Jamie O'Hara in black and white?And so it begins. In anticipation of what many people percieve as automatic promotion the press have decided to set the wheel of their transfer rumour moving decidedly early this year. Already we are being linked with a few names that apparently we would be chasing should our promotion be ensured.
Top of our summer shopping list appears to be Tottenham’s higly rated midfielder, Jamie O’Hara. The lad is currently on loan at crisis club Portsmouth, and has been one of their shining lights in what has turned out to be a disastrous season on and off the pitch for the south coast club.
We were linked with a loan deal for O’Hara a couple weeks back, with the word being that should Portsmouth’s adiministrator decide to cull the wage bill and send O’Hara back to Tottenham then we would be first in line with another loan deal for the left-footed midfielder.
Manager, Chris Hughton, knows all about O’Hara. Our level-headed leader was one of the key figures in Jamie O’Hara’s youth development at White Hart Lane and apparently the two of them get on quite well. It is thought it would take around £3 million to prize O’Hara away from Spurs, maybe more as their manager Harry Redknapp holds him in high regard and has recently given him a 4 year contract. (more…)
Top of the pop league!Chris Hughton has time and again refused to put any sort of points target in place as to what he thinks would be enough to gain Newcastle United promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. So it got me thinking, perhaps I could outline some details and we could have a little guess and try to work it out for oursleves. There are no prizes, my pockets are too long for such frivalities, although people who manage to get it right will always have the satisfaction of knowing they did.
As it stands there are 12 games left. We sit top of the table with 72 points, 8 points clear and with a game in hand on second placed Nottingham Forest and 9 points clear of third placed West Brom. That means we can get a maximum of 108 points if we manage to win the remaining games. Of course that is unlikely to happen although it would be nice, but with 4 out of our next 7 games coming away from fortress St James’ then the potential is there for a slip up. (more…)
'Ruff' justice for Tykes fans?Seventeen years ago, give or take a month, a vibrant Newcastle side swept aside Barnsley 6-0 as a certain Andrew Cole began to find his feet in town. After roughly forty minutes of stop-start first half football, your money wouldn’t have been on a similar outcome today. But after Barnsley ‘keeper Luke Steele saw red just before the break, the floodgates effectively opened and Newcastle ultimately demolished the ragged Tykes.
A minutes applause was impeccably overseen by both sets of supporters as they paid respect to Charlie Crowe and Keith Alexander, as I took up my usual vantage point. Unfortunately for me, the stewards were particularly jobsworth-like and were intent on contradicting the usual free-for-all-pick-your-seat process that goes on in much of Level 7, so I spent the first 20 minutes just trying to find somewhere else to stand. Of course, I could have just gone up to my seat but it’s one row from the back of the Level 7 corner and I just didn’t think I had the extra thirty steps in my legs. Those who know that part of the ground might sympathise. (more…)
Tykes bite worse than the bark?Newcastle United welcome Mark Robins this weekend as he brings his Barnsley team and the travelling Tykes fans to Tyneside, and they will no doubt be looking to head back down south with 3 points and a massive scalp in their collective bag.
Of course it’s up to us to stop them and every game requires maximum concentration to minimize the possibilities of any slip ups, particularly in front of what is expected to be a near 50,000 crowd at SJP on Saturday. Mark Robins knows that all the pressure is on the hosts to extend their excellent unbeaton home run. Speaking to the official Barnsley website, Robins had this to say about Saturday’s match:
“We are going up to a fortress this weekend and that home record is a challenge for us. We have done well for the majority of the campaign and this is one we will look to enjoy in front of 50,000 fans. I would love to be playing in this one.”
“We know we have to start well and maintain that throughout the game. If we dip at any time in the match then we’ll come unstuck. We have to go there and take the bull by the horns, we have nothing to lose.”(more…)
Pilgrims game moved for Sky TV coverage.The away game at Plymouth Argyle has now been moved to Monday 19th April in yet another shocking display of respect for the fans from the TV companies, namely Sky in this case. It will take our haul of televised games to 18 for the season which is fair enough and all that, but surely someone must realise that some of these games being moved have casued trouble and inconvenience for the travelling Toon Army.
The game was originally supposed to be a normal 3pm Saturday kick off on the 17th which would give travelling fans the ideal opportunity to get there, watch the game and come home although most of their weekend would have been used up by the time the 800 odd mile round trip draws to a close.
Now the game has been moved it gives fans little choice other than to miss work for 2 days or fork out over £100 on a flight to get there should they choose to keep disruption to the minimum, even then they will still probably lose a day of work. (more…)
