelona, Manchester United and of course our Euro nemesis, Benfica. In one of his pre match interviews, he spoke on this, putting the tiredness excuse to bed (so to speak): (more…)
Magpies v Throstles - Who will get the juicy 3 point worm?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sunday, 28th Oct. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Chris Foy. UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s Magpies game against West Bromwich Albion at St James’ Park.
In the Premier League betting stakes, Newcastle United are the favourites this afternoon, with home advantage and Newcastle’s fifth place finish last season seemingly trumping the fact that West Brom are three places higher in the current Premiership table as we go onto this game. However it should be a very tough match between the Magpies and the Throstles, a match which could go either way.
For all the information you’ll ever need in the run up to this game however, please check out my collegue Andy’s excellent match preview, with all the team news, form guides, opinion and such. To that, I will add what Alan Pardew and West Brom manager Steve Clarke, who as you may know was a former Newcastle United assistant, as well as a caretaker very briefly (for one game) after the departure of Ruud Gullit in 1999, holding the fort until Bobby Robson took over for his five year stint as manager. (more…)
