Season over - roll on August!Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew talks about yesterday’s 3-3 draw with West Brom and then goes on to explain a bit about the situation with new signings.
Alan Pardew has been talking about our unfortunate capitulation from a 3-0 lead yesterday and seems to think that players like Guthrie, LuaLua and Best struggled after time out with injuries, which might be part of the reason why we could not hold on for 3 points. Pardew said:
“I’m disappointed, it was a funny game. We were three goals up without ever playing that well. There were a couple of big errors from them.
“We were seeing the game out quite comfortably, but we gifted them a goal and never got back up to speed.
“We didn’t look like we were ever going to penetrate them again. I think four or five of our players started to struggle with the amount of time they had been out. Danny Guthrie has been out for a while, Kazenga LuaLua was out for five months, came off the bench and struggled to pick up the pace of the game. Leon Best as well.” (more…)
Top 10 finish in the sights of both teamsThe season finale comes to Newcastle on Sunday in the shape of West Brom with a top 10 finish feasible for both teams.
I’ve already done my geeky permutations so now it’s a matter of getting out onto the pitch and winning to give ourselves the best chance of a top 10 finish.
West Brom are having a decent run of form under Roy Hodgson, having claimed the scalps of Villa, Liverpool, Everton and the Mackems in recent weeks and they should certainly be up for the game.
The Baggies have only won one of their last 18 games against us (the last one, in December 2010, after which Chris Hughton was sacked) but they have also never lost the last game of a league season. All of that means squat of course and it depends on how well each side performs on the day.
Russian-born, Nigerian international Peter Odemwingie is probably West Brom’s main danger man with 15 goals to his name in 32 appearances this season. (more…)
9th - 14th possibleWhat are the permutations for Newcastle United’s finishing position this season?
I am a bit of a geek and the thought of permutations makes me moist with anticipation. I therefore had to inflict said permutations upon NUFCBlog’s readers.
Realistically, we will finish somewhere between 9th and 14th in the Premier League this season.
The fact that a span of 5 places all rests on the final is perhaps an indication of how close things have been outside of the top 6 or so this season.
The matches that affect us this weekend are:
Newcastle v West Brom (obviously) Stoke v Wigan Bolton v Man City
And if we don’t win, the following matches could affect our finishing position too:
Aston Villa v Liverpool West Ham v Sunderland(more…)
Duff cracks off a nice one to equalise.A good game to start the season proper, against opposition who should be challenging for the promotion places at the end of the season. Despite the the current chaos behind the scenes, including an exodus of top players, we actually played quite respectably for a well deserved draw. This included some good passages of play which were highly encouraging.
Before the game there was a tribute to Bobby Robson, marked by a minute’s applause, a ghastly and despicable innovation by God knows who, which seems to have replaced the more traditional and fitting minute’s silence. Of course, Sir Bobby is fondly remembered by both clubs, having spent the peak of his playing career at West Bromwich from 1956 to 1962.
While it was probably WBA who had the better start to the game with their opening onslaught, United’s heads didn’t go down and they recovered to gain a foothold. (more…)
